Meet Wasafiri's Translator in Residence (Endangered Languages) – Juana Adcock

We are thrilled to share that the poet, translator, and editor Juana Adcock is our new Translator in Residence – Endangered Languages from April to September 2026. 

Wasafiri was founded in 1984 in the spirit of recognising the largest possible literary community and has since platformed the voices of multilingual writers and writing that traverses linguistic and geographical boundaries. We remain committed to forging and mapping new landscapes in contemporary international writing by nurturing and championing diverse, plural, and often overlooked perspectives. Translation is a necessary part of that practice. Juana's appointment follows on from successful residency programmes with award-winning translators Sawad Hussain (2024) and Deepa Bhasthi (2025). 

According to the Endangered Languages Project's Catalogue of Endangered Languages, nearly half of all languages are at risk of being silenced, and language loss is now happening faster than at any time in human history. An endangered language is one that is at risk of extinction.

Commenting on her appointment, Juana Adcock said:

'I am thrilled about the chance to work with Wasafiri as Translator in Residence and to help raise the visibility of Mexico's endangered languages, which I am keen to bridge with our own experiences whilst re-thinking the ways in which language shapes our world. My commitment to making literatures speak to each other across linguistic divides is reflected in my twenty years of experience as a translator and editor of translations. My long-term ambition is to raise visibility and awareness regarding the linguistic rights of Indigenous communities. In this era of climate catastrophe, new categories of thinking are needed in which we can imagine, articulate, and create a world of fairer relations. This is why I feel it is so urgent to turn our attention to Indigenous languages and knowledge.’

Juana works with Mè’phàà (Tlapanec) and Tu'un Savi (Western Baja Mixtec), spoken in the northeastern mountain region of Guerrero, Mexico, where she lived and worked closely with the poets Hubert Matiúwàa and Fernanda Kookuilo'o on the translation of their works into English, and where she was also involved with the language advocacy collective Gusanos de la Memoria, travelling to remote communities to teach translation and poetry workshops in rural schools.

During her six-month residency, Juana will lead and tutor a series of four creative and exploratory workshops inspired by the works of poets Hubert Matiúwàa (Mè’phàà) and Fernanda Kookuilo'o (Tu'un Savi); the workshops will explore some of the issues at stake when bringing these works into English, and how Indigenous authors can transform our own relationships to language and writing. She will also participate in Wasafiri's events programme and write for the magazine. 

This project is supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations.

Juana Adcock is a poet, translator, and editor. Her poetry collection I Sugar the Bones (Out-Spoken Press, 2024) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for The Saltires, Scotland's National Book Awards. She is co-editor of the anthology Temporary Archives: Poetry by Women of Latin America (Arc, 2022), and has judged the Premio Valle Inclán prize for translation from Spanish. Her translation of Laura Wittner’s Translation of the Route (Bloodaxe/PTC, 2024) was longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation and received a PEN Translates award, as did her translations of the Me'phàà language poet Hubert Matiúwàa. In Mexico, she has published, in Spanish, her poetry collections Manca (Tierra Adentro, 2014), Dolly Parton y la traducción imposible (UANL, 2025), and Barraca del bisonte (UNAM, 2025), and she has performed her poetry at over fifty literary festivals across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. She is currently completing a CHASE-funded PhD in Translation Studies at the University of East Anglia, focusing on poetry in indigenous languages of Mexico.