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SUMMARY:2025 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/newyork/2025/02/14/2025-alta-emerging-translator-mentorship-program/
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DESCRIPTION:Polish Cultural Institute New York is very pleased to share with you the
2025 ALTA mentee in the Polish language who has been selected by this
year's mentor Bill Johston! 
We are incredibly excited for the mentee Klaudia Cierluk who was selected
by the mentor in Polish for her demonstrated promise as emerging translator
from a pool of many applications to the program this year.
We would like to thank all applicants for taking part in this year's
selection and congratulate Klaudia Cierluk for being chosen as 2025 ALTA
Emerging Translator Mentee in Polish. Over the course of this year, she
will be working under the mentorship of Bill Johnston, an Academic and a
seasoned American Translator of Polish Literature, recipient of many awards
for his outstanding achievements in the field, including Found in
Translation Award attributed yearly jointly by the Polish Book Institute in
Warsaw, the Polish Cultural Institute London and the Polish Cultural
Institute New York.
The Polish Cultural Institute New York partnered once again this year with
American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) on their staple Emerging
Translator Mentorship Program with seven other partners supporting
translation from their national languages into English. The 2024
mentorships are offered by ALTA in partnership with the BIPOC Literary
Translators Caucus, Institut Ramon Llull, Literature Translation Institute
of Korea, Polish Cultural Institute New York, the SALT Project,
Kulturrådet, Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles, Québec Édition, and the
Yanai Initiative.
The ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program is designed to establish
and facilitate a close working relationship between an experienced
translator and an emerging translator on a project selected by the emerging
translator. The mentorship duration is one year. The emerging translator is
expected to choose a project that can be completed in that time, and they
will only be advised on that particular project. ALTA’s Emerging
Translator Mentorship Program was founded by former ALTA Board member
Allison M. Charette. Since its inception, the program has supported 54
translators working from 18 languages.
All mentors and mentees meet via video conference at the beginning of their
mentorship in February and continue their work through individual meetings
either in person, over Skype, or by phone. A minimum of six meetings is
expected during the first nine months of the mentorship. The mentorship
will feature a presentation of the mentee’s work in a reading at the
annual ALTA conference in the fall and conclude with the opportunity to
submit work to our “First Look” program for possible publication. 
ALTA’s mentees also have the option to take part in our “First Look”
program, which allows participating publishers to be the first to read
excerpts of the translation's mentees have worked on throughout their
mentorship, for possible publication. The $1,500 travel stipend covers
travel to the conference location and on-site accommodations. ALTA
conference registration is also covered for both mentors and mentees.
Klaudia Cierluk is translating a novel by a contemporary Polish author. She
comes from Pyrzyce, a small town in western Poland. Her aunt, a librarian,
would read books with her, nurturing her love of literature from an early
age. After graduating with Literary Studies degrees from the Humboldt
University of Berlin and the University of Amsterdam, Klaudia began
co-editing Berlin Quarterly, an English-language cultural magazine, and has
been active as a commercial and literary translator (working from English,
German, and Spanish to Polish and from Polish to English). Her works have
appeared in LCB diplomatique, Berlin Quarterly, and biBLioteka, among other
publications. Learn more about Klaudia Cierluk.
Bio image: Courtesy of Klaudia Cierluk
Bill Johnston’s ( ALTA 2024 mentor) awards include the 2019 National
Translation Award in Poetry for Adam Mickiewicz’s verse narrative Pan
Tadeusz (Archipelago Books), a translation supported by a Guggenheim
Fellowship; the 2017 Found in Translation Award for Tomasz Różycki’s
mock epic poem Twelve Stations (Zephyr Press); the 2014 Transatlantyk
Prize; and the 2012 PEN Translation Prize and Best Translated Book Award,
both for Wiesław Myśliwski’s novel Stone Upon Stone (Archipelago
Books). He has twice been on the faculty at the Bread Loaf Translators
Conference, and has previously served five times as mentor for the ALTA
mentorships. He teaches literary translation at Indiana University.        
                                                                           
                    
Bill Johnston was a guest on our ENCOUNTERS WITH POLISH AND UKRAINIAN
LITERATURE video series speaking about Polish writer Wiesław Myśliwski.
Bio image: Courtesy of Bill Johnston.
The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is a nonprofit arts
membership association that provides resources, community, and professional
affiliation to its members: individual translators, academic institutions,
presses, and others working in literary translation. The annual ALTA
conference, held in a different location each year, is the largest
gathering of literary translators in the United States, and the only one of
its kind. It brings together nearly 500 translators, writers, and editors
for an intimate, intense, three-day conversation through panels, workshops,
roundtables, and on- and off-site bilingual readings. The ALTA conference
is structured around the creation of high-quality art. 
ALTA administers awards to recognize excellence in translation and provides
fellowships and mentorships to support emerging translators. Six major
prizes are awarded at the annual conference: the National Translation
Awards in Poetry and Prose, the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, the
Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA), and the Spain-USA Foundation
Translation Award (SUFTA). We offer ALTA Travel Fellowships for emerging
translators to attend the conference, including the Peter K. Jansen
Memorial Travel Fellowship for an emerging translator of color or a
translator working from an underrepresented diaspora or stateless language.
ALTA's Emerging Translator Mentorship Program allows an emerging translator
(someone who has published no more than one full-length work of
translation) to begin a career as a literary translator with a more
seasoned translator by their side, as they create a literary translation of
high caliber
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