TRANSLATION ACTIVISM MEETS AMAZON CROSSING

Abstract

This article examines the impact of Amazon’s imprint
AmazonCrossing —now the largest publisher of translated literature
in the U.S. and an arm of, arguably, the biggest powerbroker in an
increasingly globalized literary marketplace— and puts
AmazonCrossing into conversation with three important not-forprofit
organizations dedicated to publishing international literature:
Words without Borders, Asymptote, and Dalkey Archive Press.
Bringing these entities into conversation permits us to identify
advantages and limitations of their different platforms and
approaches to translation. Moreover, examining how these various
entities produce and publicize translated texts provides a point of
contrast helpful in measuring the still-to-be-determined effects of
Amazon’s foray into publishing translated literature. All at once,
Amazon’s turn to translated literature lends impetus to the efforts of
these non-profit organizations, makes their work more urgent, and
calls into question some of the assumptions driving the not-for-profit
translation scene. The event of AmazonCrossing is an occasion for
those in translation studies and related fields to reflect on emergent
forms of translation activism and on how the aims of literary
translation initiatives are both helped and hampered by forms of new
media and