Earlier this year, PEN America awarded the 2023 PEN Grant for The English Translation of Italian Literature to Isabella Corletto, a young Guatemalan translator based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The grant awards $5,000 to an individual working on translating an Italian literary fiction or nonfiction text into English, and with it, Isabella will complete the translation of Giorgia Tribuiani’s Padri (Fazi Editore), a novel whose prose, according to her, “blurs the lines between narration, internal dialogue, and external dialogue”, built around “the tension between the mundane and the extraordinary”.
As a translator working with multiple source languages, Isabella also translated from Spanish into English Amalia Andrade’s Things You Think About When You Bite Your Nails (Cosas que piensas cuando te muerdes las uñas) in 2020, and currently works at Indent Literary Agency (home of authors like Leila Guerriero, Dolores Reyes, Oscar Martínez, and Guadalupe Nettel) and Words Without Borders as their 2022-2023 editorial fellow.
A talented polyglot born in Guatemala City but with access to an international education, she has been formed by a myriad of languages: Spanish, English, Italian, and Portuguese. In her work, she sees no borders between them. “The more language and literature classes I took, the more interested I became in reading exophonic and multilingual writers, many of whom I realize now are also translators,” she said.
Recently I had a chance to talk to her about her craft and being multilingual. We discussed growing up bilingual, working in publishing, the authors that shaped her as a person and reader, and the need and importance of translating more Guatemalan and Central American authors into English.
José García Escobar (JGE): I feel like we can ask translators the following question a limited number of times before it gets redundant. So, I’d like to take advantage of the moment. What drew you to translation?
Isabella Corletto (IC): I’ve always loved reading and writing, and I grew up bilingual—yet I never really thought much about translation growing up. While I always knew it was a useful skill and was grateful for it, I think I took speaking both fluently for granted, to a certain extent. Probably because most people around me growing up also spoke both languages. I always knew I wanted to write and work with books, but I never considered literary translation as a possible career path.
Learning Italian made me realize how much I love learning and working with multiple languages. For the first time, I had to think about all of the grammatical and idiomatic particularities of a language I was learning, but also of the two I grew up with.
I took one translation theory class in college. Though I still wasn’t considering translation as a possible career at that point, I had started to realize that my interest in working with multiple languages was only growing. By then, I was taking Italian classes, as well as English literature courses that engaged with international literature whenever possible, and had started learning Portuguese. But when I decided I wanted to work in publishing here in the US, I didn’t initially think my love for other languages would have much of a place. Luckily, my interests led me to the international side of the industry, and as a result, I have learned what happens behind the scenes when a translation is acquired. Also, I have to read a lot in Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese for work. All of this made me want to try it myself, finally.
I’ve been translating for a few years now, and while I wanted to continue working in publishing, I got my literary translation MA last year, which allowed me to dedicate some of my time to translating.
JGE: I’m curious how you had access to the languages you speak today: Spanish, English, Italian, and Portuguese, and what drew you to them.
IC: I grew up in Guatemala City, and as I mentioned, Spanish and English have always been a part of my life. I primarily spoke Spanish with everyone around me, but I was lucky that my parents saw the value in speaking more than one language, so I went to an American school. My parents also made sure to bring English into our lives from the time my siblings and I were born; the TV shows we watched and books we read at home were always in English.
I’d always loved the sound of Italian but didn’t have the opportunity or time to learn it until I my first year of college. I thought I would take classes for a year or two before hopefully studying abroad in Italy, and I just fell in love with the language completely. I was also fortunate to find a very immersive program. So when I later had the chance to spend a semester living in Bologna, I was taking classes fully in Italian and living with Italian roommates. By that point, I knew I wanted that language to continue being a part of my life.
Portuguese came last, though this is another language I had been drawn to for a while. Unfortunately, my university only offered one year of it, so I decided to wait until I felt confident in my Italian, and was back from living in Italy, to start learning it—to minimize any confusion with the other languages I already spoke. So, during my last year of college, aside from taking English classes and, of course, speaking Spanish with family and friends back home, I found myself taking Italian literature courses, teaching Italian, and taking Portuguese for the first time all at once. It was exhausting but amazing. Now, between translating and my work in publishing, I still get to work with all four languages in different capacities.
JGE: Like you, I grew up being exposed to English and also went to a school that taught English. Admittedly, Guatemala is a very “Americanized”, so even people who don’t speak the language can’t help being exposed to American culture, and that had a significant impact on me, on my artistic sensibilities and preferences; how did your four languages shape you as a person?
IC: I think that not only growing up bilingual, but doing so in an environment where I was constantly switching back and forth or speaking in Spanglish, gave me a lot of flexibility with the way I use language and approach the world—this is something that I’ve especially come to appreciate as a translator.
