Word for Word Travel Exchanges

The Word for Word Literary Translation Exchange Program was conceived by the School of the Arts Writing Program faculty in the belief that the practice of literary translation can enhance and expand writers’ perspectives on their own work and transform them as literary artists.

In this collaborative, travel-based program, students from the Writing Program are paired with foreign-language peers from partner institutions to engage in collaborative mutual translation. The exchanges take place over the course of several months, in the course of which School of the Arts writers travel to their partners’ countries to spend a week attending courses and workshops. Each exchange culminates with the students’ partners visiting Columbia to participate in a final workshop and a public presentation of their finished translations.

The first Word for Word Exchange took place in 2011-2012, pairing SoA students with writers studying at the German-language creative writing institute at the University of Leipzig, Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig (DLL). Between 2012 and 2015, additional exchanges were established in Catalan, Italian, and American Sign Language, with partner institutions Universitat Pompeu Fabra—IDEC in Barcelona, Scuola Holden in Turin, and Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The Columbia Global Centers | Amman also hosted an Arabic language exchange. In 2017, the Writing Program launched an exchange in Finnish with the University of the Arts Helsinki.

Most recently, in 2025, the Writing Program launched a new exchange in Danish with Forfatterskolen in Copenhagen.