Nicole Arocho Hernández Interviews Jacqueline Balderrama from the Thousand Languages Project
Jacqueline Balderrama
Jacqueline Balderrama coordinates the Thousand Languages Project as the Virginia G. Piper Fellow-in-Residence. Her poems may be found in her full collection Now in Color (Perugia Press, 2020) and chapbook Nectar and Small (Finishing Line Press, 2019). She serves as a poetry editor for Iron City Magazine and has been involved in the Letras Latinas literary initiative and the ASU Prison Education Program. She also teaches at Arizona State University as a Clinical Assistant Professor.
From Translations Editor Nicole Arocho Hernández: When I was offered the position of Translations Editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review, I was surprised. I had no idea that this was a possibility. I was not aware that HFR published translations. And we didn’t. Not for a few years. I’m hoping that by reviving this practice, HFR will become a beacon for translated literature, which is criminally underrepresented in the US. We hope to showcase the diverse, incredible work produced around the world, and crafted into English by outstanding translators.
To celebrate our reentry to translation, we will publish two blog posts highlighting this underappreciated part of creative writing. This first post showcases the Thousand Languages Project at Arizona State University, spearheaded by Alberto Ríos and now under the leadership of Jacqueline Balderrama, PhD, Virginia C. Piper Fellow-in-Residence and Clinical Assistant Professor at ASU. I chatted with Balderrama over email to learn more.
According to the Piper Center website, The Thousand Languages Project (TLP) "is a dynamic, multilingual translation project and database exploring the art and scholarship of literary translation at Arizona State University." Could you tell me more about the project, how it came to be, and how you envision it moving forward under your leadership?
Jacqueline Balderrama: Sure. Thousand Languages Project begins with Alberto Ríos, who as I understand it, has had this vision for some time. The project will be an ever-developing database featuring translations of the work originally appearing in Hayden’s Ferry Review transformed into manifold world languages and involve collaborations with programs, scholars, and students beginning here at ASU. We really see it as a way to revitalize the archive of great writing HFR has published over the years and our commitment to those writers with an attention on a much wider and more diverse audience. As Ríos says, “When we speak, we speak to everyone.”
When I stepped in to lead this project this year, there was already some great work by then HFR Senior Editor Katie Berta and graduate students at the School of International Letters and Cultures (SILC) who had begun a website with translations of seven HFR pieces. The ways I’m working to move forward are by creating a strong foundation for the digital database. This means creating systematized orders of operation, building relationships with collaborators beginning here at ASU campus, and doing everything I can to ensure the future of the Thousand Languages Project.
NAH: Why did you decide to get involved with the Thousand Languages Project? How do you see TLP connected with your own poetic practice?
JB: I’ve been interested in language and its connection with identity since my MFA at ASU from 2013-2016 when I was working on my thesis manuscript (which would eventually become my first book, Now in Color). It explores my paternal, Mexican-American heritage and among other things, language through a series of short poems which meditate on a Spanish word. I didn’t grow up speaking Spanish, and while I’ve studied it in high school and college, I’m not a fluent speaker. Writing through that and the disconnect I had to an ancestral language fragmented through my generation was an important part of the book. On the one hand, I was acknowledging the small discomforts I’d faced in situations where it was assumed I spoke Spanish. On the other hand, it opened the door to think about how language crosses generations and the pressures for assimilation that many continue to face in this country, say for not speaking English.
When I was invited to be the Virginia G. Piper Fellow-in-Residence, I had the opportunity to invent a new creative outreach project or to take on one in its early stages. The message of Thousand Languages really spoke to me for its inclusivity and dedication to cross-cultural exchange. I could bring my skills in coordinating to something that’s really going to make a difference.
NAH: It is a known fact that there is an extremely low number of translated literature in the US. How do you think a project like TLP creates a dent in the infamous 3% statistic*?
JB: I think it addresses this head on. We have the parameters for our project: translate the work within HFR (which right now is 67 issues). And yet as HFR continues to grow in publishing two issues a year, so will TLP. There’s also no cap on having a single translation in a particular language. It’s no small feat, but it has its boundaries. As we attract more collaborators, we hope it will become a space not only for sharing translations but also a resource for translation. Who knows, if other literary journals like what they see, maybe they’ll try this too. Wouldn’t that be something!
NAH: There is an internship available for students at ASU to get involved in TLP. What should interested students know about it before applying? Also, are there opportunities for people outside of ASU to participate or get involved?
JB: This is a great opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to become familiar with Hayden’s Ferry Review, gain exposure to good literature, and have a front row seat to this exciting project. In order to catalogue the issues, we need intern readers to dig into the poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to identify keywords, and then assist in locating contacts for these past contributors. You do not need to be bilingual for this type of work.
