Jean Anderson

Reading to Coexist: A Conversation with Itamar Vieira Junior To me, the text doesn’t resolve itself even when I write the final sentence. Translated from Portuguese by the author

Can the two of you talk about how Pink Slime came into the world—first, the germ of the original language, and then the translation? Fernanda Trías: I met Heather in 2013 while I was studying at NYU. She has an incredible grasp of the Spanish spoken in the Río de la Plata region, covering Argentina and Uruguay, and a sharp poetic ear. We had been wanting to work together for years, but when it came time to translate my previous novel The Rooftop (Charco Press), it didn’t work out.

What particular translation challenges arose as this book was brought into English? Were they points that the author anticipated, or was there something of a process of discovery in which the author found that the translator shed light on unexpected aspects of the original-language work? Leri Price: There were a couple of things that I think were quite specific to this text. I think the first one is probably the entirety of the opening chapter.