Please follow these guidelines carefully when preparing your submission to The AALITRA Review.
If your submission is accepted, we ask that you become a member of AALITRA for at least two years from the year in which your piece is to be published.
General
We publish scholarly articles, interviews, book reviews, and translations into or out of English accompanied by a translator’s commentary, as well as translators’ diaries. Articles and Translations & Commentaries are subject to peer review.
Manuscripts should be in Microsoft Word document format. Please use Times New Roman 12-point font, and indent new paragraphs (but do not leave a line gap between paragraphs). Use British / Australian spelling conventions, but with “z” rather than “s” (“civilization” not “civilisation”, but “analyse”). Use double rather than single quotation marks (but single quotation marks for quotes within quotes). Any quotes in languages other than English should either be translated in square brackets or glossed into English, for the benefit of readers unfamiliar with the language in question. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission to reprint any quotations of more than 500 words of prose, or of more than two lines of poetry.
Articles
Scholarly articles should not normally exceed 6,000 words, though longer manuscripts may in some cases be considered. All articles should be accompanied by an abstract of 150-200 words. Correct referencing should be used throughout the article (please follow carefully the instructions below).
Interviews
We publish extended interviews with prominent translators and scholars of Translation Studies. These may be up to 6000 words in length.
Book Reviews
We publish reviews of literary translations into English, reviews of Australian literary texts translated into other languages, and reviews of major publications in the field of Translation Studies. Reviews should normally be around 1000 words in length, though longer contributions may be considered, especially if they constitute a scholarly analysis of a selection of related texts. Reviews of literary translations should contextualize the text and its author within the source-culture literary system, and comment critically on the translation challenges the text presents, and how these have been tackled by the translator.
Translations with commentary
Translations into English are accepted in a range of genres, with a preference for prose and poetry. Translations – usually no more than 6000 words in length – should be accompanied by a translator’s commentary, generally of around 1000 words but maybe longer. The commentary should introduce and contextualize the text, explore some of the challenges of the translation process, and discuss the translation strategies adopted if possible, in light of existing scholarship.
Translations are published in parallel text, for instance from Burghelea, Clara. “Five Poems in Translation: Original Poems by Ioana Vintilă.” The AALITRA Review 19,(December 2023): 87-93
|
văl
într-o seară de mai am prins un fluture de
noapte într-un
pahar. piciorușele i se scuturau lovind sticla.
în zecile lui
de ochi am văzut cum noaptea solară se așază ca o coajă de
peste pleoapele noastre
|
veil
one May evening I caught a moth
in a glass. its little legs were dangling against the glass.
within its dozens
eyes I saw the solar night falling like a
mandarin peel
over our eyelids
|
It is the translator’s responsibility to obtain permission from the author / publisher of the source text to republish the piece in The AALITRA Review. Please submit the translation and the source text as Word documents.
*New* : Literary Translator’s diaries
In 2000 to 4000 words, literary translators may submit diaries of their works in progress, documenting points of concerns, critical reflections, emotions, meditations, interior monologue, interactions with authors, publishers or other practitioners : any feature likely to enlighten readers about translation processes and practices. Unlike Translation commentaries, diarists are not expected to refer to Translation Studies scholarship. Translators may find inspiration in Daniel Hahn’s Catching Fire: A Translation Diary (Charco Press, 2022).
Notes, Citations and Bibliography
Footnotes should only be used for additional comments or explanations that cannot readily be absorbed into the main body of the article, and should be kept to a minimum.
Please use the MLA referencing system. Citations should be included in the text of the article, giving the author’s surname only (no year of publication), with page number if necessary. Initials should be given only when required to distinguish between authors with the same surname. Where a text was written by more than two authors, give the first two surnames only followed by “et al.” in the in-text citation (but give all the authors’ names in the list of references).
Examples of in-text citation
“This study draws on the work of Toury and of Tymoczko and Gentzler (1-25). Gouanvic’s description of “habitus” (147-48) is also of relevance here.”
“It might also be worth considering whether indeed “la letteratura è tutto un furto e tutta una rapina” [literature is all theft and robbery] (Almansi and Fink viii).”
If you cite more than one text by a particular author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.
Indented quotations
You should indent quotations of more than 40 words or quotations to which you want to give particular emphasis. Indented quotes appear without quotation marks, as in the example below:
Some think this is just an ethereal way of talking about literature and philosophy. But […] translation is the most intimate act of reading. Unless the translator has earned the right to become the intimate reader, she cannot surrender to the text, cannot respond to the special call of the text. (Spivak 372)
In quotations, always preserve the spelling, punctuation and grammar of the original. All omissions from quotations should be indicated with […] to distinguish them from suspension points used by the authors quoted. Check your transcription of quotations carefully.
At the end of the article you should include a list of references (titled Bibliography) arranged in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames and in alphabetical order by title for any one author. All texts you have cited in your article should be included in this list, and all texts in the list should be cited in your article. Capitalize all major words in titles, but for foreign-language titles, follow the conventions of the language in question and provide a close English translation of the title in square brackets (see the Almansi and Fink example below).
Examples of references
Book
Almansi, Guido, and Guido Fink. Quasi come. [Almost as Though.] Milan: Bompiani, 1976. Toury, Gideon. Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1995.
Edited book
Tymoczko, Maria, and Edwin Gentzler, eds. Translation and Power. Amherst, MA and Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002.
Chapter in book
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “The Politics of Translation.” The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. New York: Routledge, 2004. 369-88.
Article
Gouanvic, Jean-Marc. “A Bourdieusian Theory of Translation, or the Coincidence of Practical Instances: Field, ‘Habitus’, Capital and ‘Illusio’.” Translated by Jessica Moore. The Translator 11.2 (2005): 147-66.
Webpage
References to web pages should include the URL and the date accessed, as well as – wherever possible – the name of the author and title of the page in question.
Further guidelines on how to compile a list of references in MLA style can be found on the websites of numerous university libraries.