From the esplanade of the magnificent Palais de Tokyo in Paris, visitors can see the Eiffel Tower, the Trocadéro, and the never-ending parade of boats up and down the Seine.
Two weeks ago, they saw a bit of Tucson, too.
Say bonjour to Elisabeth Jaquette, a Tucsonan who was one of 100 women honored with “Femmes de Culture” awards Oct. 12 at the Palais de Tokyo.
Sponsored by the Femmes de Culture Association in Paris with patronage from the French Ministry of Culture, the Women of Culture program spotlights women who have made meaningful and multi-national contributions to the world of arts and letters.
“At a time when societies are increasingly tempted to turn inward, culture remains a space for openness, exchange and engagement with the world,” said Mohamed Bouabdallah, director of the Villa Albertine French Institute for Culture and Education. “The 100 women honored this year embody that spirit.”
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Tucsonan Elisabeth Jaquette receiving her “Femmes de Culture” award at the Palais de Tokyo.
It was a rare moment in the sun for Jaquette, whose work more typically seeks attention for others.
“It feels good to know the kind of work I do, we do, is valued,” Jaquette said. “So much of it is done behind the scenes, alone at a desk somewhere, it’s easy to assume no one sees us.”
While it’s true she can usually shop unnoticed at Bashas — and she does spend a lot of time at that desk of hers — Jaquette has become an important voice in the world of books.
From 2017-24, she was the executive director of the American Literary Translators Association.
In 2020, she was a finalist for a National Book Award for her Arabic-to-English translation of “Minor Detail,” a novel by Palestinian author Adania Shibli.
Today she heads Words Without Borders, working with publishers, authors and translators around the world to bring work written in other languages to audiences who read in English.
Tucsonan Elisabeth Jaquette, who heads Words Without Borders, was honored with a “Femmes de Culture” award Oct. 12 in Paris.
“Especially in a world that’s growing more and more divided, it seems more important than ever that we find ways to talk to each other, to understand each other,” Jaquette said. “Literature is a great way to do that, and we’re working hard to help make it happen.”
In truth, Jaquette has been making it happen for awhile now.
Indeed, her journey to Paris began 14 years ago … in Cairo.
“I was studying Arabic at The American University, and one day I asked one of my professors if he had any books he thought I should read,” Jaquette recalled.
“He suggested a book called ‘The Queue’ by Basma Abdel Aziz. It had just come out, so I read it — twice — and it was so good I couldn’t wait to tell people about it. I told everybody I knew. I invited Basma to our book club. Eventually, I offered to translate her book into English, and one thing has pretty much led to another ever since.”
The English-language version of “The Queue” was released in 2016, and Jaquette’s credits now include seven full-length translations, with two more scheduled for release next year: A collection of stories called “Under the Neem Tree” by Sudanese author Rania Mamoun and a middle-grade novel entitled “Against the Tide” by Jordanian Taghreed Najjar.
Jaquette translates from Arabic to English, but she began to widen her lens at ALTA, the professional association of American translators.
She widened it further when she joined Words Without Borders two years ago.
Founded in 2003, WWB identifies significant work written in other languages … coordinates their translation into English … and then “publishes” samples of them here.
Remarkably, these excerpts, stories, poems, interviews and book reviews are free and freely available on the organization’s website, which is updated with fresh material four times a week.
“We’re interested in finding and uplifting writers from around the world who haven’t yet made their way into English,” Jaquette said. “They may live in Europe or Asia, but sometimes they’re right next door. Last month, we published a poem written in Ojibwe, an Algonquin language here in the United States.”
Since its founding in 2003, WWB has published and posted work by more than 4,500 writers and translators from 147 countries … in 148 different languages.
Eight WWB contributors would later become Nobel laureates. Six are finalists for this year’s National Book Awards. The list also includes someone we know:
Elisabeth Jaquette.
“Words Without Borders published my first paid translation back in 2014,” she recalled, happily. “It was an excerpt from a graphic novella called ‘The Apartment in Bab el-Louk’ by Donia Maher. I remember how excited we both were to see it in print, so it’s always fun when I hear from an author that we helped get their first book published in English.”
To browse the current selections and learn more about Words Without Borders, visit wordswithoutborders.org.
Footnotes
Elisabeth Jaquette’s recent trip to Europe proved to be a win-win experience. Before receiving a Femmes de Culture award in Paris, she visited the Frankfort Book Fair and accepted an “Aficionado Award” on behalf of her organization. “Words Without Borders has spent over twenty years doing something simple but rare: making sure literature written outside English actually reaches readers who read in English,” the proclamation read.
Mexico City poet Coral Bracho will offer a bilingual reading in English and Spanish Thursday evening, Oct. 29, at the University of Arizona Poetry Center. To learn more, visit poetry.arizona.edu .
Next Saturday, Oct. 31, is the submission deadline for the Tucson Festival of Books’ 15th annual writing competition. Judging will take place in Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry, and $5,200 will go to the winning entries. To learn more, visit tucsonfestivalofbooks.org.
Correction: A caption in our Oct. 11 story about the Sonoran Earthquake was erroneous. The photo taken in front of the Church of San Miguel in Bavispe actually showed author Mary Elizabeth Reynolds with Jess Dávilla and Joan VanDenbos.
