The PEN Translation Committee has an ongoing commitment to promoting the recognition of American translators through public forums, awards, and the annual World in Translation Month celebration each May. The Committee also works to uphold the rights of translators by appealing on behalf of those who are censored or persecuted, and through the initiatives of the Watchdog Subcommittee, which monitors the publishing industry and media to ensure that translators are given full and public credit for their work.

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PEN's Directory lists PEN Members working as translators in over 25 languages.

In our most recent installment, Jennifer Sarah Cooper and Odile Cisneros test their linguistic mettle on “roça barroca,” a poem by Brazilian poet, translator, and editor Josely Vianna Baptista.

roça barroca

As almas são visíveis em forma de sombras.
Da religião Guarani, via Schaden

viu o primeiro sol
depois do inverno
desembrulhar, folho por
folho, os rebentos

>> Check out the slam

End of the Game
by Ahmad Shamlu
translated from the Persian/Farsi by Arthur Lane and Firoozeh Papan

It’s Time to Mow the Flowers
by Simin Behbahani
translated from the Persian/Farsi by Farzaneh Milani and Kaveh Safa

Lao Tzu’s Taoteching; In Such Hard Times: The Poems of Wei Ying-wu
translated from the Chinese by Red Pine

Time of Sky
by Ayane Kawata
translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu

The Changing Room
by Zhai Yongming
translated from the Chinese by Andrea Lingenfelter

Conversation: Anthea Bell & Doris Orgel (e-mail exchange)

PEN Conversation: Nahid Mozaffari and Sara Khalili (audio)

PEN Conversation: Gregory Rabassa, Edith Grossman, and Michael F. Moore (audio)

Bernardo Atxaga Reads “Life According to Adam” and Other Poems (video)

Hwang Sok-Yong Reads from The Old Garden (video)

On Elegance While Sleeping
by Emilio Lascano Tegui 
translated from the Spanish by Idra Novey

Microscripts
by Robert Walser
translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky

Idyll
by Margit Kaffka
translated from the Hungarian by Bernard Adams

The Remnants
by Hagop Oshagan
translated from the Armenian by G.M. Goshgarian

Homesick
by Eshkol Nevo
translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston

The Golden Age
by Michal Ajvaz
translated from the Czech by Andrew Oakland

Splendid Conspiracy
by Albert Cossery
translated from the French by Alyson Waters

The Museum of Eterna’s Novel
by Macedonio Fernández
translated from the Spanish by Margaret Schwartz

The Private Lives of Trees
by Alejandro Zambra
translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

Greeting, Slippage, and Shaping
by Mary Ann Caws

Two-Tongued Tale
by Peter Wortsman

On Title and Talk
by Burton Pike