The 2025听Phoebe Taylor Prize for Outstanding Work in Spanish Translation听has been awarded to听Sophia Khwaja-Clarke听for her project on translations of selected poems from听Un mont贸n de escritura para nada听by award-winning Mexican poet and academic听Sara Uribe.
Like Phoebe Taylor鈥檚 own prize-winning project, Sophia鈥檚 work focuses on a Latin American author. Her translations bring to English a selection of twelve semi-autobiographical poems from Uribe鈥檚 collection, pieces which vary greatly in form and style and defy fixed rules. Sophia carefully chose extracts that reflect this variety while foregrounding the collection鈥檚 central concern: the challenges of existing as a writer鈥攑articularly a female writer鈥攚ithin Mexico鈥檚 masculinised literary sphere.
The project opens with a concise introduction to Uribe鈥檚 career and work. Sophia鈥檚 essay underscores the gender politics at the heart of the collection, exploring how Uribe addresses the 鈥榠nvisible work鈥� (Kaplan Daniels, 1987) of the domestic sphere, and the very real barriers this creates for women writers. By drawing attention to this reality, Uribe challenges the damaging belief that听鈥渆l verdadero escritor no necesita m谩s que su talento鈥�听(鈥渢he true writer does not need more than talent鈥�). As Sophia observes, Uribe refuses to let this immaterial labour go unseen, exposing the ways in which a system that assumes听escritores听is written听en masculino听makes literary work especially difficult for women.
In her translation, Sophia prioritised preserving the feminist politics of Uribe鈥檚 writing, sometimes choosing a less traditionally 鈥渘eutral鈥� rendering to maintain the text鈥檚 political charge. Examiners praised the project for its skill in translating Uribe鈥檚 disruption of the masculine-as-neutral default and her subversion of the male-as-norm in language and society. They also commended Sophia鈥檚 deft handling of the collection鈥檚 linguistic challenges, including alliteration, internal rhyme, anaphora, and metaphor.
The work shows a clear commitment to the ethics of translation, remaining conscious of the politics embedded in the text and the translator鈥檚 own influence鈥攚hile encouraging readers to engage critically with those politics.
We are deeply grateful to Phoebe Taylor鈥檚 family for their continued support of our students, and for helping us honour the work of brilliant young scholars like Phoebe and Sophia, who use the Translation Project to combine language skill, literary insight, and creative vision.
Maite Conde (UTEO in Spanish and Portuguese) 1 July 2025
