Alexis Levitin is an American award-winning translator of poetry and prose from Spanish and Portuguese to English. Among his 40 books of translations, he has translated Ecuadorian authors such as Ana Minga (Tobacco Dogs, 2013), Santiago Vizcaino (Destruction in the Afternoon, 2015) and Carmen Váscones (Ultraje/Outrage, 2018). He has also translated the leading authors of Brazil and Portugal. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Commission, the Witter Bynner Foundation, the Gulbenkian Foundation, and Columbia University’s Translation Center, which awarded him the Fernando Pessoa Prize. A Distinguished Professor at SUNY Plattsburgh, he has given readings and lectures on translation at well over one hundred colleges and universities in the U.S., as well as institutions in Brazil, Portugal, Ecuador, the Czech Republic and France.
Ecuadorian poet Santiago Vizcaino and translator Alexis Levitin at the NYS Writers Institute in 2015
Alexis Levintin Interview – Parts 1 & 2
Mountain Lake Journal extended interview: SUNY Professor Alexis Levintin talks with Thom Hallock about meeting one of America’s most famous and reclusive authors, J.D. Salinger.
Selected translations
- And Other Stories (2000 ) by Georgi Gospodinov (Author). Alexis Levitin (Translator), Magdalena Levy (Translator)
- Soulstorm (1989) by Clarice Lispector (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator), Grace Paley (Introduction)
- 28 Portuguese Poets (2015) by Richard Zenith (Translator), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- Cattle of the Lord: Poems (2016) by Rosa Alice Branco (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- Blood of the Sun: Poems (2012) by Salgado Maranhao (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- Inhabited Heart: The Selected Poems of Eugenio de Andrade (1985) by Eugénio de Andrade (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- Tiger Fur (2015) by Salgado Maranhao (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- Exemplary Tales (1962) by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- Tapestry of the Sun: An Anthology of Ecuadorian Poetry (2009) by Alexis Levitin (Translator), Fernando Iturburu (Translator)
- Destruction In The Afternoon (2008) by Santiago Vizcaíno (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- News from the Blockade and Other Poems (2001) by Egito Gonçalves (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- Guernica & Other Poems (Essential Poets Series118) by Carlos De Oliviera (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- Palavora (2019) by Salgado Maranhao (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- Ultraje/Outrage (2018) Carmen Váscones (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
- Tobacco Dogs (2013) Ana Minga (Author), Alexis Levitin (Translator)
Other
- Notas para uma Ficção Suprema (1940) by Wallace Stevens (Author), Maria Andresen (Translator), Alexis Levitin (Preface)
- The World Over: Translators Speak on New Poetry in Translation (2015) by H.L. Hix (Editor). Translators interviewed: Don Mee Choi, Ferial Ghazoul, Johannes Göransson, David Keplinger, Peter H. Lee, Alexis Levitin, George Messo, Wayne Miller, Jennifer Moxley, Idra Novey, Ravi Shankar, Carolyne Wright, Linda Stern Zisquit