Originally, my desire to translate stemmed from the need to translate my own work from Spanish to English, and vice versa. I write poems in both English and Spanish, and my own work in both languages has been published in literary magazines.
In 2017, I was accepted to (and received a Katharine Bakeless Nason scholarship to attend) the Bread Loaf Translators Conference, where I participated in Christopher Merrill’s poetry translation workshop. That experience was pivotal for me: not only did I learn valuable skills that I could apply to the translation of my own poetry, but I left with a desire to translate other poets’ work as well. I have always felt that being bilingual is a gift, and I am excited to be able to use my gift to benefit other poets, and world literature as a whole.
After Bread Loaf, I decided that my goal as a translator is to translate the work of Latin American poets (preferably female) from countries affected by adverse economic policies, such as Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Because of my personal ties to the region, I knew that if there were any poets writing about the realities of life in those countries, I wanted to translate them. These are underrepresented voices whose work needs to be heard on a much larger stage, and translating their poetry into English can make that possible.
Six months into my search, I found Oriette D’Angelo’s (Caracas, 1990) poetry— and was immediately captivated. In 2022 I finished translating her award-winning debut collection, “Cardiopatías (Monte Avila, 2016)” and am currently looking for a publisher.
In the meantime, Oriette completed an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish, and her thesis is the foundation for her chapbook “Inquietudes.” I have begun translating the chapbook and it is slated to come out in a bilingual edition with Scrambler Press in 2023.
Below you’ll find a list of all of my translations of Oriette D’Angelo’s poems that have been published in literary magazines.
Published Translations:
Armstrong Literary
Two poems by Oriette D’Angelo translated by Lupita Eyde-Tucker: “Common Crime,” and “I Remember When Dying Was a Circumstance.”
“Five Poems from “Cardiopatías” by Oriette D’Angelo translated by Lupita Eyde-Tucker”
Los Angeles Review, October 22, 2022
“Mourning and Condolence” and “Petitions”
Circumference Magazine, January 2021
Knee on Dirt, by Oriette D’Angelo
The Arkansas International – Nominated for a Pushcart Prize
Issue 08 – Spring 2020
“A Question of Lust” Translation of the poem “Cuestión de Lujuria” by Oriette D’Angelo
“I underline a title like I underline a country”
Translation of the poem “Subrayo un título como subrayo un país” by Oriette D’Angelo
Nashville Review #25, Spring 2018
Five poems by Oriette D’Angelo translated from the Spanish by Lupita Eyde-Tucker
March 19th and Spring 2019 issue
Also: Translation Tuesday on the Asymptote Blog: Forbidden to Pass By and Stay by Oriette D’Angelo.
Coast|noCoast
Lupita Eyde-Tucker is a bilingual poet and translator raised in New Jersey and Guayaquil, Ecuador. She is the winner of the 2021 Unbound Book Festival Emerging Poet Award, the 2019 Betty Gabehart Prize, and in 2018 was selected as an AWP Writer to Writer Mentee by poet Maggie Smith. In 2022 her poetry manuscript, "Eucalyptus," was a finalist for the Andrés Montoya Prize from Letras Latinas. The manuscript explores her Sephardic Jewish ancestry and bi-cultural heritage.
Not Enough Poetry 