"We're Rewriting a Work of Art": An Interview with Translator Anne McLean

"We're not really trying to convey parts of the Spanish language. We're rewriting a work of art (if we're lucky) in English that was originally written in Spanish," explains Anne McLean--one of the most active literary translators working today in the field of Latin American literature--during an interview (http://www.loc.gov/poetry/interviews/mclean.html) she did with the Library's Poetry and Literature Center this past fall.

McLean studied history in London, Ontario and literary translation in London, England. After a decade and a half in the UK, she now lives in Toronto, where she translates Latin American and Spanish novels, short stories, memoirs, and other writings by many authors including Hector Abad, Isabel Allende, Julio Cortazar, Ignacio Martinez de Pison, and Enrique Vila-Matas. In 2004, the first of five books she’s translated by Javier Cercas, "Soldiers of Salamis," was awarded both the Premio Valle Inclan and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. In 2009, two of her translations of Colombian novels – "The Informers" by Juan Gabriel Vásquez and "The Armies" by Evelio Rosero – were short-listed for the latter prize, which Rosero's book went on to win. She was awarded the Cruz de Oficial of the Order of Civil Merit in 2012 in recognition of her contribution to making Spanish literature known to a wider public. In June 2014, her translation of "The Sound of Things Falling" by Juan Gabriel Vasquez won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

The Hispanic Division and the Poetry and Literature Center have twice hosted McLean during literary programs. She accompanied Juan Gabriel Vasquez when we presented his novel "The Sound of Things Falling" here in the Library of Congress in November 2013, and previously she had come to be part of a reading with Javier Cercas.