by Stiliana Milkova Rousseva

In April 2023, the PEN America Translation Committee’s Manifesto on the state of literary translation in America called on editors, reviewers, and review publications to acknowledge the translator’s agency in the creation of a literary text. In other words, the Manifesto called for combatting the prejudices against translation and translators in the Anglophone publishing industry. As Brian James Baer put it in an article in December 2023, “cultivating a more sophisticated practice of reviewing translated literature” is imperative to changing American readers’ attitudes and perceptions. And yet, Baer reminded us that “changing the culture of reviewing may be among the most difficult tasks we face.”

The journal Reading in Translation was founded in 2013 by Lucina Schell, 10 years before the PEN Translation Committee’s Manifesto, precisely with this goal: to forge a consistent and high-quality practice of reviewing translated literature in an accessible, free online publication aimed at the general educated reader and promoting the visibility of literary translation among Anglophone audiences. Now in its eleventh year and staffed by a handful of volunteers, the journal publishes reviews of translated literature, interviews with translators and independent publishers, as well as essays on translation and special issues on translated authors. In this way, Reading in Translation models how translated books can be discussed in meaningful and engaging ways without overlooking the translator’s voice. Most of the journal’s more than 150 contributors are translators themselves and they bring their own profound understanding of translation as a creative art.

Although Reading in Translation covers translations that are diverse in genre and original language, it takes a special interest in modern and contemporary Italian literature. By reviewing books translated from Italian into English or spotlighting Italian books that have not yet been translated into English, by publishing interviews with translators from Italian along with special issues on Italian authors, the journal cultivates and shapes the reception of Italian literature in an Anglophone context. As the editor of the journal since August 2018, I have advocated for Italian writers in translation, both established and emerging ones, and included the writing of both emerging and established translators, literary critics, and public intellectuals who in turn champion translated literature.

Highlighting Italian women’s writing has been a priority in the journal’s Italian-specific content. The monographic issues on Elena Ferrante and Natalia Ginzburg feature commissioned reviews, essays, and translations that contextualize these authors’ works for the general public. Reviews of recently (re)translated works by Marta Barone, Caterina Bonvicini, Maria Grazia Calandrone, Marosia Castaldi, Concita De Gregorio, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, Claudia Durastanti, Laura Imai Messina, Helena Janeczek, Marina Jarre, Anna Kuliscioff, Franca Mancinelli, Elsa Morante, Lorenza Pieri, Rosella Postorino, Lalla Romano, Goliarda Sapienza, Nadia Terranova, and Adriana Valerio (among others) showcase the contributions of Italian women writers and their translators. The journal highlights books not yet translated into English as well. The column Translators on Books that Should Be Translated discusses authors such as Simona Baldelli, Enrica Ferrara, and Francesca Melandri who are yet to be translated into English, inviting translators, editors, and publishers to consider their books.

Reviews of works by Italian male authors in English translation – from a monographic issue on Domenico Starnone to essays on Andrea Bajani, Marco Balzano, Alessandro Baricco, Dino Buzzati, Pierluigi Cappello, Antonio Moresco, Sacha Naspini, Giovanni Pascoli, Silvio Perrella, Renzo Piano, Edoardo Sanguinetti, Giacomo Sartori, Antonio Tabucchi, I.U. Tarchetti, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Sandro Veronesi – add to the journal’s Italian-specific content. Review essays are complemented by interviews with translators from Italian – Gini Alhadeff, Anne Milano Appel, Mary Jo Bang, Clarissa Botsford, Ann Goldstein, Liz Harris, Jenny McPhee, Brian Robert Moore, Oonagh Stransky, Will Schutt, and others – whose voices are thus heard outside the literary works they have translated, and made available to a wide public. And Other Voices of Italy (OVOI), a new translation series at Rutgers University Press which offers a space for marginalized authors and books, was featured recently in the journal.

To round out its focus on Italian literature in translation, Reading in Translation also publishes first English translations of Italian essays on contemporary Italian literature, such as Italo Calvino’s essay on Natalia Ginzburg’s “bourgeois novel,” Roberto Carretta’s reflection on Ginzburg’s Turin, Chiara De Caprio’s analysis of Domenico Starnone’s language or Silvio Perrella’s commentary on Starnone’s Naples. Collaborations with the Italian Institute of Culture in Dublin and Trinity College Dublin resulted in two virtual events with Italian writers – a book launch and discussion of Nadia Terranova’s Trema la notte (The Night Trembles, forthcoming in Ann Goldstein’s translation) and a celebration of the English translation of Domenico Starnone’s novel Confidenza (Trust, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri). Spearheaded by editorial board member Enrica Ferrara, these events have expanded the journal’s scope to include real-time discussions of translated literature.

Reading in Translation is a space where Italian literature in translation is reviewed, discussed, and appreciated. Answering Brian James Baer’s call to “cultivate a more sophisticated practice” of reviewing translated literature, I work to ensure the consistent quality of the journal’s content, inviting contributors who are well-versed in world literature, languages, and literary translation and whose writing is both engaging and well-researched. The journal’s productive discourse on translation distinguishes it from mainstream review publications and sets the tone for how translated literature can and should be reviewed. Reading in Translation’s sustained development of a culture of reviewing translations in general, and of Italian literature in particular, is already changing the way Anglophone readers approach translated literature.

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“A native speaker of Bulgarian who lives in an English-speaking country, I found my creative voice by reading and translating Italian literature.” —Stiliana Milkova Rousseva

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