Try This, You Might Like It: A First Taste of Translation (AWP 2020)
Room 206B | Henry B. González Convention Center | San Antonio, Texas
As seen in the recent increase of translations published in the US—and the growing recognition of such work through awards like the National Book Award in Translated Literature—translation is “having a moment.” But how can we find translations? How do we know if a translation is “good”? And how can we help literature in translation reach more readers? If you’re getting into translation—whether as a reader, writer, editor, or publisher—this panel will offer suggestions about where to start.
Participants
Elisabeth Jaquette is executive director of the American Literary Translators Association. Her translations from Arabic include Basma Abdel Aziz’s The Queue and Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail, among others. She has also taught translation at Bread Loaf and judged numerous translation prizes.
Lisa Lucas is the executive director of the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards. Before joining the Foundation, she served as the publisher of Guernica and the director of education at Tribeca Film Institute.
Michael Holtmann is the director of the Center for the Art of Translation and publisher of Two Lines Press. He serves on the board of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and the international programming committee of the Bay Area Book Festival.
Jamia Wilson is the executive director and publisher of the Feminist Press. She is the author of Young, Gifted, and Black, Step Into Your Power, ABC’s of AOC, Big Ideas for Young Thinkers, coauthor of Road Map for Revolutionaries, and the introduction and oral history for Together We Rise.
Jeremy Tiang has translated more than 20 books from Chinese—most recently Lo Yi-Chin’s Far Away. He also writes and translates plays. His novel State of Emergency won the Singapore Literature Prize. He is the managing editor of Pathlight and a member of translation collective Cedilla & Co.