A piece of Norway

Sjoholm recently received one of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Translation Fellowships of 2017, to translate a book from Norwegian into English.

Even though the organization gives multiple fellowships each year, it is a competitive program, Sjoholm said. This year, there are 23 recipients specializing in a variety of different languages.

“It was great to hear that Barbara’s work was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts,” said U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer in an email. “Her efforts, along with those of other talented artists in our region, help add to the vibrancy of our communities, enhance our livability, and attract talented people and businesses.”

NEA recipients are chosen through a rigorous screening process that determines whether the translator and the project are worthy of the NEA grant, Sjoholm said.

The fellowships are meant to give translators financial support as they work, and it takes Sjoholm about six months to finish a book.

“I kind of get into a zone where I'm between the two languages, and I've got a number of dictionaries and I've got my thesaurus,” Sjoholm said. “I usually translate by hand, because the flow goes better that way, and I'm reading it and feeling the emotions.”

Sjoholm chose to translate a Norwegian book titled “Rydde ut,” which means “clearing out” in English. It was written by Helene Uri and published in 2013. Uri's books have been translated into 16 languages, but Sjoholm is the first to translate one of them into English.

This is the first grant Sjoholm has earned as an independent translator, although she has received other grants as a publisher. The NEA grant is worth $12,500.

Sjoholm helped begin two publishing agencies: one called Seal Press in 1976, which Sjoholm was with for 18 years, until she opened Women in Translation, which “kind of faded away,” Sjoholm said.

Sjoholm moved to Seattle from California to go to the University of Washington. English is her first language, and she learned Norwegian while traveling in the country during college.

“I had a friend who got a job in Norway and wrote me wonderful letters about what a great time she was having,” Sjoholm said. “So, I went over there when I was 21 and got a summer job.”

Sjoholm taught herself Norwegian by speaking with people at work, and eventually began reading Norwegian books. After some time, she and a friend planned to translate a book from Norwegian into English together, but the friend backed out.

“I thought, ‘Well, I think I'll do it just on my own with a dictionary. How hard could it be?’” Sjoholm said. “It was actually quite hard, but I persisted.”

Sjoholm continued translating throughout the 1980s, and although she never lost interest, she became busy with other work and stopped. She started translating seriously about three years ago, she said.

During her break from translating, she continued writing. One of her books, “Gaudí Afternoon” (under the name Barbara Wilson), was made into a feature film in 2001, with Judy Davis, Marcia Gay Harden and Juliette Lewis.

Sjoholm thinks translating literature is important because most people in the U.S. can't read any language other than English and wouldn't know foreign authors otherwise.

“I think it's such a magical experience to read books that are written in other countries, whether they're from Saudi Arabia or Japan or Chile, and to know something about how people there live,” Sjoholm said. “I think a good translator can really evoke that in English.”