Monograph
Columbia University Press, 2022
2022 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
Literature is often assumed to be monolingual: publishing rights are sold on the basis of linguistic territories and translated books are assumed to move from one “original” language to another. Yet a wide range of contemporary literary works mix and meld two or more languages, incorporating translation into their composition. How are these multilingual works translated, and what are the cultural and political implications of doing so? In Literature in Motion, Ellen Jones offers a new framework for understanding literary multilingualism, emphasizing how authors and translators can use its defamiliarizing and disruptive potential to resist conventions of form and dominant narratives about language and gender.
You can hear me talking about the book with Dr Jennifer Lee on the New Books Network podcast here.
Short fiction
‘Bled Dry’. Slug. 16 September 2022.
‘Dead Skin’ and ‘New Skin’. The London Magazine. October/November 2022.
‘Soup Kitchen’. Litro Magazine. 14 July 2023.
Journal articles
“The página is still blanca”: Reading the Blanks in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’, Hispanic Research Journal (2018) 19, 3: 281–295. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682737.2018.1467862
‘“I want my closet back”: queering and unqueering language in Giannina Braschi’s Yo-Yo Boing!’. Textual Practice (2020) 34, 2: 283–301. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0950236X.2018.1508060
Book chapters
‘“Tequio literario”: Translating Indigenous Literature as Communal Labor’. Co-written with Paul Worley. In The Routledge Handbook of Latin American Literary Translation, ed. by Denise Kripper and Delfina Cabrera, Routledge, 2023.
‘Hauntological versions in Isabel del Río’s Zero Negative/Cero Negativo’. In Multilingual Literature as World Literature, ed. by Jane Hiddleston and Wen-chin Ouyang, Bloomsbury, 2021.
‘Digital Palimpsesting: Literary Translation Online’, in The Digital Critic: Literary Culture Online, ed. by Robert Barry, Houman Barekat, and David Winters. O/R Books, 2017.
Book reviews
‘The Restless Ilan Stavans: Outsider on the Inside’, by Steven Kellman. Hispanic Research Journal. 22.2–3: 256–58. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682737.2021.2030579
‘Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi,’ edited by Frederick Luis Aldama and Tess O’Dwyer. Hispanic Research Journal. 22.6: 666-667, DOI: 10.1080/14682737.2022.2079877
Ää: manifiestos sobre la diversidad lingüística, by Yásnaya Elena A. Gil, Times Literary Supplement, 22 April 2021.
Grieving (2020) by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Sarah Booker, and The Restless Dead: Necrowriting and Disappropriation (2020) by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Robin Myers , The London Magazine, Jan/Feb 2021.
Guadalajara (2011); A Thousand Morons (2012); Why Why, Why? (2019), by Quim Monzó, translated by Peter Bush; Gasoline (2010), by Quim Monzó, translated by Mary Ann Newman. The London Magazine, Aug/Sept 2020.
Amora (2020) by Natalia Borges Polesso, translated by Julia Sanches, The White Review, August 2020.
De Ausencia (2019) by María Luisa Mendoza, Times Literary Supplement.
Choice Words: Writers on Abortion (2020) edited by Annie Finch, Los Angeles Review of Books.
Fiebre Tropical (2019) by Juliana Delgado Lopera, Jezebel.
Small Days and Nights (2019) by Tishani Doshi, Times Literary Supplement.
The Sun on My Head (2019) by Geovani Martins, translated by Julia Sanches, Times Literary Supplement.
Patience (2019) by Toby Litt, The Irish Times, 24 August 2019.
The Girl at the Door (2019) by Veronica Raimo, translated by Stash Luczkiw, Literary Review.
Resistance (2018) by Julián Fuks, translated by Daniel Hahn, Times Literary Supplement.
Feebleminded (2019) by Ariana Harwicz, translated by Carolina Orloff and Annie McDermott, Guardian.
Sea Monsters (2019) by Chloe Aridjis, Los Angeles Review of Books.
Stubborn Archivist (2019) by Yara Rodrigues Fowler, Times Literary Supplement.
Mouthful of Birds (2018) by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell, The Irish Times
Tentacle (2018) by Rita Indiana, translated by Achy Obejas, Los Angeles Review of Books.
River (2017) by Esther Kinsky, translated by Iain Galbraith, The London Magazine, October/November 2018 edition.
Fish Soup (2018) by Margarita García Robayo, translated by Charlotte Coombe, Los Angeles Review of Books
This Little Art (2018) by Kate Briggs, and Translation as Transhumance (2018) by Mireille Gansel, The London Magazine, September/October 2018 edition.
Tangram (2017) by Juan Carlos Márquez, translated by James Womack, Glasgow Review of Books.
Seeing Red (2016) by Lina Meruane, translated by Megan McDowell, MAKE Literary Magazine.
Now and at the Hour of our Death (2015) by Susana Moreira Marques, translated by Julia Sanches, Asymptote.
Against World Literature (2013) by Emily Apter, Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation Review.
Essays, interviews, etc.
‘Life as it Happens’. Untitled, special edition of The London Magazine, June/July 2020.
‘Translation as Collaboration: On Translating with Charco Press’. The Lit Platform, March 2020.
‘An X Marks the Spot: A Conversation with Ellen Jones, Translator of Nancy, by Bruno Lloret’. Interview by Denise Kripper, Latin American Literature Today, May 2020.
‘The Translator’s Interview: Ellen Jones on Trout, Belly Up’, Inpress Books, 20 March 2019.
‘3500 Characters: Alejandro Zambra (& Ellen Jones) on Not to Read’, Hotel, June 2018.
‘Crossing the Puddle: Charco Press in conversation with Ellen Jones’, Hotel, June 2018.
‘Blurring the Borders: Ellen Jones on a New Generation of Latin American Novelists’, Times Literary Supplement.
‘Translator Profile: Ellen Jones’, Translation Review, 102: 1, 2018, 35–36.
‘Close Reading’, In Other Words, June 2018.
‘New Independent Publisher: Transit Books’, In Other Words, June 2018.