Center for the Art of Translation 2023 Impact Report

2023 YEAR OF FIRSTS Impact Report

DEAR FRIEND,

I am incredibly proud to present you our 2023 Impact Report, which highlights what the Center for the Art of Translation has accomplished in the last year thanks to your enthusiastic support. There is new energy behind our publications, educational programming, and events— and a palpable exuberance among our community of readers, writers, translators, students, teachers, peer publishers, and booksellers. It feels as if we’ve leveled up.

CAT hit a new stride in 2023. In these pages you’ll read more about the rewarding firsts you’ve helped make possible: the first ten years of Two Lines Press, our first National Book Award finalist, the first collection of contemporary Swahili literature to appear in English, and our first foray into multi-faceted hybrid events as part of The International Library, our ongoing collaboration with the Center for Fiction and the American Library in Paris.

On behalf of all of us at the Center and Two Lines Press, thank you for supporting this work. You’ve helped us raise our profile, extend our reach, and build new, innovative partnerships. We are a stronger organization with stronger ties to our literary community, and even greater ambitions are coming into focus. Thank you for making it possible.

With heartfelt gratitude,

Michael Holtmann Executive Director & Publisher

A NEW MILESTONE

2023 was a year of firsts, including the first decade of Two Lines Press—ten years of publishing books by exceptional, often-overlooked international writers and offering readers a wider understanding of the world. More firsts: On a Woman’s Madness was the first book by Surinamese author Astrid Roemer to appear in English and the first book translated by Lucy Scott. How fitting that it was our first finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature?

2023

Astrid Roemer On a Woman's Madness

TRANSLATED BY LUCYSCOTT

What we have accomplished together over the last decade is no small feat.

Two Lines Press launched in 2013 with outsized ambitions and just four books; the catalog now includes more than 60 titles. Your support helped publish over 600 translated works in print and online and introduced 33 international writers to Englishlanguage readers. We’ve built a list of singular in-house authors who are changing the face of literature and whose work resonates with a growing community.

Astrid Roemer’s lush and spellbinding novel On a Woman’s Madness was first published in Dutch in 1982 but didn’t appear in English until last year—41 years later! It was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature and was called “a gift to English-language readers” (Publishers Weekly). We released Roemer’s multi-generational epic Off-White, translated by Lucy Scott and David McKay, this spring. Your support makes it possible to discover and showcase extraordinary new talents and diverse voices like Roemer’s from around the globe and build true partnerships with authors and translators.

101,400+

AUTHORS AND TRANSLATORS SUPPORTED 975

33

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE DEBUTS

EMERGING TRANSLATORS LAUNCHED

138 LANGUAGES TRANSLATED

79

26,148 EVENTS HELD WITH ATTENDANCE OF FROM 2013 TO 2023... (AND WE’RE STILL GOING STRONG!)

276 BOOKS SOLD

FRESH INK

You helped bring the first collection of Swahili fiction to the U.S.—No Edges: Swahili Stories. The Calico Series spotlights emerging writers and translators from underrepresented regions of the world, and No Edges was our latest project in diversifying the publishing landscape. Your donations funded commissions for emerging translators and professional development workshops, including a “how to pitch a translation” tutorial that produced two full-length book projects (coming soon to a bookstore near you)!

“An absorbing sampler of the literary feast available in Africa’s most widely spoken language.”

SHAILJA PATEL AUTHOR OF MIGRITUDE

Diversifying publishing, uplifting international literature, and launching careers in translation.

Most translated work comes from just four European languages. Thanks to your support for our editorial vision, we can prioritize writing from less-translated languages and regions and find new readers for singular authors. In 2023, your commitment to uplifting diverse voices brought daring collections to readers like No Edges and Elektrik: Caribbean Writing, poetry by Franco-Caribbean women.

Your support for early-career translators has allowed us to debut artists whose first books were certainly not their last. We were among the first to publish award-winning translators like Don Mee Choi (MacArthur “Genius Grant”), Isabel Fargo Cole (Helen and Kurt Wolff Translation Prize), and Denise Newman (PEN Translation Prize), and in 2023, we added Lucy Scott and Mia Spangenberg to this list.

These translators are among the many careers you have helped launch. Already in 2024, No Edges translator Richard Prins and Two Lines contributor Mark Schafer have been awarded NEA Translation Fellowships—a testament to your impact on the future of translation.

SPOTLIGHTING NEW, OVERLOOKED, AND UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES

We prioritize work by women and writers and translators of color. 2023 translations came from 20 languages and 29 countries.

21 EMERGING TRANSLATORS

9 ENGLISH DEBUTS 100% OF WRITERS IN 2023 CALICO TITLES WERE ARTISTS OF COLOR

“Having my work made available to an international audience through the art of translation was an incredible milestone in my journey as a writer.”

