Megan McDowell

Megan McDowell (Kentucky, 1978) is an American literary translator. She principally translates Spanish-language works into English.

She is known for her translations of contemporary writers such as Mariana Enriquez, Samantha Schweblin and Alejandro Zambra. Her translations have won the National Book Award for Translated Literature, the English PEN award, the Premio Valle-Inclán, and two O. Henry Prizes, and have been nominated for the International Booker Prize (four times) and the Kirkus Prize. Her short story translations have been featured in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine, Tin House, McSweeney's and Granta, among others.

Personal life Originally from Kentucky, she studied English at DePaul University in Chicago. Upon graduation, she worked at the Dalkey Archive Press. She then moved to Chile with the intention of learning Spanish and editing translated literature. Three years later McDowell returned to the US to study a master's degree in Liberal Arts focusing on translation at UT Dallas. She then lived briefly in Salt Lake City and Durham. After that, she spent eight months in Portugal and Switzerland. Now, McDowell lives and works in Santiago de Chile.

Career Her career started with the translation of Alejandro Zambra's The Private Lives of Trees, which she asked the author to translate personally. Since then, she has collaborated with Zambra on the translation of eight more books, including the challenging Multiple Choice (2016). McDowell has expressed her interest in working directly with the writers she translates to provide the most faithful translation possible. Shortlisted for the 2021 Man Booker International Prize for The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez 2020 Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters Longlisted for the 2020 Man Booker International Prize for Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin Longlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize for Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin Winner of the 2018 Premio Valle-Inclan for Seeing Red by Lina Meruane Shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize for Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin Winner of the 2013 English PEN Translates Award for Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra