Room “In Translation” Issue

Rachel Thompson’s Editor’s Note for the newest issue of Room Magazine (38.1) comments on the publication’s theme of In Translation: “In this issue of Room we explore literature from languages other than English, and the act of translation in all its senses. . . submerging ourselves into another language can give us a greater understanding of the world. When we try new tongues, our own becomes richer with infusions and transfusions of new elements, and foreign turns of phrase.

“But just reading a good translation in English—and we also have some of those in the issue—gives us a lens to look through and understand (if only briefly) how writers from other times and places may think and feel. Because we know the impact literature has on our humanity, we see the potential for reading to dissolve preconceptions or misconceptions we have about another culture. More than ever before, readers understand how crucial it is to expand our repertoires, to find stories and ideas outside of narratives that dominate prescribed reading lists and literary review pages.”

To read more from Thompson’s introduction and see a full list of contributors, visit Room‘s issue web page here.