The Bridge of Translation
A Special Issue of Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal
Primary editor: Faith Jones

As an international nation, Jews have always created translations and have relied on translations to carry cultural information across geography and time. Yet even today women writers are significantly less translated than men, and translators of women writers face significant barriers in the marketplace.

Even in the act of translating a text, a translator must examine how his or her own perceptions of women's knowledge, language, and creativity may serve to limit their ability to read and render the text fully. Translators create a bridge to another language, very often to another place or time, and are an intrinsic part of the cultural conversation; yet their role is often overlooked. These and many other questions form the basis of an upcoming issue.

For the Fall 2009 Volume 14.2 issue of Bridges, we invite papers that explore translation as a Jewish feminist act, that bring questions of gender to the fore, and that investigate translation as an art and a responsibility. We are also interested in translations of works that have not been previously translated, written by Jewish women writers, from any language into English. Because this issue seeks to address questions of translation, we would also ask translators to include a brief biographical statement about the author; a brief statement on the process of translation; and the work in the original language as well as the English translation. As always, we are happy to consider artwork, photographs, interviews, oral histories, music, poetry, and any other genre.

Deadline: March 15, 2009.
Length: because we will publish translations side-by-side with the original language, we suggest keeping translations under 2,000 words. For other length requirements, and general guidelines, see the Bridges writers' guidelines.