Elisabeth Jaquette

Translator

Author's Bio

Elisabeth Jaquette is a translator from the Arabic and Executive Director of Words Without Borders. 

Her translation of Minor Detail by Adania Shibli (Fitzcarraldo/New Directions) was a finalist for the National Book Awards and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Other translations include Thirteen Months of Sunrise by Rania Mamoun (a finalist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation) and The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz (nominated for the Best Translated Book Award and TA First Translation Prize).

Elisabeth has taught translation at Bread Loaf Translators' Conference and Hunter College, among other places, and was a judge for the 2019 National Book Award in Translated Literature. Her work has been supported by the Jan Michalski Foundation, PEN/Heim Translation Fund, and several English PEN Translates Awards.

​Elisabeth has a MA from Columbia University, a BA from Swarthmore College, and was a CASA Fellow at the American University in Cairo. Formerly, she was Executive Director of the American Literary Translators Association.

Publications & Prizes

Books:
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, translated from the Arabic (New Directions, 2020)
;
The Frightened Ones by Dima Wannous, translated from the Arabic (Knopf, 2020)
;
Thirteen Months of Sunrise by Rania Mamoun, translated from the Arabic (Comma Press, 2019)
;
The Apartment in Bab el-Louk by Donia Maher, translated from the Arabic (Darf Publishers, 2018)
;
The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz, translated from the Arabic (Melville House, 2016)

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
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Last update: Mar 31, 2025