SUNDIAL HOUSE: Latin American & Iberian Literature in Translation
Founded in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia University, Sundial House aims to foster and showcase the art of the literary translator while providing a forum for the voices of Latin American and Iberian authors, in their original languages as well as in English.
Inaugural Events at Casa Hispánica (612 W. 116th):
February 22, 2022
- Claudia Ulloa Donoso (Perú) joined Lily Meyer, to discuss their collaboration on a new bilingual short-story collection Hielo para marcianos | Ice for Martians. Professor Cynthia Vich (Fordham University) was the moderator.
March 22, 2022
- João Silvério Trevisan (Brazil) joined translators Ben De Witte and João Nemi Neto to discuss the English translation of his novel, Em nome do desejo. The title of this new Sundial House edition is In the Name of Desire.
October 5, 2022
- Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro (Puerto Rico) joined her translator, Alejandro Álvarez Nieves, to discuss a new English anthology that includes her short-story collection NEGRAS and a selection of poems from Yo, Makandal. Professor Odette Casamayor Cisneros (University of Pennsylvania) was the moderator.
December 15, 2022
- Sundial House discussed its commemorative bilingual edition of Desolación (1922), by Gabriela Mistral (Chile), translated by Inés Bellina and Alejandra C. Quintana Arocho, featuring 37 poems translated by Langston Hughes. The editor of the 2022 edition, Anne Freeland (Columbia), was the moderator.
SUNDIAL HOUSE
Since 1920, the Hispanic Institute at Casa Hispánica has fostered the dissemination of Spanish and Latin American culture. One of its founding objectives was to publish “works of undisputed merit and of special value,” including the first edition of Mistral's Desolación. Through its literary translation series, Sundial House will honor the Hispanic Institute’s editorial legacy while expanding its literary scope.
A paltry 3% of all books published in the United States are works in translation. Sundial House will respond to this circumstance with increased access to international literary works of merit. To that end, the new series will privilege translations into English of creative voices who exemplify the richly diverse cultural traditions of Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.
Sundial House will publish translations of short fiction, poetry, or essays of any time period, including new authors, out-of-print titles, and understudied narratives. We welcome unpublished translations into English of the work of authors of any time period from any of the cultures and languages manifest in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.
The editors will select three proposals from literary translators in response to a yearly call for entries in the context of the Sundial Literary Translation Award. Translations that highlight an author whose work is not widely known in the United States will be of particular interest. Please forward proposals or inquiries to: [email protected].
Sundial Literary Translation Award
Sundial House welcomes submissions for the 2024 Sundial Literary Translation Award, which includes a monetary prize, expert editing, and publication of all winning entries.
The editors are seeking book-length poetry or prose translations from Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician, or Asturian and recommend a maximum extension of 30,000 words. Every submission should include a 3,000-word English sample and the corresponding text in the original language, a brief translator’s introduction to the author, and a statement from the copyright holder that the English translation rights are available for eventual negotiation with Sundial House. Please forward proposals to:
The deadline for submission is August 1, 2023.