Happy Women In Translation Month, Book Lovers!
As a small press with a large back stock of translated works, this month is near and dear to our hearts. We wanted to shout out the brilliant ladies in translation that we've published over the years, and give you a little introduction to each of these beautiful books. We're proud to say that all of these books were also translated by women, which makes them extra special in celebrating this important literary month!
Reason Enough by Ida Vitale
Translated by Sarah Pollack
Ida Vitale was born in Montevideo in 1923. In 2019, she was awarded the prestigious 2019 Cervantes Prize for her lifetime achievements as a writer in the Spanish language.
In Reason Enough, Vitale brings an enchanted yet clear-eyed perspective on the everyday. In these slender poems, you will find mountains of meaning, layered in intricate linguistic labyrinths for the mind to explore. Vitale's work offers the reader diverse tonalities, ranging from unflinching personal meditations on loss and desire, to pieces that sparkle with a playful irony and wit.
This collection was translated and beautifully introduced by Sarah Pollack, who gives a great perspective on Vitale’s approach to poetry and her life as a writer.
Ponciá Vicencio by Conceiçáo Evaristo
Translated by Paloma Martinez-Cruz
Evaristo's debut novel, this is the story of a young Afro-Brazilian woman's journey from the home of her enslaved ancestors to the wasteland of contemporary urban life. This story begs the question: Can we ever really outrun our past?
Beautifully translated by Paloma Martinez-Cruz, this mystical story of family, dreams, and hope illuminates the struggles black women face globally. It is a relatable story for anyone who has struggled with identity, oppression, and the complications of family.
"In a country like Brazil, I believe that I have a social obligation to return to my origins. I believe in this type of politics and I think that people need to believe in it."
-Conceiçáo Evaristo
Indian Tango by Ananda Devi
Translated by Jean Anderson
Ananda Devi is a world-renowned Mauritian writer. The multicultural and multilingual aspects of her birthplace are echoed in her works, which explore with lyrical depths the lives of women, and the consequences of nonconformity.
Devi won a prize in a Radio France Internationale short story competition at the age of 15, and has been awarded several more literary prizes throughout her career.
Indian Tango is set in 2004 Delhi against a background of monsoon rains. It is a story that fearlessly explores the cost of pursuing passion and desire in a deeply conservative society. It is a moving meditation on the limitations that convention has placed on women's lives, and the vibrant ways that they overcome it.
"Translated by Jean Anderson, Indian Tango is a hymn to female sensuality, to individual freedom, to understanding and companionship between sexes, cultures, religions."
– Livres Hebdo, Jean-Claude Perrier
Fourteen Female Voices from Brazil
Edited by Elzbieta Szoka
This volume contains work from groundbreaking Brazilian feminists. It is a fascinating introduction to Brazilian culture includes interviews with 14 of Brazil's most prominent female writers along with excerpts of their work.
Included in this anthology: Nélida Piñon, Lygia Fagundes Telles, Helena Parente Cunha, Astrid Cabral, Marly de Oliveira, Jandira Martini, Leilah Assumpção, Maria Adelaide Amaral, Myriam Campello, Sonia Coutinho, Esmerelda Ribeiro, Miriam Alves, Conceição Evaristo & Renata Pallottini.
Cage by Astrid Cabral
Translated by Alexis Levitin
Astrid Cabral is a celebrated Brazilian poet of considerable imaginative gifts and metaphysical flair.
In this first-ever bilingual edition of Cage, Cabral is an insightful and irreverent guide to the natural world, leading us through the landscapes of rare and surprising beauty, from the wilds of the Amazon to the orderly realm of suburbia. Cabral’s work urges us toward empathy and oneness with our natural environment.
Astrid Cabral’s work shows a marvelous range from traditional imagism to near concretism as she explores the Brazilian poetic panorama.
– Gregory Rabassa, translator, National Medal of Arts recipient