Women in Translation Month Reading Series 2025
This August we once again celebrate Women in Translation (#WiT) Month! This reading series was initiated by blogger Meytal Radzinski in 2014 to raise awareness of translated literature by women, queer, and nonbinary authors, and promote gender and cultural diversity in literary publishing. This year, our free, virtual reading series gathers voices from across time zones for an international celebration!
Organized under the support of PEN America and the PEN America Translation Committee, these events bring together three panels of translators, joined by their authors, working in a diversity of languages. The readings will be followed by brief Q&A discussions. We hope you’ll join us for these one-of-a-kind bilingual readings!
The Women in Translation Reading Series will take place on Zoom on August 7, 14, and 21, 2025. The conversations will be moderated by Nancy Naomi Carlson, Christina Daub, and Marguerite Feitlowitz.
2025 Sessions
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Women in Translation Month Reading Series 2025 (Session 3)
Thursday August 212:00 PM – 3:30 PM ETFreeSpeakers: Mojdeh Bahar, Rouhangiz Karachi, Melody Makeda Ledwon, Simoné Goldschmidt-Lechner, Edward Gauvin, Elsa Gribinski, Tiffany Troy, Catalina Vergara, Hanna Wheeler, Ingrid Vander Veken
Speakers
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Mojdeh Bahar
Mojdeh Bahar is a patent attorney, mediator and translator. Her translations include Milkvetch and Violets, In the Mirror: Poems and Collages; two editions of Song of the Ground Jay, and Silence and Lost Words. https://mage.com/author/mojdeh-bahar/
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Tanella Boni
Author of more than 30 books, Tanella Boni is one of the most prominent figures in modern African literature.
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Emma Braslavsky
Emma Braslavsky writes about the meaning and future of humanity. Her novella Ich bin dein Mensch became a 2021 film, and her fifth novel, Erdling (Earthling), was published in 2023. https://emmabraslavsky.de/
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Tsong Chang
Tsong Chang is a writer and literary translator. They translate Chinese poetry and emphasize works by queer and female poets. They are an MFA fiction candidate at Arizona State University.
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Sibelan Forrester
Sibelan Forrester (right) has published translations of fiction, poetry and scholarly prose from Croatian, Russian, Serbian and Ukrainian. She teaches Russian language and literature at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. https://forrester.domains.swarthmore.edu/
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Todd Fredson
Todd Fredson is a poet, a critic, and a translator of West African literature. His most recent translation was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle’s Barrios Translation Prize. toddfredson.com
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Edward Gauvin
Award-winning writer, translator, and independent scholar Edward Gauvin has received fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, PEN America, the Lannan Foundation, and the French and Belgian governments. (Photo credit: Quitterie de fomervault Bernard) https://edward-gauvin.squarespace.com/
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Elsa Gribinski
Essayist, anthologist, poet, lyricist, and translator (from Russian), Bordeaux-based Elsa Gribinski (1971-present) secured a Goncourt nomination with her recent debut, Toiles, a collection of sixteen ekphrastically inspired stories.
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Ranae Hanson
Asked by Ojibwe people why her settler family had come to their land, Ranae Hanson began translating Larsen’s novels to learn about her grandmother’s Forest Finn culture. http://ranaehanson.com
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Rouhangiz Karachi
Dr. Rouhangiz Karachi is a scholar, author and poet. For over forty years, Karachi’s scholarly work has focused on Iranian women, poets and protagonists alike. She has published five collections of poetry and many works of literary criticism.
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Britt Karin Larsen
Winner of numerous literary prizes, the Norwegian poet and novelist, Britt Karin Larsen, of Finn Forest ancestry herself, explores the connections between that community and Native American nations. https://snl.no/Britt_Karin_Larsen
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Nasim Luczaj
Nasim Luczaj is a prize-winning poet and translator between Polish and English. She’s an alumna of the NCW Emerging Translator Mentorship. nasimluczaj.com
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K R Meera
K R Meera’s ten novels and short stories all center on ordinary women living extraordinary lives.
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Elena Mikhailik
Elena Mikhailik (left, born 1970 in Odesa) teaches in Sydney, Australia and has published poetry in Russian (including two collections) as well as scholarly articles and a book on Varlam Shalamov. https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/elena-mikhailik
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Laksmi Pamuntjak
Laksmi Pamuntjak is an Indonesian novelist, poet, journalist, food critic, and literary art curator. https://www.laksmipamuntjak.com/
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Nisha Susan
Nisha Susan is the author of a collection of short stories, The Women Who Forgot to Invent Facebook. She translates from Malayalam to English.
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Đặng Thơ Thơ
Đặng Thơ Thơ is a novelist, short-story writer, and essayist. She is the author of the novel Ai (2024), and two collections of short stories, The Winter Exhibition (Phòng Triển Lãm Mùa Đông; Văn Mới, 2002) and Possibilities (Khả Thể; Người Việt, 2014). https://damau.org/author/dzangthotho
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Tiffany Troy
Tiffany Troy is Managing Editor at Tupelo Quarterly, Book Review Co-Editor at The Los Angeles Review, and Assistant Poetry Editor at Asymptote. https://tiffanytroy.com/
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Annie Tucker
Annie Tucker is a writer and a translator of Indonesian literature. anniectucker.com
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Ingrid Vander Veken
Ingrid Vander Veken is a Belgian author, journalist, and teacher with key roles in professional associations like PEN Flanders. Her work encompasses novels, stories, screenplays, children’s books, and literary nonfiction. https://ingridvanderveken.be/