Rowena G. – Translator

I am a Spanish-to-English translator, translation assessor, and bilingual copy editor/proofreader with a trajectory of nearly three decades and particular strengths in art, literature, religion, and Latin American/Mexican Spanish.

I have translated coffee table art books and catalogues, literature, and academic work in the humanities and social sciences. My clients include museums in Mexico and professors in Spain. I am also an award-winning Spanish translator of poetry and literature. This year, Toad Press published my translation of Elena Poniatowska’s The Seamstresses. Last year, I had the honor of being accepted to the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference. The fruits of that labor evolved into an upcoming publication of a young Mexican woman author in Latin American Literature Today. And I am about to receive a certificate in literary translation from Indiana University.

In my bilingual work, I have assessed translations into English and Spanish for mostly nonfiction books such as coffee table art books, and, more recently, memoirs, nonfiction, and fiction for HarperCollins Español. As an assessor, I compare both versions of the texts while I evaluate the accuracy, tone, register, and naturalness of the translation.

I also copyedit and proofread nonfiction works in the arts and humanities; in academia, including dissertations; about Mexico, Latin America, and Spain; and concerning art history and religion. For example, I was the copy editor for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, published by Oxford University Press, for two years. Other nonfiction clients include international Ph.D. candidates, travel guide writers in Mexico, and The Reading List. In addition, I have edited and proofread a few fiction works.

I was in graduate school getting three master’s degrees in European studies, comparative literature, and religious studies from 2014-2022, during which time I was always editing and translating for my graduate work and sometimes editing and translating for clients. My graduate work and work as a subtitle editor/translator trained me to be an excellent fact-checker.

Here are some highlights:

TRANSLATION ASSESSMENT AND SPANISH COPYEDITING

Chita Rivera, Chita, HarperCollins Español, 2023.

Leopoldo Gout, Piñata, HarperCollins Español, 2023.

Rafael Agustín, Ilegalmente tuyo, HarperCollins Español, 2023.

Hachumak, Viajando a través de lo invisible, HarperCollins Español, 2023.

TRANSLATION, TRANSLATION ASSESSMENT, AND SPANISH COPYEDITING OF ACADEMIC WORK

Doris Bienko de Peralta, Women Religious Crossing between Cloister and the World: Nunneries in Europe and the Americas, ca. 1200-1700, Arc Humanities Press, 2023.

Juan José Ponce Vásquez, Islanders and Empire: Smuggling and Political Defiance in Hispaniola, 1580–1690, Cambridge University Press, 2020.

LITERARY TRANSLATION

Karina Sosa Castañeda, Ghost Horse, Latin American Literature Today, June 2023.

Elena Poniatowska, The Seamstresses, Toad Press, 2023.

Paula Ilabaca Núñez, Lucidity, World Literature Today, 2018.

COFFEE TABLE ART BOOK TRANSLATION

Ingrid Suckaer, Magali Tercero and Jorge Pech. El imperio de la mirada, Fundación Black Coffee Gallery, 2019.​