Literary Translation is Original, Creative Writing

In February 2023, I traveled to Mexico City to attend an homage to my friend, the Mexican poet David Huerta, whose poetry I’ve translated extensively. There, in the company of Huerta’s colleagues and friends, I was received and embraced as a fellow poet, my translations understood as poetry that coexists with Huerta’s and their own. Upon my return to the US, I found this reply from a writing program to my inquiry as to whether literary translation projects were eligible for their writing fellowship: “We ask that Fellowship projects be original writing or research; translation projects are not accepted.” In response, I wrote the following description of literary translation as original, creative writing, based on my own work and personal experience. I dedicate it to the memory of David, writer, reader, literary thinker, and teacher extraordinaire, and to the enormous literary community he left incalculably enriched.