7 Resources on Translating Blackness, Race, and Racism
Five years ago, John Keene published “Translating Poetry, Translating Blackness,” a clarion call for more Afro-diasporic literature in English translation, noting the exclusion of Black writers from the already marginalized market of translated literature. Even greater than the dearth of Black literature in translation is the dearth of Black translators into English, not to mention the lack of writing about translating Blackness evidenced by the fact that discussions of race and translation tend to reference Keene’s essay and not much else.
This list provides resources to further the discussion on translating Blackness, race, and racism and foregrounds the work of Black translators and other translators of color. Topics range from the translation of Black literature to support for BIPOC translators to the translation of the Black Lives Matter movement. The various pieces touch on a key point of Keene’s argument: that mo