Three Columbia Translators Shortlisted for The Premio Valle Inclán

Translations by Adjunct Assistant Professor Megan McDowell, former Adjunct Assistant Professor Julia Sanches, and Writing alumna Hannah Kauders '20 are on the shortlist for this year’s Premio Valle Inclán, an annual prize for translators of full-length Spanish works. 

Established in 1997 by the Society of Authors, the United Kingdom’s trade union for all types of writers, illustrators, and literary translators, the Premio Valle Inclán annually awards £2,000 to a translator of a Spanish language work of literary merit and general interest. The winner of this year’s prize will be announced in February 2023. 

Las Biuty Queens (Astra House, 2021), a story collection by Iván Monalisa Ojeda and translated by Kauders, is inspired by Ojeda’s own experiences as a trans performer, sex worker, and immigrant. Publishers Weekly says that "Ojeda dazzles and devastates in this rich collection about a group of trans Latinx immigrants as they try to make it in New York City. Stories of drug addiction and police brutality, street queens and beauty contests portray the danger, decadence, and joy in the characters' lives."

In an excerpt published by Lit Hub, the narrator speaks directly to the reader, inviting them in, saying, “You’re a mirror. An object. I like you anyway. Cheers. And keep reflecting my gorgeousness. Just remember: I’m not like everyone else. I talk to you. I tell you all my secrets.”

Hannah Kauders is a writer, translator, educator, and performer from Boston. She is at work on her first book of fiction and several translations from the Spanish. She holds a BA from Barnard College and an MFA in Writing and Literary Translation from Columbia University, where she taught in the Undergraduate Writing Program. Las Biuty Queens is available for purchase here.

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (Hogarth, 2021), written by Mariana Enriquez and translated by McDowell, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and named one of the best books of the year by various outlets, including Electric Lit, the New York Public Library, Lit Hub, and Kirkus. Unconventional and macabre, the stories in this collection delve into sociopolitical themes in unexpected ways. Kazuo Ishiguro calls the collection “the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time.”

In an interview on the Booker Prize website, McDowell was asked how she conveyed Enriquez’s dark tone in her translation. She responded, “I’d say it has a lot to do with voice. In a couple of the stories, the voices relating the stories are nonchalant or almost dismissive about the supernatural elements. . . I guess the idea being that it’s the details of the characters’ normal lives that makes the abnormal parts hit harder. . . So I guess my answer is that to create that darkness, you have to create a convincing light, for the contrast.”

Megan McDowell translates many of the most important Latin American writers working today, including Samanta Schweblin, Alejandro Zambra, Mariana Enriquez, and Lina Meruane. Her translations have won the National Book Award for Translated Literature, the English PEN award, the Premio Valle-Inclán, and the Shirley Jackson Prize, and have been short- or long-listed four times for the International Booker Prize, and shortlisted once for the Kirkus Prize. Two stories she translated won O. Henry Short story prizes in 2022. In 2020 she won an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her short story translations have been featured in The New Yorker, Harper's, The Paris Review, Tin House, McSweeney’s, and Granta, among others. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is available here.

Slash and Burn (And Other Stories, 2021), written by Claudia Hernández and translated by Sanches, is the first in a trilogy about the aftermath of the civil war in El Salvador. The Guardian praised the book and Sanches’ translation, saying, “[This] immersive novel, superbly translated by Julia Sanches, explores war and its aftermath from a female perspective.”

In an interview with the publisher, Sanches was asked how she came to the project. She responded, “At first, it was the prose that gripped me. Delicate but firm, it held an intangible, unquantifiable wisdom. I was also interested in the story of a war told from the perspective of women, of strong, fighting women.”

Julia Sanches is the author of more than a dozen translations from the Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan into English. Her translations and writing have appeared in Granta, Lit Hub, The Paris Review Daily, and The Common, among others. She has received support for her work from the PEN Heim, PEN Translates, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Sanches sits on the Council of the Authors Guild, where she advocates for fairer terms for literary translators. Slash and Burn is available now.