Adjunct Assistant Professor and Writing alum Miranda Mazariegos '25 has been awarded a 2025 Granum Foundation Translation Prize, awarded each year to support US-based translators as they complete a work of translation into English.
The award was given to Mazariegos for her translation of a collection of three short novellas by Arnoldo Gálvez Suárez titled Alguien bailará con nuestras momias. Mazariegos shared, "Winning the Granum Foundation Translation Prize last month was such an honor! Arnoldo Gálvez Suárez is a Guatemalan contemporary author and his work caught my attention because of its voice and imagery; his long-winded sentences capture details that portray the essence of Guatemala, where I am also from. So, translating gave me an opportunity to feel closer to my home, to imagine it and enjoy it from afar, as I pursued my MFA in New York."
Her time at Columbia greatly shaped the finished product that has now received accolades. "This project was a part of my literary translation thesis at Columbia, so I am especially thrilled to see how it was not only my work, but also the feedback of my peers and professors, that helped me get this award. Practically speaking, the prize is also huge, as I'm sure it will help me as I look for a publishing home for this wonderful little book."
Mazariegos is a writer, editor, and literary translator originally from Guatemala City. She began her career in radio, working in various roles for NPR shows such as Radio Ambulante, Book of the Day, Throughline, and Weekend All Things Considered. Her work, which covers Latin America's art, culture, and politics, has been published by Americas Quarterly, NPR, VICE News, and KPCC, among others. She translates both from and into Spanish, and her translations have been published or supported by World Literature Today, Asymptote Magazine, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences, and the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT). She holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she now teaches Undergraduate Nonfiction. She is an editor at Americas Quarterly and lives in New York City.
