Member Spotlights Member Spotlight: Alex Zucker April 22, 2022 Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab) on Facebook (opens in a new tab) on Linkedin (opens in a new tab) via email Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Translating is important to me personally because it engages my brain and my personality in a way no other activity does. It is a part of my identity. I think writing is important to the world because it allows human beings both to express themselves and to share with other human beings what it feels like to them to be human and how they see the world in a way that is slower than other media, and, ideally, engenders thought and reflection, allowing the person with whom it is being shared to absorb it what is being expressed at their own pace, as many times as they want. What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? One of the beauties of being a translator is that I don’t have to worry about writer’s block, since I always start with somebody else’s text! What is your favorite time to write? First thing in the morning or late at night. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Always overestimate the time it will take you to write, translate, or edit anything when you are agreeing to deadlines. What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? Being connected to other people who care about this particular form of expression and storytelling in the present, and being in communication, through my translation of authors deceased, with ideas and people of the past. Alex Zucker’s translation of Bianca Bellová’s The Lake is out now with Parthian Books.
