white female translator smiles at the camera on a cozy, well-lit background, holding a mug of tea and surrounded by translation-related books

Allison M. Charette translates literature from French into English, with a focus on fiction from Madagascar.

She has received an NEA Literary Translation Fellowship and a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant, been selected for the Translation Lab residency at Art OMI, and been nominated for the Best of the Net. Her most recent translation is “Return to the Enchanted Island,” by Johary Ravaloson—only the second novel to be translated into English from Madagascar, it was published in 2019 by AmazonCrossing.

Allison founded the Emerging Literary Translators’ Network in America (ELTNA.org), a networking and support group for early-career translators. She also served on the board of the American Literary Translators Association as the Program Committee Chair, during which time she spearheaded ALTA’s Emerging Translator Mentorship Program.

Her other translations include graphic novels and children’s books. Shorter work has also appeared in the New York Times, Words Without Borders, The Other Stories, Two Lines, Epiphany, SLICE Literary Magazine, Tupelo Quarterly, InTranslation, and others.