Reflecting on My Time as the First OIW Intern

By Catherine Hurwitz

The Beginnings

It was February 2021, and I had an epiphany. I was a Creative Writing major at the University of Rochester, but I was unhappy that the required literature courses were restricted to only American and British literature—and I would not be able to expand my global perspective within the literary arts in the same way that my World Music major provided me. But one day in February 2021, I learned that my university has a Multidisciplinary Studies Center, where students can design their own interdepartmental majors. So, I got to work and designed a major that combined fiction courses from the Creative Writing major and world literature courses from the Comparative Literature major. The monster that I created: a new major called “Creative Writing & World Literature.”

I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, and one opportunity leads to another. Once I designed this new major, I started taking a comparative literature course called “Translation & World Literature,” from which I started growing fascinated by the topic of translation and how it makes world literature accessible. That summer, I interned at Open Letter Books, my university’s translation press. Open Letter publishes ten works in translation each year, and in my internship, I was assisting with proofreading. I also was in charge of working on the Translation Database, which is managed by Open Letter and hosted on Publishers Weekly. While working on the database, I noticed that there were a lot of children’s books in translation. As an aspiring elementary school educator, this intrigued me. By the time my internship was over, I had made a booklet  with suggestions for translated children’s literature to send to local elementary schools and libraries. Upon presenting this booklet to Chad Post (Open Letter publisher), he asked me a question that would change my life: “Have you heard of Outside in World?”

Soaring into the World of Outside in World

When I had that moment of epiphany in February 2021, I did not know what wonderful experiences, projects, and people would be introduced into my life. In August of that year, I reached out to Deborah Hallford of Outside in World and asked if an internship with them would be a possibility—and the answer was yes! Due to the pandemic, I had grown to be much more confident about collaborating across regions of the world in a virtual manner. Even though I was in Rochester, NY and Deborah was in the UK, that did not stop any of our ambitions for designing a fruitful internship experience. Deborah introduced me to Patricia Billings, trustee of Outside in World, who was out of NYC at that time. When I first met with Deborah and Patricia over Zoom, I knew that I had started an exciting era in my life—and with the best, most caring people I could possibly ask for.

My first project was conducting an internal review of the Outside in World website. My specific role was looking to see the visibility, come up with ideas for improving outreach, and think of other potential additions for audience engagement. Little did I know, all of this research on the Outside in World website would lend me the chance to become more familiar with the organization’s mission and reach…and make me fall even more in love with the translated children’s literature world. Lucky for me, the next step in my internship was diving directly into this world and beginning to review many of these books! 

Reviewing Translated Children’s Literature

We had asked Chad Post if any of the books sent to me could arrive at the Open Letter office to streamline the process. When Chad sent me my first email saying “I have books here for you,” I could not contain my excitement. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. The first batch of books that I received were from a publisher out of Brooklyn, NY called Enchanted Lion Books. They used to send their books to the UK to be reviewed for Outside in World, but the shipment costs had increased so they were no longer able to…until I became a reviewer for Outside in World out of the same state!

When reading the Enchanted Lion books, my world lit up. I had not extensively read children’s literature for years, so this experience was magical to me. I loved these books so much that I wrote an article about Enchanted Lion, focusing on my favourite book trilogy: the Sato the Rabbit  books. I remember reading the Enchanted Lion books in my free time at the university, enjoying the books all in my favourite spots such as the best coffee shop in Rochester, Cafe Sasso. When I read the books in the coffee shop on that autumn day, I had an overwhelming but wonderful feeling of fulfilment and happiness.

After attending a webinar from the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, I learned about their Read the World project and acquired their booklist. I emailed each of the publishers on the list, asking if they would be able to send me review books. I told them that these books would eventually end up in Outside in World’s collection at the University of Portsmouth.

