Writer=Translator?

I’m involved in an innovative project called Poetry Inside Out. It’s a joint project of the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco and Teachers and Writers Collaborative in New York and funded by the NEA.

While the Poetry Inside Out pedagogy revolves around translating poetry, it is also more broadly about interpreting another's vision while making it your own.


When I write graphic novel scripts, they are for someone else to interpret—to translate—into visual reality. When I am working on my novel, I am laboring to translate a vision of a book—or of my character—effectively into words, into scenes.

In fact, the more I think about it, the better the metaphor of translation is for the work of a writer.

Funny how life works. Mulling this over, I came across this beautiful NY Times essay by Michael Cunningham on the broader meanings of translation.