Julia Sherwood: Twenty Breaths
– Slovakia
Julia Sherwood (née Kalinová) is known as a translator and promoter of Slovakian literature. She was born in Bratislava and lives in London. Together with her husband Peter Sherwood, she translated into English the works of leading Slovakian authors such as K. Kucbelová, I. Dobrakovová, Balla and others. In 2013–2023, she worked as a freelance editor for the literary magazine Asymptote, and in 2022 she has become the curator of The Slovak List, an edition of Slovakian literature by the renowned Seagull Books publishing house. Together with M. Mullek, she runs the SlovakLiterature.com portal.
She also initiated the translation of the memoir Dvadsať nádychov. Príbehy o prežití (Twenty Breaths. Stories of Survival) by Prešov-born Marianna Eger Miller. “Marianna’s book does not have the ambition to map out an entire century, it focuses on a personal story, which with its depth, observations and precise details, goes beyond private memories and becomes a testimony of the times. Without sentimentality, with insight and sometimes with humour, Marianna records war experiences, childhood and adolescence in a boarding school in England, as well as the way in which she, her family and friends coped with these tragic events and losses.”