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In fall 2018 I become co-chair of the PEN Translation Committee and dedicated my position to expanding awareness of children’s books in translation. My term ended at the end of 2020, and I’m proud of the things I accomplished during my tenure, which included organizing live readings of published books and work in progress and transitioning to online meetings during the Covid shutdowns. Since then, I’ve remained a part of the committee and attended most of the online meetings, which have also enabled people living outside New York City to participate and take on leadership positions.

Now I’m back in a leadership position as well. I’ve been a longtime member of SCBWI, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and about ten years ago the organization began to recognize the importance of translators with a new membership category for translators, an online discussion board, the appointment of volunteer Translator Coordinators for regions with more than ten translator members, and, most recently, a work-in-progress grant for translation projects called the Pitch-Perfect Translation Grant.

Several months ago, the SCBWI New York Metro region crossed the ten-translator membership mark, and a call went out for the region’s first Translator Coordinator. Right away, I sent in my application, in which I wrote:

I look forward to serving SCBWI as the Translator Coordinator and as a member of the Regional Team. If you want to write, illustrate, or translate books for children and teens, the SCBWI is the leading organization for providing information about craft and the publishing industry, and providing a network of support through two national conferences each year, smaller regional conferences, online and local in-person panels, and information on critique groups. SCBWI offers a number of award programs that can raise visibility of unpublished projects, fund works-in-progress and publicity campaigns for forthcoming books, and connect book creators with industry professionals. SCBWI serves both traditionally and independently published book creators with programming tailored to their needs.

In the meantime, I’ve written a number of blog posts advising translators on how to break in, the differences between translating for children and translating for adults, how publishers in the U.S. often change the original to appeal to this market, and why children in the U.S. should read more international stories in translation.