© Photos Eric Carle Museum, USA

Therefore, after receiving my first shipment of books from Enchanted Lion, I ended up receiving more and more as my internship continued through the spring semester in Rochester and the following summer back at home in Massachusetts. By the end of my internship, I would have reviewed over 50 books. Each of these books served a different purpose in the translated literature world, so I decided to write an article highlighting these different categories. As a creative writing major, I was inspired by the famous children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie upon writing this article.

One of the publishers that I found to enjoy was Blue Dot Kids Press. Their book The Day Saida Arrived caught my attention the most because of its message about cross-cultural friendships. In this article, I talk all about the press based on my over-email interview with Heidi Hill (the Founder, Publisher, and Acquiring Editor of Blue Dot Kids Press).

Forming Deep Connections

While I didn’t realize it at the time, reaching out to these publishers was actually helping me become a part of the translated children’s literature world…after all, my name was now out there! I was becoming more and more familiar with different publishers, translators, and associated names that occurred with each book I read and reviewed.

Another form of outreach that I established for Outside in World was launching the new Instagram account! I had previous experience running Instagram accounts for organizations at my university, but this was the first time that I managed an account for a professional organization. The trickiest part for me was building up followers. In order to build up followers, I would first have to understand who the Outside in World audience is—and find where they are in the Instagram world. Eventually, I was able to form connections with World Kid Lit and Kids Read the World, as well as receive consistent engagement from loyal followers.

On Instagram, I developed my skills of presenting information in a pleasing visual manner. At first, I would publish posts and stories about books. Then, the content grew, so I posted about awards, articles, and the Outside in World collection at the University of Portsmouth. By summer 2022, Outside in World was working with a second intern named Rosalba through their collaboration with the University of Reading. We collaborated, and she provided me with many beautiful pictures from the collection from the time she visited.

 Image © University of Portsmouth

Meeting Rosalba for the first time was a special moment for me, as she was someone around my age and just as passionate about translated children’s literature. Even though I don’t know many people at my university who focus on this niche interest, I am realizing just how big the world is and how there are a lot of people like me and Rosalba out there who are trying to promote translated literature for children. For example, I have had correspondence with Caroline, a student at Amherst College in Massachusetts who worked on the Read the World project at the Eric Carle museum. She mentioned that she and her colleagues were thinking about making a short documentary about translated children’s books, extending the offer for me to collaborate when the time comes.

Also within my internship, I have been working on a list of contacts in the US for Outside in World to have in their records. I noticed that each time I looked up a translator or publisher, I would find a plethora of other websites, blogs, organizations, and groups around the concept of translated literature. This world that once seemed so small and niche to me was growing at a rapid speed!

Establishing Next Steps

In my spring semester, I took an education course called “Race, Class, Gender, & Disability in American Education.” Our final project was creating an Impacting Practice proposal and presentation. I knew just what I was going to focus on: promoting translated literature in US elementary schools. I used the outline of this project to present an hour-long guided discussion at the ARTs + Change Conference all about the importance of translated children’s literature and how we can effectively promote it in schools. From my class presentation to the conference presentation, the feedback that I received was gratifying. I was empowered to actually make a difference in US elementary schools and promote these books through translation outreach workshops and building up school libraries of translated books. Maybe I would even write globally-accessible children’s literature myself one day.

Even though my internship with Outside in World is ending, I am now a part of this global community and continue to promote translated and bilingual children’s books. Currently, I am managing Milet Publishing’s Instagram, and I get to interact even more with parents, teachers, and educators who want to provide their children with a chance to explore multiple languages. Patricia Billings is a co-founder of Milet. Like I said: one opportunity leads to another. I cannot wait to see what opportunities will arise next.

My goal in life is to work with children and promote multiculturalism and a love for the arts. Because of my internship with Outside in World and the kindness of Deborah and Patricia, I now have connections and friendships within the translated children’s literature community, as well as a motivating drive to go out into my community and make a lasting impact.

Catherine Hurwitz (August 2022)