Alumni Feature: Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello Wins Literature Translation Institute of Korea’s Grand Prize
By Maria Ferrato
Carnegie Mellon University alumna Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello has accrued a wealth of success over the years, including The Literature Translation Institute of Korea’s 2022 Translation Grand Prize.
In January 2021, Cancio-Bello published The World’s Lightest Motorcycle with co-translator E.J. Koh. The two collaborated on translating this collection of poems by Yi Won from Korean to English. The translation has appeared in a variety of publications, including AAWW's The Margins, AGNI, Chicago Review of Books, Denver Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, Waxwing, and elsewhere, and have received attention from The Adroit Journal, World Literature Today, and Korean Literature Now.
Additionally, the translation was a finalist for the 2021 Big Other Book Award for Translation and won The Literature Translation Institute of Korea’s 2022 Translation Grand Prize. For the latter award, Cancio-Bello traveled to Seoul for a press conference and award ceremony.
“We were grateful to receive coverage in both English and Korean,” Cancio-Bello said, “It takes a village, and I am grateful for the support I received from all my mentors, teachers and colleagues over the years which continue to create opportunities for my literary career to thrive.”
This award follows a string of other major achievements for Cancio-Bello, including the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry in 2015, a poem being published in The New York Times in 2017, and the NEA Prose Fellowship in 2022.
Cancio-Bello received her BA in English and Creative Writing from Carnegie Mellon University in 2011.
“I am proud to be an alumna and would not thrive half as exuberantly without the many encouragements I received both in and out of the classroom,” she stated. “CMU is part of my every success.”