Megan McDowell has translated the work of many of the most important Latin American writers working today, including Samanta Schweblin, Alejandro Zambra, Mariana Enriquez, and Lina Meruane. Her translations have won the National Book Award, the English PEN award for Writing in Translation, the Premio Valle-Inclán, the Shirley Jackson Prize, and two O. Henry Prizes, and have been short- or long-listed four times for the International Booker Prize, and shortlisted once for the Kirkus Prize. In 2020 she won an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Her short story translations have been featured in The New Yorker, Harper's, The Paris Review, Tin House, McSweeney’s, and Granta, among others.
While in residence, McDowell worked on the translation of Argentine author Samanta Schweblin's new story collection (title TBD), from Spanish into English. McDowell and Schweblin won a National Book Award in Translated Literature in 2022. She also undertook the translation of Mexican author Brenda Navarro's novel Ceniza en la boca (Eating Ashes), and a draft of José Donoso's novel, The Mysterious Disappearance of the Marquise of Loria.
Portrait by Maria Rodenas Sainz de Baranda