Speaking English and Spanish also allowed me to connect with and learn from many different people from a young age. And learning Italian and Portuguese has transformed my relationship to Spanish and English; they’ve made me so much more aware of how I use these languages when speaking and writing, making me a better and more careful reader.
JGE: In a piece you contributed to Words Without Borders, I read that you’ve been drawn “to books that deal with topics like multilingualism, migration, and borders”. What were some of the books that formed you as a multilingual reader?
IC: Despite my upbringing, I really didn’t grow up as a multilingual reader. I had to take English and Spanish literature classes in school, but I found myself much more drawn to my English classes, and everything I read and wrote in my free time was in English. I’m still trying to understand exactly why. When I look back at the writing I did in middle school or high school, it’s interesting to see how it’s not only all in English but also almost exclusively involves English-speaking characters, in distinctly American settings that mirrored the media I was consuming much more closely than my actual life.
My formation as a multilingual reader began with Italian. This happened not only because it was the first time I was actively seeking out books that weren’t in English, but because it reignited my interest in reading in Spanish. Also, it solidified my desire to keep learning other languages and reading literature from around the world. The more language and literature classes I took, the more interested I became in reading exophonic and multilingual writers—many of whom I realize now are also translators.
Some of the first books and authors I remember coming across that caught my attention were Jhumpa Lahiri, specifically The Interpreter of Maladies and In altre parole/In Other Words, and the work of Puerto Rican poet Raquel Salas Rivera, who writes and translates in English and Spanish. I specifically enjoyed a collection named huequitos/holies, in which he breaks down both English and Spanish as a form of resistance, in order to ultimately write poems in a language of his own.
Reading these authors and others who use language in fascinating ways has helped me continue to explore and understand my relationship with each language I speak.
JGE: Can you elaborate on how you came to translate (from Spanish into English) and publish Things You Think About When You Bite Your Nails by Amalia Andrade?
IC: Yes! I’m so happy I got to work on this book, and it was the opportunity that kick-started my translation career.
I started working at Indent Literary Agency—Amalia’s agency—in 2019, and became increasingly interested in trying my hand at translation after becoming familiar with the process from the agency side. While having a conversation with my boss about where I could begin, she mentioned that Amalia—whose first book had already come out in English the year before—was looking for a translator for Cosas que piensas cuando te muerdes las uñas. She would be reading blind samples, and my boss said she’d be happy to pass mine along if I was interested. I knew it would be a long shot, but I figured it would give me a chance to practice how to prepare a sample translation. To my shock and delight, Amalia picked my sample, and it all progressed quickly from there.
This was a bit of a unique situation given that the book had already been sold to Penguin Books at the time, and the deadline was tight, so I didn’t need to worry about pitching. Instead, I was almost immediately signing a contract and getting to work. The book was so much fun to work on, and I’m so grateful for how the experience allowed me to hit the ground running as a translator from the beginning.
JGE: However, from your other work as a translator—with the works of Giulia Sara Miori, Giuseppe Zucco, and Giorgia Tribuiani—I can’t help but think that you’re more drawn towards literary fiction, not so much towards commercial fiction like the works of Amalia Andrade. Is that true? Would you like to balance both?
IC: As a reader, I definitely gravitate toward literary fiction more often, but I do enjoy a wide range of books and genres. Of course, that applies to my work as a translator as well. The work I’ve been pitching lately is definitely more literary. Still, a book like Amalia’s, besides being incredibly entertaining and charming, came with its own set of challenges that were very fun to tackle as a translator. For example, I had to work on finding a way to preserve Amalia’s humor, candor, and voice while making sure that the text still made sense with her illustrations. I’d love to work on something like this again!
JGE: Can you talk about some of the work you’ve been pitching lately?
IC: My main focus right now has been Fathers, but I’ve also been working on some stories by Michelle Recinos, a writer from El Salvador who last year won both the Premio Mario Monteforte Toledo and the Premio Carátula.
JGE: Part of your formation has also been part of the editorial world. I imagine they have been unique experiences and not comparable to each other, but what was the impact those experiences had on you as a translator?
IC: It’s hard to separate my publishing career and my translation career. Though they have been unique experiences, they’ve also directly shaped and informed each other in important ways. I don’t think I would have arrived at translation, at least not as quickly, without working in publishing.
When I decided I wanted to pursue a career in publishing, I didn’t think Spanish—and much less Italian and Portuguese—would have much of a place. I hoped to find a job here in the US, given that publishing opportunities are few and far between at home, so I assumed I would be working only in English. However, my first-ever publishing job was an internship at Candlewick Press, where I worked with an editor who focused on their Spanish-language and bilingual editions. I was shocked to discover that something like this existed, and I immensely enjoyed that experience.
I then began learning about the world of foreign rights and scouting. Soon I got to work on both and started meeting other people with international backgrounds who were interested in reading in multiple languages. Additionally, I was reading in two or three languages at a time for work, something I never imagined would happen.
