2024 RSA Winner Jyoti Arvey on the Relational Practice of Translation
- Bay Area Women in Publishing
- Jun 19
- 2 min read
I was very grateful to receive the Robin Seaman Award to support me in developing the skills and knowledge needed to be an editor and advocate for translated literature. The grant allowed me to attend multi-language translation workshops with the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and will support me in attending two more early next year. Through these workshops, I met working translators across languages, learned about both the aesthetic and the political implications of different choices and approaches to translation, and gained tools for evaluating a translated work. I also am taking Russian language classes with the Berkeley Russian School to help maintain my Russian language skills, both to pursue my own translations and to be able to work as an editor with authors working from Russian to English. (This class has also been a crucial resource for me to gain insight into particular words or phrases that troubled me as I worked on my own translations these past months.)
Aside from these grant activities, I attended events in San Francisco focused on translation at venues such as the Ruby and the Writers’ Grotto. In particular, I was able to hear from translators who are focused on non-Russian Slavic languages and languages from post-Soviet countries, which are much less represented than Russian and to which I’d like to turn my focus moving forward. In my work at UC Press, I also had the chance to work closely on a couple of translation projects in development.
Even though these activities were outside of the scope of the award, the award held space for all of these experiences to coalesce into a clear path forward, making each engagement more purposeful and meaningful.
What I love about the art of translation is that it is such a relational practice. Of course, translation allows us to communicate with one another across languages, cultures, and geographies. Additionally, whether translators are working with texts of authors who have died or of living authors whom they’re able to converse with, they are in deep conversation with another’s voice and perspective.
What I’ve been learning through my experience with this award is the importance of creating strong bonds and community with translators, authors, local organizations, and publishers in the U.S. and abroad. There is a great deal of collaboration in bringing any single project to light, and it is through these connections that new voices and innovative projects are able to take root.
I’m looking forward to attending more local events, to potentially going to the ALTA conference in 2025, and to continuing my language learning, in Russian and beyond.
About the author:
Jyoti Arvey got their start in the book world in 2016, when they began working as a bookseller at the queer community bookstore Dog Eared Books Castro (now Fabulosa Books) in San Francisco. They have worked as a freelance editor and translator for artists, writers, scholars, and small businesses, and have been involved in the Bay Area queer art scene as a writer and performer for many years. Jyoti received their BA in Slavic Studies from Connecticut College in 2014. Currently, as an Editorial Assistant at University of California Press, Jyoti assists with projects in Technology Studies and Economics, as well as Premodern History, Religion, and World Literature in Translation.
