Kaija Straumanis
Photo © Kaija Straumanis, 2013
Bio
Kaija Straumanis translates from the Latvian and is editorial director at Open Letter Books. A graduate with an MA in literary translation studies from the University of Rochester, she has translated works by Inga Ābele, Zigmunds Skujiņš, Jānis Joņevs, and Gundega Repše, among others. She is the recipient of several awards, including the 2015 AATSEEL Book Award for Best Translation into English (Creative Literature) for her translation of High Tide by Inga Ābele, and the 2019 Lillian Fairchild Memorial Award for her translation of Doom 94 by Jānis Joņevs. Her forthcoming translations include two short works as part of the Bicki Book series of modern nursery rhymes published in the UK by the Emma Press.
Project Description
To support the translation from the Latvian of the nonfiction collection Forest Daughters, edited by Sanita Reinsone. This collection includes 12 oral histories from Latvian women who lived in the thick of the guerilla war against Soviet invasion and occupation. Often left out of Latvia's guerilla war history, women played an integral role in protecting their homeland. Reinsone (b. 1981), a scholar in Latvian folklore, oral history, and digital humanities, recorded the stories of these women in a documentary-essay style and each chapter is alive with the respective woman's experience as she recalls harrowing and heart-wrenching events of her life during this period in history. The collection is yet to be translated into English.
To say that this is one of the most thrilling moments in my professional career would be an understatement. On a personal level, receiving this Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts is incredibly validating for all I’ve been working toward as a translator, and solidifies my belief in the importance of this particular project. On a cultural level, I believe this fellowship will give even greater recognition to the value of Latvian literature, its history, and the largely unmined treasure-trove of the people who author both. Ours may be a small (and generally introverted) country, but it’s here, it’s wonderful, and it packs a pretty serious punch—be it in its literature, its rye bread, or, yes, even its Olympic beach volleyball teams.
Meža meitas [Forest Daughters] is the first nonfiction book I have “set foot in” as a translator, and I am looking forward to spending more time with the 12 voices editor and anthropologist Sanita Reinsone has collected in its pages. It is an honor to be able to work on bringing these women’s stories into English, and I am grateful to the NEA for helping make it possible.