Dr. Alexis Levitin

Education

Ph.D. in English, Columbia University (1971) Dissertation: Revisions in W.H. Auden’s “Sonnets from China”
M.A. in English, Columbia University 1964 Thesis: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
B.A. in Zoology, Columbia University 1963

Teaching Areas

Poetry
Creative writing
Shakespeare
World literature

Recent Publications

Forty books of translation, including
- Portugal
  - Forbidden Words: The Selected Poetry of Eugenio de Andrade, New Directions, 2003
  - The Art of Patience (Red Dragonfly Press, 2013)
  - Guernica and Other Poems by Carlos de Oliveira (Guernica Editions, 2004)
  - News from the Blockade and Other Poems by Egito Gonçalves (Guernica Editions, 2001)
  - Exemplary Tales by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (Tagus Press, 2015)
  - 28 Portuguese Poets, A Bilingual Anthology, with Richard Zenith (Dedalus Press, Dublin, Ireland)
- Brazil
  - Cage by Astrid Cabral (Host Publications, 2008)
  - Blood of the Sun by Salgado Maranhão (Milkweed Editions, 2012)
  - Tiger Furby Salgado Maranhão (White Pine Press, 2015)
- Ecuador
  - Tapestry of the Sun: An Anthology of Ecuadorian Poetry, co-translated with Fernando Iturburu (Coimbra Editions, 2009)
  - Tobacco Dogs by Ana Minga (The Bitter Oleander Press, 2013)
  - Destruction in the Afternoon by Santiago Vizcaino (Diologos Books, 2015)
- Others
  - Soulstorm by Clarice Lispector (New Directions, 1989)
  - And Other Stories by Georgi Gospodinov, co-translation from the Bulgarian (Northwestern University Press, 2007)
Poetry translations (mostly from the Portuguese) in 200 magazines, including American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Chelsea, Confrontation, Grand Street, Kenyon Review, New Letters, Nimrod, Northwest Review, Osiris, Partisan Review, Prairie Schooner, and Salamander.
Translations in over 30 anthologies including Latin American Literature Today, Women Poets of the World, Women in Literature, Women’s Writing in Latin America, One World of Literature, The Oxford Anthology of Brazilian Short Stories, Literary Amazonia, and New European Poets.

Fellowships & Awards

Fulbright Specialist scholar at the Catolica University of Guayaquil, Spring 2014
National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship 2003–2004
National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship 1993
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar in Brazilian Urban Fiction 2006
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar in Greek Tragedy 1979
Fulbright Senior Lecturer Award to Portugal 1980
Fulbright Senior Lecturer Award to Chile 1976
Fernando Pessoa Prize (Columbia University) 1992
Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry Translation Grant 1996–1997
Calouste Gulbenkian Research Fellowship for Translation 1992
New York State Council on the Arts Translation Grant 1991

Translation Residencies

Center for Ecuador and North America, Guayaquil, Ecuador, Translation Residency winter 2007 and 2008
European Translators Collegium, Straelen, Germany May 2005
Banff International Center Translation Residency, Banff, Canada summer 2003
Rockefeller Foundation Study Center Translation Residency, Bellagio, Italy July 1997

Dr. Alexis Levitin

Professor of English Emeritus