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Please read our Terms & Eligibility page (in addition to the Submission Guidelines below) prior to making a submission.

— Submission Guidelines

Submission deadline: January 15, 2025

1. Excerpts

Please submit three matching pairs of excerpts from both the original French and the English translation (six excerpts total). We recommend choosing sections from the beginning, middle, and end of the work.

Excerpt 1: the first 6 pages of the book in French and English.
Excerpt 2: 6 pages in the middle of the book in French and English (we recommend starting at the beginning of a chapter).
Excerpt 3: 6 pages at the end of the book in French and English (we recommend starting at the beginning of a chapter).

The three pairs of excerpts should be saved as PDF files. It is acceptable if excerpts are slightly longer or shorter than 6 pages – the idea is to provide enough to develop a sense of the translation in different sections of the work.

2. Hard Copies

While we ask for electronic excerpts in the first stage, finalists (notified in late February-early March) will be asked to mail hard copies of books to the jury, located at 5 or 6 addresses in the New York area. PDFs of the books are acceptable when hard copies are not available, but finalists must also be ready to print and mail them to the jury. It is the responsibility of the submitting party to send these copies to the jury, and those who cannot provide the full books in either printed or PDF form in a timely manner may be removed from consideration.

3. Guidelines for Finalists & Winners

Prize money will be bestowed at an awards ceremony in the spring or summer of 2025. In the event that the winning translator cannot participate in the ceremony, the Foundation reserves the right to give the prize to a second choice finalist who is able to attend and promote the prize. The Foundation does not cover travel/accommodations for winners to attend the ceremony, but it has been common in past years for publishers to cover travel costs for winners (and even finalists) in order for them to attend the ceremony.

Once nominated, finalists and winners are encouraged to help spread the word about the Translation Prize and the Awards Ceremony with their networks.

— Copyrights

The French-American Foundation understands that the material you submit is protected by copyright. Except for the uses stated herein, none of the material shall be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, translated, downloaded, displayed, posted, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including, but not limited to, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission and approval of the publishing house. Permission is granted to the French-American Foundation to display for personal, non-commercial use on a computer screen and to print a limited number of copies of individual pages on paper only for the use of the Translation Prize Jury, provided the French-American Foundation does not modify the materials and that it retains all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the materials.

For questions, please consult our Terms & Eligibility page before emailing Gabrielle Milligan at gmilligan@frenchamerican.org.