Words Without Borders: International Women Writers & Translators -- Nothing Is Lost in This Translation

A C2C event

If you enjoy reading as much as we do, join us for a rare and unique behind-the-scenes view on how authors and translators preserve the magic of the original story-telling beyond cultural and language differences.

This is the first of a three-part series hosted by Coast-to-Coast Chapter and Words Without Borders, showcasing the work of women writers and translators across the globe.

In the first event, author Kanako Nishi (Japan) and translator Allison Markin Powell  (USA) will be sharing how they work together on the challenge of bringing the original work to life in a new language, and how the magic of storytelling goes beyond cultural borders.

‘Fear of Manners’, is the short piece that inspires this conversation. Click to read!

The second part of the session will be all about sharing your questions, observations, and insights.   

Words Without Borders is the global destination for literary dialogue, aiming to cultivate global awareness and access to international writing as a bridge between readers, writers, and translators. 

Be sure to check out the Coast-to-Coast events calendar for the rest of the series scheduled on June 18 and  September 24, 2024.

Kanako Nishi was born in Tehran, grew up in Osaka and Cairo, later lived in Vancouver and now in Tokyo. She is a writer and artist, having published over two dozen books in Japanese, including novels, short stories, essays, and children’s books. Her memoir "Looking for Spiders (and Clouds)" won Japan Booksellers’ Award for Nonfiction and Yomiuri Prize for Literature in 2023. Her work has been translated into English and featured in Freeman’s, Granta, Slice, Brick, Literary Hub, and Words Without Borders.  

Allison Markin Powell is a literary translator, editor, and publishing consultant. She received the 2020 PEN America Translation Prize for The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami and translated works by Osamu Dazai, Kanako Nishi, and Ryunosuke Akutagawa. As a co-organizer of the Translating the Future conference, she helped draft the Manifesto on Literary Translation. She co-founded Cedilla & Co. and Strong Women, Soft Power, and maintains the database Japanese Literature in English.