Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Contributor

Ilan Stavans

Contributor

Ilan Stavans

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, publisher of Restless Books, and host of NPR’s podcast In Contrast. He is the recipient of numerous international awards and honors, and his books have been translated into twenty languages....

Among his recently published books are two Penn State University Press titles: the graphic novel adaptation of Don Quixote of La Mancha, illustrated by Roberto Weil, and The Return of Carvajal: A Mystery, illustrated by artist and illustrator Eko, whose engravings are also featured in A Pre-Columbian Bestiary.

Read More

Articles by Ilan Stavans

A Pre-Columbian Bestiary: Tepeyólotl

By Ilan Stavans

In A Pre-Columbian Bestiary: Fantastic Creatures of Indigenous Latin America, Ilan Stavans collaborates with illustrator Eko to tell the stories of religious and mythical creatures from…

“El Little Príncipe”—Translating Saint-Exupéry’s Classic into Spanglish

By Ilan Stavans

Ilan Stavan’s Spanglish translation of The Little Prince, El Little Príncipe, was published in 2016 by Edition Tintenfass.The death of a language is frequently accompanied by a litany…

Translating the Classics: An Interview with Lydia Davis

By Ilan Stavans & Regina Galasso

Image: Lydia Davis at the University of Georgia Chapel (with George Cooke’s 1847 painting, “Interior of St. Peter’s”), Wikimedia Commons.In the spring of 2016, as co-teachers…

Flemish Tapestries: On Don Quixote in English

By Ilan Stavans

Rendered into some fifty languages, El Quijote is one of the most translated novels in history.

Publishing against the Grain

By Ilan Stavans

I became a publisher out of sheer frustration. The reason is closely tied to my self-definition as an immigrant. I moved from Mexico to the United States in the mid-‘80s seeking intellectual freedom.…

Ode to the Andean Cordillera

By Pablo Neruda

The cold candelabra / of your elevated / solitudes of snow

Translated from Spanish by Ilan Stavans

Ode to Ángel Cruchaga

By Pablo Neruda

You were / the silvery tail / of a green mermaid / crossing the sky.

Translated from Spanish by Ilan Stavans

Ode to the Flowers of Datitla

By Pablo Neruda

The tiger-flower flourishes / with three tongues / of ultraviolet love.

Translated from Spanish by Ilan Stavans

Ode to Juan Tarrea

By Pablo Neruda

I cannot / worry about you, poor Tarrea.

Translated from Spanish by Ilan Stavans

Ode to Jean Arthur Rimbaud

By Pablo Neruda

Now, / this October / you will turn / a hundred, / harrowing friend.

Translated from Spanish by Ilan Stavans