I enjoyed Bill Finley's article about the Tucson and southern Arizona connections to this year’s National Book Awards finalists. Amazingly, we actually have two Tucson residents who are finalists this year! One of the five award categories, Translated Literature, was not mentioned in the article, but Adania Shibli's “Minor Detail” was translated from the original Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette, Executive Director of the American Literary Translators Association. ALTA moved its headquarters to Tucson two years ago when it became affiliated with the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona. I am grateful for gifted translators like Ms. Jaquette who make it possible for us to engage with works of literature we can’t read in the original.
Kim Jones
Foothills
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
