March 1, 2021, 1:57pm
The Associated Press has reported that Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, the Dutch poet appointed by the Dutch publisher Meulenhoff to translate Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” and her first poetry collection into Dutch, has stepped down after criticism that a white author was selected for the task.
Rijneveld, who in 2020 became the youngest author to win the International Booker Prize, announced the decision to step down in a Twitter post on Friday. Said Rijneveld, “I am shocked by the uproar around my involvement in the dissemination of Amanda Gorman’s message, and I understand people who feel hurt by [Meulenhoff’s choice].”
Here’s how it went down: on Thursday, activist/journalist Janice Deul wrote an opinion piece for de Volkskrant (the Netherlands’ national daily newspaper) condemning Meulenhoff’s pick. Said Deul, “Why not choose a writer who is—just like Gorman—a spoken word artist, young, female, and unapologetically Black?”
Meulenhoff initially responded with a statement noting Gorman and Rijneveld’s similarities: they’re young writers who’ve received international recognition, and (said Meulenhoff) Rijneveld’s focus on gender and mental health speaks to their struggle to create an inclusive society, like Gorman. (Rijneveld is nonbinary.) Said Meulenhoff, “The fact that Amanda Gorman and her team immediately responded positively to our proposal was confirmation for us that we had found the ideal translator in in Marieke Lucas Rijneveld.”
After Rijneveld stepped down, Meulenhoff released a new statement expressing their desire to learn from the experience. The statement also indicated Meulenhoff is looking for a team of translators to translate Gorman’s work rather than a single translator.
Questions were also raised about Rijneveld’s fitness as a translator, as they are not an experienced translator and have spoken self-deprecatingly about their English skills—but this does not appear to be the main reason for the switch.
There you have it!