Center for the Art of Translation 2021 Impact Report

2021

TRANSLATED Impact Report

Dear Friend, For more than 20 years, the Center for the Art of Translation has been dedicated to finding dazzling new, overlooked, and underrepresented voices and to celebrating the art of translation.

Literature in translation offers readers the insights and artistry of great writers from around the world—while simultaneously building understanding across languages and cultures.

During an unprecedented period of isolation, many of us have turned to books—especially books in translation—to feel engaged with each other and linked to the wider world.

Thank you for standing with us in 2021. Your support shows a commitment to the ideals of translation: open-minded exploration, cross-cultural connection, and heartfelt empathy.

For that I am grateful.

Because your giving sustains this work, I’m excited to share what your support meant in the past year. In 2021 we were able to move beyond pandemic survival mode to serve more readers, writers, translators, teachers, students, and a growing literary community. There’s always more to be done, of course, so I look forward to continuing our partnership in 2022 and beyond.

With gratitude,

MICHAEL HOLTMANN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & PUBLISHER

IN 2021

YOU HELPED

...

PUBLISH

81

TRANSLATED WORKS

REACH

294

%

MORE ONLINE READERS

SINCE 202

0

Filling the Gap Just a fraction of books published in the U.S. each year are translations. The support of readers like you makes it possible to fill the gap in publishing, take risks on writers unknown in English, and nurture the important work of translators.

Of the eight books we published last year, four introduced writers appearing in English for the first time: Chilean author Bruno Lloret’s Nancy, celebrated Egyptian writer Mohamed Kheir’s Slipping, Mauritian author Carl de Souza’s Kaya Days, and the brilliant, but overlooked Portuguese author Maria Judite de Carvalho’s Empty Wardrobes. Elvira Navarro’s short story collection Rabbit Island, translated by Christina MacSweeney, was longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature, and Jeffrey Zuckerman’s translation of Carl de Souza’s Kaya Days was a finalist for the PEN Translation Prize.

We launched the Calico Series in 2020 to give readers access to new and experimental work in a range of styles from emerging translators and less-translated languages. In 2021, 15 writers appeared in English translation for the first time in collections of world eco-literature and queer writing from Brazil. In addition, we featured writing from 14 languages— including Marathi, Macedonian, Persian, and more—in Two Lines online.

122

WRITERS & TRANSLATORS SHOWCASED

102

IN WRITING

36

AT EVENTS

WE’VE SEEN A 220% INCREASE IN BOOK SALES OVER 6 YEARS

4 ,171 2015

14

7, 254 2019

% MORE TRANSLATED WORKS PUBLISHED THAN IN 2020

13 ,365 BOOKS SOLD IN 2021

156,523

READERS REACHED

(via books, events, and online)

AWARD NOMINATIONS National Book Award for Translated Literature (longlist) & PEN Translation Prize (finalist)

“It is thanks to tiny, often nonprofit outfits like Two Lines Press… and their overworked and underpaid editors and translators that American readers have access to writers like Marie NDiaye, Scholastique Mukasonga, and Horacio Castellanos Moya.”

— The New York Review of Books

ch e

B

d le

y S ch m

id

t

ra

Si

d

Ri

ga S

ha k y

av

lo

u

r a No r g a a r

ash S a ad

je e t G a rc

h

Ba

ro

art

h a K el l

s i r B orh a n

i

22 M

y

na

Da ntas Lob

EMERGING TRANSLATORS

a

Me

g We e k

s

A l ic

e Ya n

g

o

La

n

ab

B ergst

at

i a Ne l s e

ar

ia n

m

r

l Fa r m er

SPOTLIGHT Ju l

Br

ou

a

Ra

d A l ip

u

a

i rza

Br

n i ngh

i

S

Cun

aW m ou k A l

m

ul

Sh

no

l is

s

o

l i a A f fo n

Pa

at a

E

N

LANGUAGES

SHOWCASE COUNTRIES

BRING THESE BOOKS

INTO THE WORLD

Promoting Diversity & Inclusion As an organization dedicated to finding new, overlooked, and underrepresented voices, diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the heart of our work.

IN 2021 WE PUBLISHED

102

WRITERS & TRANSLATORS

31

WERE WRITERS OR TRANSLATORS OF COLOR

Your commitment to our goal to honor more voices supports a community rooted in inclusion and belonging.

You’ve also made it possible for an increasingly diverse student population to see themselves reflected in the poems they study and translate: our online library of teaching materials now includes 75 poems in 25 languages.

In 2021, more than half of the writers we published were women, and emerging translators accounted for 40% of the work featured as part of the Calico Series and in Two Lines online. Your support makes it possible to invest time and editorial resources in translators who are new to the craft, something few other publishers do. We published 32 writers and translators of color, emphasizing writing in translation from underrepresented languages and countries.

