Dear readers,
There is a change going on in the literary world, and we are here for it. There is this problem of language, which is also a problem of power. As conservative politicians stump across the US and Europe using familiar language to inspire (renew?) familiar hate, little by little, our geographic and linguistic borders begin to tighten. It’s not a new problem. Through all of this, the issue of translation — how it is done, what counts, who gets to do it — looms large. Now more than ever, translation is a political act, an ethical act, something urgent. And this is part of the reason I am so pleased with this magazine. As a student-run literary translation magazine publishing work from Spanish, German, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Hungarian, and other languages, DoubleSpeak gets to be a part of a national and international conversation about language, art, and heritage.
Over the past few years, DoubleSpeakem> has grown from a small stapled pamphlet to the magazine you hold today, but as we have changed, we have always stayed true to our original mission: to publish students’ translations alongside original works and start a conversation about language, writing, and why they matter. Two of the most exciting changes this year have been our new staff and shiny new website. With our foray into online publishing came blogs on craft and family history, reviews of translation programs, and podcasts with contributors, all in addition to a wonderful range of new translations.
Neither the print issue nor our online issue would have been possible without the work of our editorial team and our brilliant design editor, Shilpa Saravanan, or the generous support of the Kelly Writers House. Thank you, team, for making my last year here an outstanding one. And thank you, dear readers, for taking the time to read this work.
Yours,
Meg Pendoley
Editor-in-Chief