“Sicily suffers from an excess of identities, and I’m not sure if that excess is good or bad. Certainly, for those born here, the thrill of being perched atop the navel of the world is short-lived. It’s quickly replaced by the struggle to extract, from a thousand tangled bloodlines, the thread of one’s own future.”
“There is this torpedo-like movement that Stefano’s words make. They fill the room, they go through Cristina’s body causing her to spasm slightly—they ask her for hope, but it’s already broken, broken.”
“…everyone still seemed terrorized by his pale eyes, which closed at every “Yes,” “Of course,” “We’ll try to wrap it up quickly.” He seemed to be the boss. The supreme boss running the barracks. I thought: he must be the one in charge of making scribbles on paperwork that would decide, or wouldn’t, about my repatriation.”
“‘U FUMIRARU. Il venditore di letame. The manure seller.
As a jackal follows a caravan, as a dolphin follows a ship, the manure seller stalks quadrupeds out on their daily walk to collect the pastries they unburden themselves of at regular intervals, like steaming milestones.”
From the Translator’s Note: “A literary essay can report the specificity of its facts while at the same time letting its themes and dynamics travel, so that the outline of what it says can be shaded with other contexts. As I translated, I felt myself thinking not just between two languages, but different histories of immigration and human trafficking, accumulating in my mind with each translation decision.”
Freelance translation clients include Mondadori Libri and Elastica Live & Communications Agency, a major Italian publishing house and literary agency respectively.
From 2020-2022, Julia co-hosted the podcast “Translators Note” for Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation during and after her MFA in Literary Translation (2021).
Previously, she directed translation rights for the literary agency Sarah Lazin Books.