Translating to Cross an Ancient Divide
(Image: "The Splitting of the Seas" by Yoram Raanan) Continue Reading
Translation Talks with Megan McDowell
We interviewed Megan McDowell about her translation of Diego Zúñiga's Camanchaca (Coffee House Press, 2017) Continue Reading
Written in the Dark: Five Poets in the Siege of Leningrad
Alex Niemi reviews Ugly Duckling Presse's latest collection of Russian poetry in translation, edited by Polina Barskova. Continue Reading
THE ROU OF FRIE: una historia de traducción / the story of this translation
Victoria Cóccaro and Rebekah Smith, the co-translators of Pablo Katchadjian's the rou of alch (UDP, 2016), offer us a dazzling glimpse into their call-and-response process through language. Bilingüe/Bilingual Continue Reading
Abdelilah Hamdouchi’s Novel, "Whitefly"
Gretchen McCullough reviews Jonathon Smolin's translation, published by Hoopoe Imprint (2016) Continue Reading
Words that Build the Soul
What follows are the scripts of five episodes aired on the Dizionario segment of the radio program Fahrenheit in spring 2009, contributed to Exchanges by Somali-Italian writer Christina Ubah Ali Farah, and translated from the Italian by Hope Campbell Gustafson. Continue Reading
Translator's Introduction: Writing Tsvetaeva into our American Canon
Writer and translator, Mary Jane White, offers us a thoughtful foray into her work and joy. Continue Reading
Translation as Bridge to the Other: Trump’s Promise to the LGBTQ Community
Bradley Warren Davis offers us an essential reflection on our world. His new translation of Benito Pastoriza Iyodo's 12 de junio appears here with the author's original, and consent. Continue Reading
Reflecting the Voice of an Iranian Woman Writer in Translation
In this essay, Leila Sadegh Beigi analyzes the Franklin Lewis' translation of Cheragh-ha-ra Man Khamoosh Mikonam (Things We Left Unsaid), written by contemporary Iranian-Armenian woman writer, Zoya Pirzad. Continue Reading
Translation on the margins of possibility: encounters with satire
Mary Frank, University of Bristol, England Continue Reading
From the Sketchpad: A Cultivated Readership
With the funding I received courtesy of the Japan Foundation IPS grant and CAPS, I was able to spend all of June and part of July in Tokyo attending readings and forums, speaking with translators, and furthering my own understanding of the sharp divides between the Japanese translation publishing market... Continue Reading
Untranslatability: Ravens and Tigers and Camels, Oh My!
Current discussions about the discipline of Comparative Literature often consider the role of translation in the field and its relationship to the ongoing definition of a canon, or canons. Of foremost significance is what appears in translation; why does Vintage publish Suite Française, by Irène Némirovsky and translated by Sandra... Continue Reading
Solidarity, or What is Gained in Translation
For those translators and lovers of translation who are depressed by the rhetoric of loss and distortion that continues to characterize popular translation criticism in the West—a legacy of Romanticism with its cult of original genius—just take a look at Soviet rhetoric for something completely different. Continue Reading
Interview with Kevin M. F. Platt
Exchanges Skyped with Kevin M. F. Platt, editor and translator of Hit Parade: The Orbita Group. We asked him about the innovative translation process that led to this beautiful publication with Ugly Duckling Presse. Here's a transcript of the conversation: Continue Reading
“The First Gathering,” or A Music Composed of Voices
Image Credit: Gathering, Laurie Justus Pace Continue Reading
On the Trail of a Vanished Poet
written by Dr. Merle Bachman--poet, translator, professor, and much more... Continue Reading
Amber Brian and The Native Archive
In the first of the 2016 Spring Translation Talks hosted by Iowa's Translation Workshop, Amber Brian drew us into the captivating world of a centuries-old manuscript and the thorny questions of history and representation. Brian opened her talk with a gripping, novel-esque anecdote of how the 17th Century manuscript, a... Continue Reading
Call for Submissions: Spring '16 Issue
In conjunction with the University of Iowa's Just Living initiative, we’ll be dedicating our pages to those voices working to subvert and challenge oppressive systems, and we want translations that do justice to their words. We would especially like to hear from those that have been deliberately absented from the... Continue Reading
The Uneasy Metamorphoses of Machine Translation
In this essay, Tegan Raleigh offers a toe-dip into the mote dividing machine and human translation. And here is a reaffirming ebook, 10 Poems Ruthlessly Mangled By Google Translate. Continue Reading
From the Sketchpad: Translating Billy Collins with Juan J. Almagro
For me, translation has been a journey of unexpected discovery. It was never something I intended to do, but a dear friend suggested that we co-translate a book of poems. On one of the last pages I wrote a couple of lines thanking him for showing me the generosity of... Continue Reading
Toward a surprisingly similar yet different form of Imagination
In this essay Azita Ghahreman grapples with the poetry of translation, the poet-translator relationship, and the symbiosis of creative and critical word-crossings. Find her bio and a link to her work below. Continue Reading