However, those who are multilingual or have translation experience or experience completing literary work in multiple languages, we welcome those talents. Interns with these skills can work in partners to complete translations. While I’ll provide some framework and reading around translation, please know this is not a translation course.
Yes, once we have HFR pieces with permission to translate, we’d love to involve individuals and communities outside ASU to participate in translation. Looking forward, I certainly want to incorporate outreach activities, inviting all voices to join.
NAH: For those of us that want to read more translated literature, what are some books, publishers, or other texts that you'd recommend?
JB: This is an area of study I hope to develop this year. Some books in translation I continue to return to are The Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca with an introduction by W.S. Merwin which combines the translations of 18 translators, Anne Carson’s If not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, and Arthur Sze’s translation of classic Chinese poetry: The Silk Dragon.
I’m also currently reading Deuda Natal by Puerto Rican poet Mara Pastor, translated by María José Giménez and Anna Rosenwong. Another highlight is Kim Hyesoon’s A Drink of Red Mirror translated by Jiwon Shin, Lauren Albin, and Sue Hyon Bae who, I believe, were all ASU-affiliated during the start of the project. These I’d highly recommend. The Lorca and Sappho are particularly informative for their side-by-side presentation of the original and translation.
I also think literary journals which publish translation are a great way to be introduced to translators. HFR is doing a lot of great work in that realm.
NAH: I'm wondering if you translate as part of your writing practice. If so, do you have any tips for any translators or readers interested in translation? Or do you know of any resources for emerging writers working on literary translation?
JB: I am not a practicing translator. During my work with Thousand Languages though, we hope to add a webpage specifically dedicated to translation resources. For those who are ASU students and would like to study translation in a classroom setting, Professor Richard Newhauser is leading a course this spring: ENG 494 / ENG 550. We’ll be working with his class and consider translations by his students. Additionally, I’ve been finding literature and resources myself at Pen America, which I think would be useful to emerging literary translators.
NAH: Are there particular translations of the TLP that you are excited to share soon? Are there pieces from Hayden’s Ferry Review's archive that you can't wait to see translated?
JB: Yes, thanks to the work of Katie Berta, and graduate students from the School of International Letters and Culture—Belén Agustina Sánchez, Ayse Kevser Arslan, Laura Dicochea, and Gina Sarpete Walters—we will have a themed mini-issue entitled Languages Across Borders. It will be available when the website goes live in the coming months. I’m particularly excited to share “Drink” a story by Chidelia Edochie from Issue 48 that’s been translated into four languages: Spanish, Greek, Turkish, and Romanian. It opens with a focus on the taste of water remembered from a home country and the difference in the narrator’s new country and centers around this cross-cultural experience and body image. Additionally, “The Writer As Witness: An Interview with Demetria Martinez,” conducted by then HFR editor Argie J. Manolis in 1999 from Issue 24 and translated into Spanish, shares Martinez’s experience working as a journalist, poet, and novelist near the Mexican-American border and her indictment in 1988. It’s really a compelling story.
There’s so much fantastic work in HFR—Yusef Komunyaka (Issue 14), Rita Dove (Issue 1), Ali Kazim (Issue 29) and then emerging writers like Brandon Shimoda who won an AWP Intro Journal Award (also in Issue 29) and Lindsey Drager’s fiction that cut across Issue 56: Chaos. Many emerging writers have since become professors and professional writers. I also have a soft spot for the poetry I helped select when I was an editor with HFR back in 2015. So choosing one is difficult. Mostly, I’d like to have gathered permissions on an assortment of pieces and cataloged them in a way so that our collaborators and translators can find multiple options under a subject of interest.
NAH: Where can the public find more information about the Thousand Languages Project?
JB: Our official website— thousandlanguages.asu.edu —will launch soon. Until then, if translators or language scholars would like to get in contact, we’d love to connect. And anyone published in HFR who would like to reach out and let us know that they’d love their HFR piece to be considered for translation, email thousandlanguagesproject@gmail.com or jtbalder@asu.edu. We’ll be reaching out slowly to past contributors, but this will certainly speed up the process.
*To learn more about the incredibly small amount of translated literature in the US, see these resources:
· Why Do Americans Read So Few Books in Translation?
· The Plight of Translation in America
· Will Translated Fiction Ever Really Break Through?
Note: For those interested in reading translated literature available online, here is an (incomplete) list of journals that publish translation in a variety of genres. Happy reading!
· Anomaly
· Newfound
Nicole Arocho Hernández grew up in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. She is the Translations Editor at Hayden’s Ferry Review and an MFA candidate at Arizona State University. Her poems have been featured in The Acentos Review, The Academy of American Poets, and elsewhere. Her bilingual chapbook I Have No Ocean (Sundress Publications, 2021) is available online. Send her dog memes and gifs at @nimaarhe.