This continued when I started working at Indent—the agency that mainly represents Latin American authors writing in Spanish and Portuguese, but we work to get our authors published all around the world. Even before my job led to my first translation, all of these experiences had given me knowledge about pitching, securing rights, and the international publishing landscape, which has proven invaluable as a translator. It’s gone the other way, too. I’ve now also had the chance to work on the editorial side at Words Without Borders, and my experience as a translator has helped me become more attuned to the things I should be looking out for when I have the chance to edit others’ work.
JGE: Your translation of Giorgia Tribuiani’s Fathers recently won the 2023 PEN Grant for The English Translation of Italian Literature. First of all, ¡felicidades! Now, for those who don’t know Giorgia, what can you tell us about her work, and what drew you to Padri?
IC: ¡Mil gracias! I’m still so grateful and thrilled for the grant! I initially came across Giorgia’s work through her agent, because she also represented another author I had worked with. She asked whether I’d be interested in looking at her work, and I was drawn to it immediately. Much of the work I’ve loved recently plays with surrealism, and Padri toes the line between reality and the impossible.
In the novel, a father comes back to life forty years after his death, trying to learn what happened on the day he died, and is faced with his adult son—who now has a wife and daughter of his own. The novel’s premise is absurd, but through this absurdity, we explore the very real relationship between father and son.
I was fascinated by this tension between the mundane and the extraordinary and how Giorgia uses language in the novel, often blurring the lines between narration, internal dialogue, and external dialogue. She also mirrors the characters’ disorientation as they come to terms with their new reality. The very precise and unique way she uses language in the novel is what has made the novel quite challenging—though fun—to translate.
JGE: Are there any other Italian authors you’d like to translate?
IC: For sure, and there are so many more on my to-read list that I’m slowly chipping away at when I have the time. One author whose work I’d love to work on is Christiana de Caldas Brito, a Brazilian author who writes in Italian and whose stories touch on many of the topics I’m interested in.
JGE: You were born and raised in Guatemala City. Are there any Guatemalan authors or books you’d like to take across one of the many languages you speak?
IC: This is something I’m hoping to get to do. I’d love to see more Guatemalan—and, in general, Central American—authors in translation. Though Spanish represents a good portion of the translated literature coming out in the US lately, so few are from that region; I can think of only a handful off the top of my head who are Guatemalan, and the number doesn’t increase too drastically when I think about Central America as a whole.
I just finished a collection titled Narradoras guatemaltecas that Santillana published in 2019, and while it includes some authors who’ve had some work translated into English, like Denise Phé-Funchal, Vania Vargas, and Ana María Rodas, it also included stories by authors whose work I haven’t seen translated, like Lorena Flores Moscoso or Tania Hernández. I’d love to discover some more young, emerging, and/or lesser-known writers that I can hopefully bring into English.
JGE: I started this interview with a cliché, and I’d like to finish with another one. As a translator who regularly goes back and forth between my mother language and the language I learned later in life, I’ve had to face comments like, “You know, one typically translates only into one’s native language.” Have you had to face something like this? What do you think about it?
IC: I think—or I like to think, at least—that this perception is slowly changing. I haven’t had anyone say it directly to me yet, maybe because while I consider Spanish my first language, English has been the language I’ve primarily worked, studied, read, and written my whole life. As I mentioned, many of the writers I admire most are exophonic, and I don’t see why this wouldn’t apply to translators as well. Just like I don’t think growing up with a language would necessarily make you a good writer, not growing up with a language shouldn’t disqualify you from writing in it or translating into it. I do think that as translators, we have a responsibility to the texts we are working on and the languages we work with, but sticking to these labels of “native” or “non-native” doesn’t inherently tell us anything about the quality of a translator’s work.
Isabella Corletto is a writer, editor, and literary translator from Guatemala City, Guatemala. Her translations from Spanish and Italian include Amalia Andrade’s Things You Think About When You Bite Your Nails (Penguin Books, 2020) as well as pieces published in the Cincinnati Review, Latin American Literature Today, the Arkansas International, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the 2023 PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature for her translation of Giorgia Tribuiani’s novel Padri [Fathers]. Over the past five years, Isabella has held different positions in the publishing industry. She holds a literary translation MA from the University of Rochester and a BA from Wesleyan University, where she studied English and Italian studies. She speaks Spanish, English, Italian, and Portuguese and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.
José García Escobar is a journalist, fiction writer, translator, and former Fulbright scholar from Guatemala. He got his MFA in creative writing from The New School. His writing has appeared in The Evergreen Review, Guernica, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. He’s a two-time Dart Center fellow. He is Asymptote’s editor-at-large for the Central American region. He writes in English and Spanish, and has translated into Spanish Solito by Javier Zamora and I’m Not Broken by Jesse Leon, both for Penguin En Español.
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