Melody Makeda Ledwon

Melody Makeda Ledwon (she/her) is a translator, interpreter, editor and educator working in German and English. She is a Fiction Editor at SAND Journal and holds a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies and Sociology from Hunter College and a master’s degree in education from Washington University in St. Louis. Her work explores multilingual, feminist, and Afrodiasporic stories, with translations published by S. Fischer Verlage, Penguin Random House, Aki Verlag, Mousse Magazine, and TRANSIT. She has interpreted for institutions, including Akademie der Künste, Diversity Arts Culture, and Initiative of Black People in Germany. In 2020, she founded the Black Translators’ Network, a platform for Black translators in Germany and beyond. Melody is the recipient of the 2025 Words Without Borders Momentum Grant. She is currently working on the translation of Messer, Zungen (Knives, Tongues) by Simoné Goldschmidt-Lechner. Excerpts from this work have appeared in World Literature Today, The Common and Words Without Borders in 2025 and 2026. Photo credit: Yaro Adugna