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Contributor

Jethro Soutar

Contributor

Jethro Soutar

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.

Articles 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,…
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
New Writing from Equatorial Guinea: An Introduction
By Jethro Soutar
This is not an environment where the arts will flourish.
Translated from Spanish
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