Ilze Duarte Literary Translator
Ilze Duarte was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. She graduated from Universidade de São Paulo with a bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature, followed by a graduate-level degree in English/Portuguese translation. She holds a master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language and a PhD in Speech Communication from Pennsylvania State University.
Ilze lives in Milpitas, California, where she writes short prose and translates literary fiction by contemporary Brazilian authors into English. Her original work has been published in Dear Damsels, Ellipsis Zine, FlashFood, New Plains Review, Please See Me, and Thanatos Review. Her translations appear in Asymptote Journal, Columbia Journal, Deep Vellum's 2026 Best Literary Translations, Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation, Latin American Literature Today, Massachusetts Review, MAYDAY Magazine, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, Northwest Review, Words Without Borders, and Your Impossible Voice. She has essays in Hopscotch Translation and book reviews in Reading in Translation.
Ilze is a recipient of the 2024 Sundial Literary Translation Award, which included the publication of her translation of Marilia Arnaud's short story collection The Book of Affects. With her translation of Arnaud's novel O Pássaro Secreto (The Secret Bird), Ilze was shortlisted for Janklow & Nesbit's inaugural David Bellos Literary Translation Prize.
In 2025, Ilze was honored to be one of five judges for the American Literary Translators Award in Prose .
Ilze is an author-member of Betty Books, an imprint of WTAW Press. Betty Books will publish her short story collection The Heart Beats Faster.
São Paulo, Brazil | Photo by Georgia Visacri on Unsplash
