The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018 - 21

departments, to make up a full
certificate program.

How did you get started in translation?
I had actually started translating at
Microsoft when I lived in Seattle,
Washington, but became a freelancer
when I moved to Indiana. I had
envisioned that I would continue
with commercial translation for the
foreseeable future. I started literary
translation as a hobby and discovered
I had a real liking for it and wished I
could do more of it from Hebrew
into English.

Did winning ATA's Student Translation
Award have a particular impact on
your career?
That's hard to say, but it's very important
to get that type of recognition early
on. It did give me a push to make a
serious commitment.

Have you translated other novels by the
author of Milk Teeth?

You become familiar with the
way the writer thinks and their
language habits, and in this
way their writings become
more accessible.

Yehonatan Geffen is more of a
songwriter, poet, and lyricist than a
novelist, but I did translate a number of
his poems, which were published
in Source, the newsletter of ATA's
Literary Division.

How closely do you work with the authors
you translate?

I was delighted when it was
announced that you had been
shortlisted and then that you and
David Grossman had been awarded the
2017 Man Booker International Prize
for A Horse Walks into a Bar. I know
you translated another Grossman novel
I read a few years ago, To the End of
the Land. Have you translated other
works by Grossman?

That must be a rare privilege.

Yes, I've translated five books by David
Grossman from Hebrew into English,
including Falling Out of Time, Her Body
Knows, and Writing in the Dark. I also
translate speeches, correspondence,
essays, op-ed pieces, and theater
adaptations for him.
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When you work with the same authors
again and again, you meet with them,
correspond with them, and develop
friendships. You become familiar with
the way the writer thinks and with
their language habits. In this way their
writings become more accessible.

David Grossman is exceptional in his
appreciation of his translators. For his
last two books he organized a meeting
with several of his translators (myself
included) during the translation process
at the Straelen Translation Centre in
Straelen, Germany, an international
center for translators of literature and
nonfiction. We met with him for four
days, and it was like a retreat where
everyone sat down at the table and
went over the text. Our translations

of the book into our respective
languages were all at different stages of
completion, so we came with our drafts
and our questions.
David wants these meetings to be a
helpful and enriching experience. It's
an opportunity to rethink what you've
translated so far, exchange ideas, hear
what he has to say about the book,
and perhaps arrive at better solutions.
There's also a certain efficiency to this
process, since David can deal with all
the questions posed by his translators at
once instead of having to answer them
piecemeal. Since everyone is working on
the same text but not at the same pace,
hearing the answers to questions from
those further along in the translation
process is extremely helpful.

When we scheduled this interview, you
mentioned you were preparing for the
arrival of a Hebrew>English translator
colleague with whom you were going to be
working on a joint project. What kind of
project will that be?
I was approached by the widow of
Hanoch Levin, a very controversial
Israeli playwright, cabaretist, and
writer of popular songs who had
some success in Eastern Europe. She
wanted to commission the translation
of some of his theatrical works into
English. I didn't feel sufficiently
connected to theater translation, but I
was willing to work on the project with
Evan Fallenberg, who has experience
translating plays and musical works and
is a writer in his own right. We decided
to do our co-translations in person
instead of trying to work together via
email. This is a bit complicated since
Evan lives in Israel and I live in Denver,
but with planning we do manage to
get together to work. We're having our
fourth in-person meeting to work on
our fourth play for a Hanoch Levin
anthology. We normally spend a week
together and translate an entire play.
We've found we get much better
results working this way.
American Translators Association

21
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