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 August 13 session will be moderated by Samantha Schnee, with readings in French, Spanish, Russian, Mayan Ch’ol, and German.
The translator/author pairs are as follows:
- Liza Tripp (trans) and Rim Battal (French/Morocco)
- Allison deFreese (trans) and Irma Torregrosa (Spanish/ Mexico)
- Kat Tancock (trans) and Riva Evstifeeva (Russian)
- Charlotte Friedman & Carol Rose Little (trans) and Juana Karen Peñate (Mayan Ch’ol)
- Yana Ellis (trans) and Samira El-Maawi German/Switzerland)
Participants
Samantha Schnee is the founding editor of Words Without Borders. She is the recipient of a 2023 National Endowment of the Arts Literature Fellowship to translate Carmen Boullosa’s novel El complot de los románticos and a 2024 Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin to translate Irati Elorrieta’s award-winning debut novel, Luces de invierno.
Liza Tripp is the translator of Rim Battal’s I’ll Look Myself in the Eyes and Hélène Hérault’s One Way. She was recently awarded a 2026 Villa Albertine translation grant for Rim Battal’s Eau de Bain.
Rim Battal is a French-Moroccan poet living in Paris. After studying journalism, she has devoted herself to writing, photography and performing arts, becoming one of the figures of a new generation of poets.
Allison deFreese (she/her/ella) is president of the Oregon Society of Translations and Interpreters (OSTI) and a regional coordinator for #ALTA49. Her translations of Irma’s poems appear in The Kenyon Review.
Irma Torregrosa’s books include Piélago/Pelagic Zone (Cuadrivio Ediciones/2020, Esdrújula/2026), which won the Premio Hispanoamericano de Poesía San Román/San Román Hispano-American Poetry Prize, and Lugar de taxidermia/The Place of Taxidermy (Esdrújula/2024).
Kat Tancock is a writer, editor and translator based in British Columbia. Her translation of Ludmila Ulitskaya’s story “Fabric Scraps” appeared in the spring 2026 issue of Asymptote. https://www.kattancock.com/
Riva Evstifeeva is a philologist and writer. Originally from Moscow, she is currently a research associate at the University of Strasbourg, France. Internatskie rasskazy [Boarding School Tales] (Éditions Tourgueneff, 2023) is her first book. https://rivaevstifeeva.tilda.ws/en
Charlotte Friedman is a poet, author and teacher. She taught narrative medicine at Columbia University for many years, as well as in hospitals in NYC and Jerusalem. https://charlottemfriedman.com
Carol Rose Little is an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Oklahoma. She has also served as an interpreter for Ch’ol speakers in U.S. courts. https://carolrose.github.io/
Juana Karen Peñate has authored several books of poetry and won the 2020 Premio de Literaturas Indígenas de América for her collection Isoñil Ja’al. She lives in Chiapas, Mexico.
Yana Ellis is a literary translator from Bulgarian and German. Her first full-length translation The Wolves of Staro Selo by Z.Evtimova (Héloïse Press, 2025) received a PEN Translates Award.
Samira El-Maawi is a qualified psychological counsellor and writes poetry, prose and screenplays. Her debut novel, In My Father’s Home the Earth Smells Like Heaven, now in its 4th edition, was published in 2020 to great critical acclaim. https://www.samiraelmaawi.ch/