Letter from the Editor

Throughout my tenure as editor of Alchemy, I have been repeatedly surprised and charmed by translation’s unique ability to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange.

Translation bring us not only new language, but also new ways to think and to see. It offers us moods and modes of thinking not found in our native tongue. At its best, translation exposes the gaps where our own language limits us. For a moment, it lets us dream with a different mind.

This issue features authors from Peru and from Germany, from all across Spain, from the fjords of Iceland and from ancient Rome. There are surrealists and “poets of experience,” pop-culture enthusiasts and unadorned lyricists—in short, there are as many diverse perspectives as there are authors and translators featured here.

Alchemy strives to support a new generation of translators who are expanding our sense of the world. With their fresh voices and contemporary viewpoints, these student translators help us experience familiar writers in new ways and introduce us to unfamiliar authors from around the world.

We are delighted to feature each and every one of them here. Thank you for reading!

Sarah Ciston, editor