59

IDENTIFY AS WOMEN

“One of the reasons that I love to work with Two Lines and CAT is that we both believe in the ability of literature to break down the boundaries between people. And a world in which we exchange our art across space and language is a richer one.”

— Sarah Rose Etter, author of The Book of X

ENGAGE

625 STUDENTS

HOST

20 EVENTS

Building Engagement

75

POEMS IN

25

LANGUAGES

ARE FEATURED IN THE POETRY INSIDE OUT LIBRARY

AND THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE ATTENDING OUR PROGRAMMING HAS GROWN...

Our educational and event programming offers students and audiences direct engagement with great literary works in translation.

The pandemic highlighted the lack of access to engaging, culturally relevant creative writing lessons in classrooms, especially for low-income students and English-language learners. With your help in 2021, more than 600 students experienced Poetry Inside Out poetry and translation lessons, inspiring connection and collaboration.

Two Voices is one of the only event series dedicated to international authors and translators. In addition to promoting Two Lines Press books and authors, we host events that spotlight exciting books in translation from other presses and explore current issues in the field.

Nothing can replace the experience of in-person conversations, but virtual events have increased access and attracted audiences from around the world. Events in 2021 included discussions of the cultural and linguistic heritage of the island nation of Mauritius, contemporary queer writing from Brazil, brilliant but historically overlooked women authors, and East Germany’s dissolution in the waning days of the 1980s.

3 ,171 2018—2019

5,418 EVENT ATTENDEES IN 2020—2021

(THAT’S A 70% INCREASE!)

“Poetry Inside Out, whether virtual or in-person, empowers my students, as it gives them an opportunity to see themselves on the page.”

— Lisa, Poetry Inside Out teacher

“Two Lines has one of the most spectacular catalogs of world literature in English…that goes above and beyond what we usually see in literary media.”

— Los Angeles Review of Books

“Thank you all for being such a dream team for Kaya Days; your love, support, and boundless goodwill made the process of publishing the book in the USA an utter pleasure.”

— Jeffrey Zuckerman, translator of Kaya Days

“There is no doubting the authenticity of Carvalho’s vision and the originality and severity of her voice.”

— Joyce Carol Oates on Maria Judite de Carvalho’s Empty Wardrobes

“Poetry Inside Out offers students a way to be heard—for us to have a voice, especially for students who usually aren’t heard.”

— Poetry Inside Out student

“I love your events and appreciate having access to new works and authors. You inspire me to read authors who I wouldn’t otherwise know about.”

“It is quite a feat to be published as an Egyptian writer—whether you’re writing in English or Arabic—anywhere in the world, especially to be published in translation.”

— Donor

— Yasmine El Rashidi, on Mohamed Kheir’s Slipping

WHAT PEOPLE

ARE SAYING

“I know that translating young authors is not always easy. It’s a major bet on [Two Lines’s] part, so I feel really honored.”

“I think of myself as part of [Caio Fernando Abreu’s] lineage, something he created. It’s an honor for me to be included in this space with him.”

— Rabbit Island author, Elvira Navarro

— author Marcio Junqueira, published in Cuíer

“Thanks to the Center for the Art of Translation, it is now possible to read literature by authors we might never have known.”

“Comic and terrifying and profound.”

— Rachel Kushner on Wolfgang Hilbig’s The Interim

— Donor

“Poetry Inside Out gives students the opportunity to engage in rigorous learning that centers writing and literacy in a very joyful way.”

“Kaya Days is a novella designed to be read in one gulp, and Jeffrey Zuckerman’s prose is propulsive enough to make the book nearly impossible to put down.”

— Poetry Inside Out teacher

— NPR on Kaya Days

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! With your help in 2022, we will...

REACH

185,000 readers with our books, events, and online offerings.

PUBLISH

books by compelling contemporary authors from Cameroon (Hemley Boum’s Days Come and Go) and Switzerland (Dorothee Elmiger’s Out of the Sugar Factory) and two books in the Calico Series: one featuring contemporary Russian poetry and another dedicated to genre-defying works that raise questions about the relationship between how we see, how we read, and how we write in “the age of the calligram.”

HOST

in-person book tours for the first time since 2020 and present virtual events that connect audiences around the world.

OFFER

more than 800 students access to Poetry Inside Out’s transformational poetry and translation lessons.

Pledge your support to grow our audience and make great world literature available to readers everywhere with a donation or Two Lines Press subscription. And stay up to date with us on social media!

CATRANSLATION.ORG/DONATE CATRANSLATION.ORG/SUBSCRIPTIONS @CATRANSLATION @TWO_LINES_PRESS

catranslation.org