Voices from Sápmi: Translators in Conversation About New Writing from the Far North

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This autumn, the online literary journal Words Without Borders has been publishing a series of new writing in translation, spanning poetry and queer YA fiction, by Indigenous writers from the Fenno-Scandinavian region known as Sápmi. Translators from the series -- B.J. Epstein, Olivia Lasky, and Mathilde Magga -- will read from their exciting new work and explore questions of translation practice and politics with Translator in Residence Saskia Vogel. Join us for a glimpse into a vital and vibrant literary culture.

B.J. Epstein is a Swedish-to-English translator, writer, editor, lactation consultant, and doula, as well as an associate professor in literature and translation at the University of East Anglia in England. Her most recent books are We’re Here! A Practical Guide to Becoming an LGBTQ+ Parent, Translation and Genre, and The Portrayal of Breastfeeding in Literature, as well as the translation of The Summer of Diving by Sara Stridsberg, with illustrations by Sara Lundberg, and The Book That Did Not Want to be Read by David Sundin, with illustrations by Alexis Holmqvist. She lives with her wife and their daughters in Norwich, England.

Olivia Lasky is an Oslo-based translator who focuses on Norwegian to English literary translations. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she received an MA in Scandinavian studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013, and BAs in Scandinavian studies and English literature from the University of California-Berkeley in 2010. She was a 2020 mentee in the American Literary Translators Association Emerging Translator Mentorship Program, where she was mentored by translator Bill Johnston. Her work has been published in Words Without Borders, The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, and by Greystone, The Experiment and Arctis, among others. While she’s concentrated primarily on contemporary Norwegian prose and nonfiction, Olivia’s ultimate goal is to translate not only Scandinavian literature, but also Sámi–"whether that means translating from Northern Sámi, works by Sámi authors (who write in Norwegian or Swedish), or works about Sámi people.

Mathilde Magga, a Sámi woman from Tromso in northern Norway, has spent the last five years studying in the Seattle area. She earned her BA at Pacific Lutheran University in 2020 and her MA in English literature with a focus on Indigenous literature from the University of Washington in 2022, and will continue there with her PhD in literature in 2023. She is working on a book project that she hopes to publish in both Norwegian and Northern Sámi.

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Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies

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