In Conversation: Aviya Kushner, author of "The Grammar of God"
Aviya Kushner cares a lot about names. In her visit to the Translation Workshop to discuss her book, The Grammar of God, she expressed unease with English’s inability to comport both name and story in the Bible. Continue Reading
Straight from the Sketchpad: Translating Japanese with Laurel Taylor
Japanese syntax can be infuriating, even after 8 years of study. It can twist and turn in unexpected ways, especially in the hands of a master writer. Verbal clauses can be embedded inside verbal clauses ad nauseum, and sentences can go on for pages, especially in older works not yet... Continue Reading
Translating Myself: Adventures in Self-Translation at the Iowa Translation Workshop
It was my second time presenting work in the translation workshop. The story was called "The Grey Quarter," and I’d just written it just a few months before, for my fiction workshop in the Spanish Creative Writing MFA. Now I was presenting it into English. Continue Reading
The which and why of translating Arabic literature
“Arabic after all is a controversial language,” a New York publisher told celebrated Palestinian theorist Edward Said when dismissing his recommendation to translate Egyptian author and future Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz into English. Despite the parochialism of his comment, the publisher was very much on point. Continue Reading
Defining translingualism
Even Americans, notorious for speaking only one language, have heard of lingualism: monolingualism, bilingualism, trilingualism, beyond which prefixes we usually quit enumerating and accord the enviable polyglot an all-purpose multilingual status. Continue Reading
Graphic novels in translation
Graphic novels are literature too, with the same capacity to influence culture, politics, and ideas as any of the more traditional forms. This was the message that Ana Merino, director of the MFA in Spanish Creative Writing at Iowa, wished to impart during her talk on “Translation as a Space... Continue Reading
On retranslating the Ramayana
Here at the Iowa Translation Workshop, our 50th anniversary year continues with a spring colloquium series for which Philip Lutgendorf, professor of Hindi and Modern Indian Studies at the university, gave us the lowdown on his current project, a retranslation of the Sanskrit epic poem the Ramayana (that’s ruh-MY-uh-nuh, not... Continue Reading
Winter '15 issue live, Spring '15 submissions open!
On this snow day in Iowa, we're proud to announce the publication of our Winter '15 issue, ESTRANGED, and the concurrent opening of Spring '15 submissions. Happy reading and translating! Continue Reading
The ethical task of the translator
In our age of nation states, in which languages are mostly confined within national borders, translation can transcend political boundaries by liberating original texts from those who might otherwise suppress them. Such was the theme of last month's 37th annual conference of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA): the intimate... Continue Reading
Maureen Freely visits Iowa
As translators—and indeed, writers—don’t we all wish we had had the opportunity to move to Turkey as children in the 1960s? This was the great luck of Maureen Freely, an Ida Beam Visiting Professor for Fall 2014 at the University of Iowa, who was transplanted from her native New Jersey... Continue Reading
Welcome back; 50th anniversary of Iowa translation
Over here at Exchanges we’ve had a few delays rebooting the site for the fall semester, but we’re back now and ready for a watershed year, complete with new MFA director Aron Aji, a student editorial board of six first- and second-years, the 50th anniversary of the Iowa Translation Workshop,... Continue Reading
Prizewinning Russian minimalism, new MFA director!
Exciting news for the spring semester, translation lovers! Continue Reading
IC Book Festival, Heaney Memorial Reading
If you weren't present for Teemu Manninen's reading at Prairie Lights last Sunday, boy, did you miss out! The author of five poetry collections in his native Finnish, Teemu commands such scintillating English (read: near-native, despite the claim of his website to mere excellence) that last weekend he read his... Continue Reading
Catcher in the Rye in Russian
Here at the University of Iowa fall semester is already in full swing, just like the packed schedule of literary events around town. On August 30th the first of many readings featuring fellows from the 2013 International Writing Program showcased work by Russian poet Dmitry Golynko, including the crowd-rousing "Whip... Continue Reading
Mary Jo Bang, Mission Creek, Oh My!
I was working at the Iowa Review when I first read a section from Mary Jo Bang's new translation of Dante's Inferno. Like many who've read the work since, I was bowled over. The translation is not simply a modern adaption of an old classic a la O, the basketball-themed... Continue Reading
Our newest issue, and our new site
Welcome to Exchanges's new home. This cozy new (web) space is yet another evolution in our little magazine's history. We began in 1989 as a print magazine, a project of the poet and translator Daniel Weissbort. Continue Reading