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Contributor

Jethro Soutar

Contributor

Jethro Soutar

United Kingdom

Jethro Soutar is an English writer and a translator of Spanish and Portuguese. He has translated novels from Argentina, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, and Portugal, as well as two works by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel, from Equatorial Guinea....

The first, By Night The Mountain Burns, published by And Other Stories, was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. He is a commissioning editor for Dedalus Africa and a cofounder of Ragpicker Press, editing its debut title, The Football Crónicas, and its latest, Refugees Worldwide. He lives in Lisbon.

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Articles by Jethro Soutar

A painting of a street scene in sixteenth-century Lisbon

Chafariz d’el Rey, c. 1570-80, Anonymous Flemish painting, in the Berardo collection, Lisbon, Portugal

A Majestic Knight Rides Past

By Joaquim Arena

Cape Verdean writer Joaquim Arena paints a picture of the life of Afro-Portuguese nobleman João de Sá Panasco in this excerpt from his memoir-history hybrid Under Our Skin, out now from Unnamed Press.

Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar

Islands Running across the Globe

By Manuel Brito-Semedo

Right from the start, Cabo Verdean concepts of identity and individuality were defined by this mixed reality: the African and the European, in all their diverse and contrasting characteristics.

Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar

On Beginnings

By Filinto Elísio

Inert stone, atomic, / nuclear before life.

Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar

Multilingual

Song for My Father

By Filinto Elísio

The music played / on Apollo 11, it turned out, was “Georgia / On My Mind,” sung by Ray Charles.

Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar

Multilingual

Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel on “The Gurugu Pledge” and Diversity in the Narrative Voice

By Tobias Carroll

The Gurugu Pledge (And Other Stories, 2017) is Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel’s second novel to be translated into English. It takes as its subject a real-life setting: specifically,…

Translated by Jethro Soutar

Q & A with Alberto Salcedo Ramos

By Jethro Soutar

Alberto Salcedo Ramos is a Colombian writer and one of the most celebrated crónica (literary journalism) writers in Latin America. Here he tells Words Without Borders about his work and influences,…

New Writing from Equatorial Guinea: An Introduction

By Jethro Soutar

This is not an environment where the arts will flourish.

Translated from Spanish

By Night the Mountain Burns

By Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel

We were on our own out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Translated from Spanish by Jethro Soutar

Government Property

By Trifonia Melibea Obono

“A girl of my standing, in a clapped-out old banger like this!”

Translated from Spanish by Jethro Soutar & Ruth Clarke

From the Translators: On “Regeneration”

By Jethro Soutar

In “Regeneration,” it’s said that Juan, the chief protagonist, “feared the loneliness of his apartment more than he did the tedium of the bar.” Like most writers, we translators…

Regeneration

By Victoria de Stefano

Have any of you actually met this nun?

Translated from Spanish by Ruth Clarke & Jethro Soutar

Multilingual

Father’s Chair

By Vinicius Jatobá

But only one chair was Father's chair, the heir's chair.

Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar

Multilingual

Mastroianni Day

By João Paulo Cuenca

The classic “Mastroianni Day” requires a three-piece suit, dark sunglasses, and, preferably, a hat.

Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar

From the Translator: Jethro Soutar on Translating José Pérez Reyes’s “In Hock”

By Jethro Soutar

In this installment of our “From the Translator” series, translator Jethro Soutar talks about the process of translating José Pérez Reyes's “In Hock,” from…

In Hock

By José Pérez Reyes

“You probably won’t believe it, but the strangest thing that happened to me was actually in broad daylight.”

Translated from Spanish by Jethro Soutar