Diana Thow is a literary translator and scholar working from Italian. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley (2020) and an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa (2008).  Her academic research areas include Translation Studies, translation pedagogy, poetry and poetics, gender and translation, the translator's archive, Italian, French, and Anglophone literatures from the 19th century to the present and her publications include “Translation Pedagogy in the Literature Classroom: Close Reading and the Hermeneutic Model of Translation,” in L2 Journal: The Future of Translation in Higher Education (Fall 2021). She is currently at work on a book project about translations of poetry by women in Italy and the USA during the 1930s and 40s. As a literary translator she has received a Best Translated Book Award, and her publications include Close To The Teeth by Elisa Biagini, translated with Sarah Stickney, Autumn Hill Books (2021) and Hospital Series by Amelia Rosselli, Otis/Seismicity Books (2017). 

Coinciding with the release of their latest issue, Ancient Exchanges editors Adrienne Rose, Laura Moser, and Echo Smith represented the journal at the annual Society for Classical Studies conference hosted in New Orleans in January, where they organized a panel called "Making Space for Translation" devoted to the vital role translation plays in Classical Studies pedagogy, scholarship, and publication. Presentations on the manifold "spaces" in which translation lives (from the metrical and miniscule to indigenous and interdisciplinary) were followed by a lively discussion with participation from both in-person and Zoom audiences.

The Faculty Fellow in Residence will be fully integrated into an energetic translation environment of emerging and seasoned translators and will gain a comprehensive understanding of and hands-on experience in the diverse dimensions of translation training. Fellows are expected to be in residence for the academic year and participate fully in the life of the Translation Program.

The new National Resource Center is intended to extend the UI’s reach beyond literary translation. Its four key aims are to: —promote translation and global literacy across the University of Iowa, —support faculty development and research, —promote translation and global literacy among educators at all levels, and —create a research hub and resource library for public use.

“I'll be traveling to the state of Goiás in Brazil to conduct research on the 20th-century Brazilian writer José J. Veiga. Though he's been seldom translated into English, Veiga was one of Brazil's most celebrated novelists during his lifetime, known for his surreal and strange fiction, most of which he set in his home state of Goiás. The Stanley Graduate Award for International Research will allow me to investigate the many ways that Goiás’ cultural and regional particularities influenced Veiga’s fiction. This would facilitate not only my translation of his work, but future scholarship in order to introduce Veiga to English-speaking audiences.”

“The Stanley Award for International Research will allow me to spend four weeks in Norway researching and translating the literary manuscripts of Edvard Munch. While Edvard Munch’s paintings rank among the most famous artworks in the world, it is not well-known that Munch also harbored substantial literary ambitions. His personal notebooks contain drafts of stories, novels, poems, aphorisms, and essayistic diary entries. I am working on a book-length collection of translations of Munch’s writings, using translation methods that foreground the link between Munch the artist and Munch the writer. The Stanley Award will allow me to visit Munch’s archives as well as two of his former residences in and near Oslo. These visits, and the research I will be able to conduct at each site, are essential to my project.”

“After the completion of my third semester of coursework at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, I will travel to Aviano, Italy, to conduct research for my MFA thesis in fiction–a full-length novel–as well as my Graduate Certificate in Literary Translation. My project concerns the complexities of regional dialect, linguistic identity, and the ‘Madre Lingua.’ Through this research, I hope to examine the intersection of fiction and translation in real-time–exploring the ways in which the act of translation becomes both a narrator and a character in the stories we tell. By providing me with protected time to finish my manuscript and translation certificate, the Stanley Award will function as crucial scaffolding and support at a pivotal time in my writing life.”