A Dream 26 Years in the Making
A message from our founder and board chair, Olivia Sears, announcing our new permanent home.
In 1996, I left graduate school with a PhD in Italian literature, a passion for translation, and a mission to make the work of literary translators visible and help U.S. readers discover international writers.
This work started a few years earlier with the literary journal Two Lines: World Writing in Translation, where we insisted that translators be credited and named alongside authors—a practice that wasn’t standard at the time. When I founded the Center for the Art of Translation as a nonprofit organization in 2000, we continued that mission by bringing translation into classrooms through Poetry Inside Out, our educational program that has students engage with international poetry in translation and practice the work of translators themselves.
Over the years, our staff grew slowly and expanded the work by launching a public programs series, bringing translators to the stage and giving them a platform to discuss their craft. And in 2013, we launched our award-winning book publisher Two Lines Press, putting translators’ names on book covers and making their work visible in bookstores and to readers across the country.
From the very beginning, there was always one last part of the dream: a permanent home. A way to put translation on the actual map with a physical space where people could discover great writing and connect across cultural and linguistic differences through the work of translation.
That Dream Is about to Become Reality
Today, we’re launching the public phase of a $17 million campaign to transform a historic 1908 building into that permanent home—a literary and cultural anchor at the corner of Leidesdorff and Commercial Street in downtown San Francisco.
After 26 years of making translators visible on the page, in classrooms, in bookstores, and on stage with fellow writers and artists, we’re creating a space dedicated entirely to literary translation. And we need your help to open our doors.
What We’re Building
This three story, 7,400-square-foot building, steps from the Transamerica Pyramid at the intersection of Chinatown, North Beach, and the Embarcadero, will become:
- The West Coast’s only bookstore dedicated exclusively to translated literature
- A state-of-the-art event space with livestreaming capabilities
- Workshop and professional development space for translators, writers, educators, and students
- A shared resource space for the larger literary and arts community
Paul Yamazaki, principal buyer and bookseller at City Lights since 1970, calls it “the most significant literary event in San Francisco since the opening of City Lights.“
Watch the video to see the space and learn more:
We’re 78% There—Help Us Finish
Thanks to early supporters, we’ve raised $13.3 million of our $17 million goal. We need your help to raise the final $3.7 million and open our doors in 2027.
This is our nexus, a place where international voices, translators, and readers can connect and belong.
After 26 years of making the work of literary translators visible, we’re putting translation on the map.
Will you be part of it?
