Celebrating our differences

Translations and LATINOLAND

Last week I attended a wonderful event on literary translation, and moderated a second such event. Even if we are multi-lingual, we can never know enough languages to read as widely as we might like. Thank you translators who render those works for us.

Translators make adaptations that require exquisite sensitivity to language and meaning, and a profound respect for the original. I love reading books in translation, and I also love reading about translation. A few books by translators about their craft: Edith Grossman’s WHY TRANSLATION MATTERS, THIS LITTLE ART by Kate Briggs, and Mark Polizzotti’s SYMPATHY FOR THE TRAITOR.

Last week, my neighborhood bookstore, Lost City Books, sponsored a terrific evening with four translators working in four different languages. I loved hearing them read the original text before they read their English translations. You can hear music and rhythm in a language even without understanding the words.

On Sunday, I moderated a Cheuse International Writers Center salon with poet/scholar/translator Oksana Maksymchuk (Ukranian/English) and novelist/translator/poet Moriel Rothman-Zecher (Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, English). Maksymchuk read from her new poetry collection, STILL CITY. Her compressed bursts of language bring readers into Ukraine’s bomb shelters alongside families and children, while walking through nature and love as well.

I adore Rothman-Zecher’s novels—SADNESS IS A WHITE BIRD and BEFORE ALL THE WORLD. At the salon, I was spellbound by Rothman-Zecher’s poetry—blazing words to heal our broken world.

Writers who work across language and culture give us a gift. I applaud Marie Arana’s LATINOLAND, “a portrait of America's largest and least understood minority,” which takes readers through historical migrations, and the rich stew of Spanish-speaking cultures that greatly enhances our lives.

Arana’s describes the varied spiritual and cultural contributions and vast economic and social benefits Latinos have given our country. A book for this moment, LATINOLAND illuminates the complexity of this gigantic multi-racial, multi-national, multi-faceted, connected and diverse group of Americans. I highly recommend it.

Republic of Cruelty

Here’s a list of every day actions you can take, from Nonprofit AF Newsletter.

Yesterday I went to a protest against the depravity of the gas and fossil fuel industry, sponsored by People’s Action, a group that I love for its emphasis on justice and its sharp focus.

Please join the economic boycott on Friday (tomorrow), February 28.

Two new author interviews

Here’s my interview with Gioia Diliberto for the Washington Independent Review of Books about FIREBRANDS, her compelling book about women, the vote, Prohibition, and politics.

And here’s my interview with Paula Whyman in Vol.1 Brooklyn about her delightful and informative memoir, BAD NATURALIST.

Finally, I am going overseas for the next two weeks. I hope to catch up when I return.

Love,

Martha

P.S. ICYMI, here’s last week’s Substack, “‘My’ trans soldier.”