On April 14, 2021, 2020 GLLI #TranslatedYA Book Prize Chair Annette Y. Goldsmith and 2021 Prize Chair David Jacobson hosted an online presentation as part of the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi. The presentation included video reviews of select titles by committee members, as well as long-form interviews with the authors and translators from the winners of both years.

Who can resist authors enthusiastic about their new book prizes? Meet Brazilian LGBT authors, Vitor Martins and Lucas Rocha, their translator Larissa Helena, and their Portuguese-speaking editor in New York, Orlando Dos Rios, all four of whom made magic happen with an astounding double win of the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative #TranslatedYA Book Prize this year. They really are quite moving interviews. You’ll find it between between timecodes 3:53 – 36:37.

Next you’ll meet Cathy Hirano, a brilliant Japanese-to-English translator who made ‘spark joy’ part of the English-language lexicon when she translated Japanese author Marie Kondo. Cathy will explain her process for translating cultural anthropologist and author of The Beast Player, Nahoko Uehashi, who was a co-winner of the 2020 GLLI #TranslatedYA Book Prize. Look between timecodes 38:34 – 1:02 for Cathy’s fascinating description of Beast Player world building.

Lastly, meet Finland’s Maria Turtschaninoff, author of Maresi Red Mantle, translated from the Swedish by A. A. Prime, a feminist fantasy title which also co-won the 2020 #GLLITranslatedYA Book Prize. Author and translator discuss what it like to write, translate, and navigate publishing from Marie’s spot of a Swedish-speaking minority within Finland. Their remarkable conversation is between 1:04 – 1:32. Can’t get enough international young adult literature? You’re in luck!

This May, we are celebrating young adult literature from around the world, both translated and Anglophone varieties. So tell every teen, school, youth librarian plus middle school and high school teachers and parents you know to like, subscribe, and follow us on Facebook at Global Literature in Libraries Initiative and on Twitter at @GlobalLitin. Oh, and don’t forget to tell the teens you know too! Invite them to like our page!