Villa Albertine presents The New Landscape of Literary Translation
3:00 pm EDT
Featuring Allison Markin Powell, Katrine Øgaard Jensen, and Han Zhang
Literature in translation is more visible in the United States than at any point in recent memory. A wave of new independent publishers, bookstores, literary festivals, prizes, and online reading communities has helped bring international fiction and nonfiction to new audiences, while translators themselves have become increasingly recognized as creative voices in literary culture.
Yet this new visibility arrives at a moment of profound change and uncertainty. Many studies have highlighted the economic precarity faced by literary translators, even as demand for translated literature continues to grow. At the same time, AI translation is beginning to reshape publishing, with major publishers releasing machine-generated translations in both commercial and academic contexts. These developments raise pressing questions about language, creativity, labor, and the future of cultural exchange.
Bringing together translators, publishers, editors, and advocates for international literature, this panel will explore the evolving landscape of literary translation today. What makes translated literature so exciting to readers right now? How will AI impact literary publishing? How can translators receive greater recognition and support for their work? And at a moment when public arts funding has receded in the U.S., which institutions and communities are helping sustain the future of literary translation?
Allison Markin Powell (translator from Japanese who helped draft PEN America’s Manifesto on Literary Translation) and Katrine Øgaard Jensen (poet, translator of Danish literature, and executive director of the American Literary Translators Association) discuss how to support the fragile ecosystem of literary translation, respond to the rise of AI translation, and make translated literature more visible. The conversation will be moderated by Han Zhang (journalist and Riverhead Books editor at large).
This panel is co-curated by Center for the Art of Translation and Villa Albertine. It is part of Villa Albertine’s Literary Fall(opens in a new tab), a two-day festival taking place September 25-26 in New York City.
Allison Markin Powell is a literary translator, editor, and publishing consultant. She received the 2020 PEN America Translation Prize for The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami and a Pushcart Prize for “My Ass” by Kanako Nishi. Her other translations and co-translations include works by Osamu Dazai, Shiori Ito, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, and Kaoru Takamura.
Katrine Øgaard Jensen is a translator and writer. She is one of the founding editors of EuropeNow, a journal of research and art at Columbia University, and a returning judge for the Best Translated Book Award. She previously served as editor in chief of the Columbia Journal and blog editor of the international literary journals Asymptote and Words Without Borders. Her work has appeared in the Washington Square Review, the Denver Quarterly, Arc Poetry Magazine, Ohio Edit, the Columbia Journal, and elsewhere.