FADHY MTANGA NO EDGES CONTRIBUTOR

AUTHORS & TRANSLATORS PUBLISHED IN 2023

19 ARE BLACK, INDIGENOUS, OR PEOPLE OF COLOR IDENTIFY AS WOMEN

TRANSLATORS WORKING WITH UNDERREPRESENTED LANGUAGES

“One of the most provocative and creative works I assign to my students.”

“Scott’s translation is a gift to English-language readers.”

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY

JUSTIN MCDANIEL PROFESSOR

SHORTLISTED FOR The National Book Critic’s Circle Award in Autobiography AND The Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize

“A megaphone for writers who might otherwise remain unheard in the Western canon.”

BARRELHOUSE

“A devilishly swirling drain from which there can be no escape.”

FERNANDO

A.

FLORES

AUTHOR OF VALLEYESQUE AND TEARS OF THE TRUFFLEPIG

RAISING NEW VOICES

You inspired new ways to connect readers around the world with authors and translators and showed the power of words to spark understanding and transformation. Last year we partnered with The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn and The American Library in Paris to launch The International Library, an innovative event series that presents live conversations about literature in translation and brings together transnational audiences.

CROSS-STITCH BOOK TOUR

CHLOÉ COOPER JONES

JAZMINA BARRERA

AUTHOR

BOOKS ARE MAGIC NYC

TOGETHER AT

Inspiring understanding and connection across time, cultures, and borders.

CAT’s events build community around dynamic literary conversations and offer a chance to celebrate the art of translation. The unexpected pivot to online events during the pandemic has opened avenues to new audiences and new collaborations; it’s clear that livestream and hybrid events are here to stay.

Your support in 2023 helped launch The International Library, a new event series built around live conversations connecting audiences across land and sea for a collective, intercultural experience. Audiences can join live in San Francisco, Brooklyn, or Paris, or via livestream from anywhere in the world.

Last year Mexican author Carmen Boullosa shared her alternate telling of the Book of Genesis, translators from Elektrik: Caribbean Writing read poems by Franco-Caribbean women authors, and audiences were treated to a dramatic reading in ancient Greek by translator Emily Wilson from her new translation of Homer’s The Iliad.

3,458 TOTAL ATTENDEES

48 EVENTS HOSTED

60

AUTHORS & TRANSLATORS SPOTLIGHTED

“Works in translation allow us to be in conversation with each other, through reading or by talking about what we read. In this messy, tragic world, that seems to be a fundamentally peaceful thing to do.”

“What better way to celebrate translation than a transnational collaboration with a virtual component, featuring conversations between writers, readers, and translators?”

SOFIA SAMATAR

AUTHOR, PROFESSOR OF AFRICAN AND ARABIC LITERATURE, INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY ATTENDEE

34 EVENT PARTNERS

DOROTHEE ELMIGER OUT OF THE SUGAR FACTORY AUTHOR AND INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY PARTICIPANT

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION

Your support empowers students around the country to translate from an ever-growing multilingual library of more than 75 poems. In 2023, you helped us go beyond expansion—you added depth. Our very first Poetry Inside Out Teaching Fellowships gave five teachers the time and resources to create a translation-minded curriculum for their classrooms. With your help, the program continues to develop and shape the global citizens of tomorrow.

The inaugural class of Poetry Inside Out Teaching Fellows blossomed into a collaborative community.

The best teachers lead with intention. With your donation, the 2022-23 Teaching Fellows were able to attend a multi-day retreat, after-school meetings, and training sessions to explore culturally responsive classroom techniques.

Over the course of the school year, our Poetry Inside Out staff guided the Teaching Fellows through collaborative projects that questioned the current state of monolingual education. Working on creative projects and collaborative research, they produced lessons and activities designed to build skills and generate dynamic discussions about poetry, culture, and personal expression. Together, they created new poem pages and explored ways to engage students in international dialogue.

Your support is bringing teachers together to create new materials and techniques that reflect students’ cultural and linguistic heritage: the second class of Teaching Fellows is being mentored by last year’s Fellows. You’re also inspiring a new generation of readers, writers, and translators.

5 TEACHING FELLOWS

STUDENTS REACHED

100% OF TEACHING FELLOWS SAY THE FELLOWSHIP HELPED THEIR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

“The teaching day doesn’t allow time and space for talking about instruction in authentic ways. Having the chance to think, to reflect as we expect the students to reflect, and to recalibrate instructional methods is going to directly benefit my teaching practice.”

BRANDON BARR

2022–23 TEACHING FELLOW

“One of the most fulfilling educational experiences of my career.”

HEIDI KERN 2023–24 TEACHING FELLOW

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTNERSHIP OVER THE PAST DECADE —AND MORE!

With your continued support we can move closer to our goal of building community, preserving culture, and uplifting the human experience through literature in translation. We hope we can rely on you to make the next ten years even more exciting!

CATRANSLATION.ORG/DONATE

CATRANSLATION.ORG/BOOKS/MEMBERSHIPS

@CATRANSLATION

@TWOLINESPRESS