To celebrate its twentieth anniversary, Contexts for Classics is expanding its annual Classical Translations contest to include a wider range of languages taught in the departments of (I) Classical Studies, (II) Asian Languages and Cultures, and (III) Middle East Studies. Graduate and undergraduate students from across the University of Michigan are invited to submit literary translations of texts from (I) Latin, Ancient Greek, and Modern Greek; (II) classical Japanese, Chinese, and Sanskrit; and (III) Akkadian, Assyrian, Coptic, Syriac, Biblical Hebrew, Hittite, Middle Egyptian, Sumerian, and Classical Armenian, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. This contest is intended to highlight the work of students who are interested in the process of translation as a creative enterprise.

Rules and Prizes

1.     All submissions are due by 5:00pm ET on Thursday, April 15, 2021 to Kathryn Colman (kmhorne@umich.edu), Academic Program Specialist in Comparative Literature.

2.     Translations should be submitted via email attachment, MBox, or Google Drive. In the body of your email, please include (i) the title, author, and original language of the text you have translated, (ii) your name, and (iii) an indication of whether you are an undergraduate (with title of major) or graduate student (with title of program).

3.     All submissions will be forwarded for anonymous judging to one of three panels of faculty members in departments corresponding broadly to groups (I), (II), and (III) above.

4.     Students affiliated with any UM department are eligible.

5.     All work should consist of original translations/interpretations of works from the languages listed above.

6.     Original works may be in prose or verse and translations may be in prose, verse, or other format, such as multi- media.

7.     Maximum length of written submissions is five double-spaced pages.

8.     In each category (undergraduate and graduate), the prizes will be $100 each.

9.     Winners will be invited to publish their translations on the Contexts for Classics website (https://lsa.umich.edu/ contextsforclassics/students/classical-translations.html).