Mangaluru: The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) has recognised renowned writer Jayant Kaikini with the National Translation Award (NTA) in Prose for his work ‘No Present Please: Mumbai Stories.’ Tejaswini Niranjana translated the work from Kannada (Catapult).

Jayant Kaikini received the award at ALTA’s 44th annual conference, Inflection Points, which was conducted both digitally and in person in Tucson, Arizona. Anton Hur, Annie Janusch, and Jennifer Croft were among the judges this year. Anton Hur presented the award. Kaikini was awarded $2500 in cash. During the event, Kaikini held a conversation as well as a brief reading.

ALTA’s National Translation Award (NTA) is the only national award given out for translation. This prize is given to any work of fiction, poetry, or non-fiction that has been translated and has undergone a thorough examination of both the source text and its relationship to the finished English work.

According to the judges, ‘No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories,’ is deserved the award for its intimate and life-affirming portrayal of ordinary Mumbai people.

According to the sources, this collection of short stories features a diverse group of people from a small shop owner who passes on his late parents’ love to a Bollywood stunt artiste about to take to the air for the last time.

Jayant Kaikini’s generous vision and Tejaswini Niranjana’s masterful translation combine to create a reading experience that is both uniquely local and deeply universal.

Tejaswini Niranjana is a translator and cultural theorist. ‘Sitting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism, and the Colonial Context’ is one of her many books. She is the curator of the Saath-Saath project, a series of collaborations between Indian and Chinese musicians, as well as the producer of three documentary films relating to music.