Dear Family, Friends, and Fellow Literature Lovers,
Warm Greetings. Today is publication day for my English translation of the classic Swahili novel Rosa Mistika, by Euphrase Kezilahabi. First published in 1971 and censored by the Tanzanian government for its controversial content, Rosa Mistika tells the story of teenage Rosa as she departs from Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria and crosses over to the mainland of her young adulthood. The novel is at turns tragic, humorous, and poignant, and it’s brimming with beautiful sentences and thought-provoking questions about agency and authority.
Depending on how you count, I’ve been working on this project for either five or nearly 25 years. I was introduced to Rosa Mistika in 2001 as an undergraduate Swahili student, and I returned to the text in 2020 as a literary translation student. In the MFA program at Queens College, I completed my initial translation and revised it several times. Shortly after I graduated, Yale University Press acquired my translation, and with my talented editor there I revised it several times more. Uncannily, when I got the good news that my translation was going to be published, I was sitting next to my old Swahili instructor from the University of Dar es Salaam, Dr. Fokas Nchimbi. “Utimilifu wa wakati,” he said, before translating himself—the fullness of time.
For those of you in the US or Canada, Rosa Mistika is now available through the Yale University Press website, via direct order as well as links to all your favorite online booksellers. For orders to all other countries, please order via Yale University Press London.
Curious to learn more about Rosa Mistika and my long relationship to the novel? Read this essay of mine on the Asymptote blog, this interview in the Chicago Review of Books, or this Q&A with Yale University Press.
On September 29th, I’ll be participating in a launch event for Rosa Mistika, put on by the Center for the Art of Translation, at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. I’ll be in conversation with Annmarie Drury, who translated Euphrase Kezilahabi’s groundbreaking poetry into English, and also contributed a wonderful foreword to my translation.
If you’re interested in hosting a reading or event, or would like to be in touch about anything else, please reach out over email. If you’re on social media, please consider spreading the news of Rosa Mistika there (I am active only on Bluesky, via the handle @jaybossrubin). Below is early praise from some of my favorite authors, translators and former instructors. Thank you sincerely for receiving this news—asanteni sana!
