RESONANCE
From the Editors
Dear readers,
We, the editors of this issue of Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation, RESONANCE, designed the call, read and reviewed every submission, and worked with each translator to edit and present these pieces—a process long-established by our predecessors.
RESONANCE, by nature, is a collaborative work of radiant authors, translators, and reader-editors; each brought a keen eye for language, sound, and impact. This letter speaks not on behalf of them, but in celebration of them and the concert of souls this issue creates.
Of the many definitions of RESONANCE [1], some of our favorites:
a quality of richness or variety
a quality of evoking response
a synchronous gravitational relationship of two celestial bodies (such as moons) that orbit a third (such as a planet) which can be expressed as a simple ratio of their orbital periods
Think of a tuning fork. The transformation of physical impact into sonic echoes.
What lingers, what morphs, what expands?
What remains?
The same can be asked of translation, where echoing force, dynamic movement, and impact is made material.
We present stories that echo, leave an imprint—resounding and reverberating long after the last word. Resonance in translation celebrates a text’s lingering qualities, the way literature moves within us, and how we’re moved, too, across time, culture, and space…
Welcome, then, to RESONANCE.
+++
In this issue, you’ll find the work of seven translators or translator-teams that span eight languages. These pieces are sometimes reflections, sometimes responses; all of them invite us to reimagine what literature can mean, especially in translation. We invite you to read and allow yourself to be moved.
Author-translator Jovana Simic Roussou self-translates three poems, letting image and sonics guide her to a new poetic language. Cheryl Schmitz’s translation of a short story by Yi Hsiao recreates the sounds and silences contained within violence. Translator Anne Schuchman gives us an essay on fragmentation and homeland, in which author Michela Murgia contemplates the borders of belonging, language, and identity. In their collaborative translation of Danish and Palestinian writers Ivan Malinowski and Ghassan Kanafani, Khaled Rajeh and Rasmus Schlutter explore resonance and solidarity across time and geographies. Arndís Lóa Magnúsdóttir’s poems “crackle” and “scrape” and “slither” in translations by Rachel Britton that feel tactile, even visceral. Padma Thornlyre’s translations of Lyudmyla Diadchenko blossomed out of an in-depth collaborative practice between the two poets. And, finally, Liya M. Akoury’s musical translation of a poem by Boris Pasternak reminds us that there is beauty that we may “turn to […] in the midst of chaos.”
+++
We applaud these authors and translators, all of whom welcome translation’s resonant power—when we recreate stories, poems, thoughts, dreams in new languages, we unleash new sounds, release new ideas, refresh the worlds around us. Thank you, translators, for your creations.
And a special thanks to our issue artist Kelley-Marie Van Dilla, a wonderful friend to translation, for generously sharing her art with us as accompaniments to the pieces. Her series illustrates our shared stories, languages, and hearts. We’re grateful to be able to include her artworks in conversation with our translated pieces.
Lastly, as we publish our final issue of the academic year, we would like to thank all of our contributors, readers, and friends at the University of Iowa’s Literary Translation Workshop for their time, curiosity, and resounding support.
—Exchanges Editorial Team, 2025-26
[1] Merriam-Webster dictionary definition(s), accessed May 2026