We are trying something new this year, and we hope you will be part of it.
This year’s essays will be run as they are received—untouched by editorial hands. In the past, we have suggested cosmetic touch-ups and the like. But people have complained that the published essay is not fully representative of the author’s work. So we will get out of the way this year. This year’s six-step process is: (1) you write your essay and send it to [email protected], (2) we send it to the printer, (3) the printer typesets and lay-outs it, (4) we send you a proof and ask you to make sure the printer did not change it, (5) you tell us what, if anything, needs to be corrected (or tell us it is okay as is), and (6) that is what gets published.
Essays can be about almost anything, but the length parameters are: up to 600 words in English or up to 1800 characters in Japanese for the body of the essay. In neither case, however, may the essay exceed two printed pages. (This is something that will be obvious at step 4, when we will ask you to trim it if it runs over.)
Some possible topics that come to mind are the translation process, translation’s importance, difficulties in communication, translator wish lists, business aspects, particularly irksome terms and how you cope, what you wish clients understood, what you wish translators you outsource work to understood, and translator lifehacks. Note that this list is illustrative and in no way exclusive. Write what you think you should write. And if you really have no idea at all, drop the Anthology Writers’ Counseling Center a line at [email protected].
It does not matter what typeface or font size you use, since the printer will make them all the same anyway.
Essays should bear a title and your name. Your name may be in either English or Japanese—preferably in the same language as your essay—but should have the katakana reading attached. If you would like to include a separate mention of where you are writing from, we will put that at the end of the essay.
The deadline for submissions is August 1. That will give us time to get it to the printer and then get the printer’s output to you for final approval by August 26. The paper version shipping target is the last part of September.
This year’s anthology will be sent and read worldwide. It is an excellent opportunity—available only to JAT members—to get your name and views out there. We look forward to your essay.