Jessica Powell

Jessica Powell received her BA in International Studies from Vassar College, her MA in Latin American Studies from Stanford University, and completed her Ph.D. in UCSB's Department of Spanish and Portuguese, specializing in literary translation an twentieth-century Latin American Literature. Since completing her doctorate in 2006, she has published dozens of translations of literary works by a wide variety of Latin American writers. She was the recipient of a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship in support of her translation of Antonio Benítez Rojo's novel Woman in Battle Dress (City Lights, 2015), which was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Translation. Her translation of Wicked Weeds by Pedro Cabiya (Mandel Vilar Press, 2016), was named a finalist for the 2017 Best Translated Book Award and made the longlist for the 2017 National Translation Award. Her translation, the first-ever into English of Pablo Neruda's book-length poem, venture of the infinite man, was published by City Lights Books in October of 2017. Recent translations include Edna Iturralde's award-winning book, Green Was My Forest, published in September, 2018. Jessica has been an adjunct Spanish Professor at Santa Barbara City College, and also works as a subtitler, editor and adapter for film and television. She lives in Santa Barbara with her husband, Abe Powell, and their two children, Olivia and Leo.