Sibila Petlevski: Is Translating Your Own Writing Really “Translation”?

In an essay published on Literary Hub in April 2025, the Croatian poet Sibila Petlevski (*1964 in Zagreb, Croatia) reflects on self-translating her poetry collection Soiled With Earth Drunk on Air (2025):

I wrote each poem simultaneously in Croatian and English—almost in the same breath—day after day until I finished the book. The poems were written in free verse (first in English, then in my native tongue, Croatian), but the meditative-shamanic rhythm of the couplets was carried through the entire manuscript, which required from me focused dedication and consistency in the chosen procedure. 

Continue reading about her self-translating experience at Literary Hub:
https://lithub.com/is-translating-your-own-writing-really-translation/ 

Maxim D. Shrayer on Translingual Adventures

In his essay "Within (and Without) Languages: A Jewish Writer’s Translingual Adventures", recently published by the Davis Center, Maxim D. Shrayer explores his own literary translingualism in comparison to other translingual writers. Self-translation has always played a role in his literary journey in one way or another:  

"Self-translation has evolved from attempts to give previous Russian texts another life in English (a life they may or may not have deserved)—through creatively revising my English-language fiction and nonfiction—to parallel compositions of texts in both English and Russian, a mode that I presently find most stimulating."     

To read the full essay, please follow this link: https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/insights/within-and-without-languages-jewish-writers-translingual-adventures