![]() Over the course of seven years and two books, I’ve been translating the work of award-winning Quebecoise and Ilnu Nation poet Marie-Andrée Gill, an elder millennial like me, whose work braids ecofeminist and decolonial critique, 90s-kid pop-culture references, and Quebecois profanities ( sacres) evolved from the Catholic tradition. Not “Becoming a Translator™” necessarily, but literally, simply: picking up a text in a language other than your home language, one with which you do (or do not!) have familiarity, and starting the invigorating, maddening, mind-bending process of figuring out how to remake that text while replacing every single word. You should do those things, full stop, and thanks in advance.)īut what I’m really here to argue for is you, yourself, translating. You should ask your local bookseller or librarian what sort of table display they’re planning for Women in Translation Month (August) and National Translation Month (September). ![]() You should check out Words Without Borders, an outstanding publication of international literature with a trove of essays by and conversations among translators. You should show up & invite your friends to free reading series like Jill!, where translators around the world read from their current projects. (I mean, you should: specifically you should buy books in translation, especially from independent publishers, especially from living authors and translators. I’m not necessarily here to suggest that you-writer, Literary Hub reader, person who clicked-should do something about this personally. Let’s get this part out in front: Yes, translated works are devastatingly underrepresented in the English-language literary and publishing ecosystems, especially works from non-Western and diasporic and Indigenous languages, especially works authored by women and nonbinary writers. –Laura Esther Wolfson, Words Without Borders’ “Translator Relay” “Knowledge of languages gives you more of everything.”
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