In Between Translating and Editing: Case Studies and (Mis)Adventures

This panel will provide case studies, including misadventures and publishing conflicts, for this kind of hybrid experience in the context of a constellation of languages: Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Russian. We will also discuss self-translation; “stem translations”; failed translations; navigating the publishing process with editors at presses (whether Big 5 or Indie) who have the final say; the differences between publishing translations in magazines, versus in, or as, books; happily-ever-after success stories; and more.

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Moderator

Magdalena Edwards is a writer, actor, and translator from Spanish and Portuguese into English, based in Los Angeles, CA. She is a Visiting Scholar at UCLA’s Latin American Institute, an Artist-in-Residence at Highways Performance Space, and a Contributing Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Presenters

Boris Dralyuk is a literary translator and the Executive Editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books. He holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from UCLA, where he taught Russian literature for a number of years. He has also taught at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Adriana Jacobs is Associate Professor and Cowley Lecturer in Modern Hebrew Literature; Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. She is the author of Strange Cocktail: Translation and the Making of Modern Hebrew Poetry (2018, University of Michigan Press). Jacobs received a PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant (2015) for her translation of Vaan Nguyen’s The Truffle Eye (2020, Zephyr Press). Raquel Salas Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet, translator, and editor. He is the author of five full-length poetry books. His fourth book, while they sleep (under the bed is another country), was longlisted for the 2020 Pen America Open Book Award and was a finalist for CLMP’s 2020 Firecracker Award. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania.