Carol Volk is an acclaimed literary translator and former U.S. diplomat, with a distinguished career spanning literature and international affairs. She has translated more than 30 literary and scholarly works by French and francophone authors, with translations published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt, The New Press, and Harvard, Chicago, MIT, Columbia, and Nebraska university presses. Shorter works have appeared in The New Yorker, Grand Street, and other publications. She is currently working on Crossing the Queensboro Bridge, a memoir.
Volk's translations have earned praise from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Book Review, Choice, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and more. Carol’s literary work has been supported by fellowships and awards from the Witter Bynner Foundation (Reader’s Digest), the French Ministry of Culture, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. She is a founding board member of the DC-Area Literary Translators Network, where she has worked to nurture a thriving community of literary translators. She has moderated panels and interviews with contemporary French writers at venues including Politics and Prose.
In 2025, she concluded a successful career in the U.S. Foreign Service (see "Bio") after assignments in Rabat, Baghdad, Tel Aviv, and Rome, and an assignment as a Transatlantic Diplomatic Fellow. She served in numerous Washington assignments as well, including as the first director for infrastructure development in which role she spearheaded the launch of the Blue Dot Network certification, as an Advisor to the World Bank's U.S. Executive Director, and in the bureau of Intelligence and Research. Her work focused on European and Middle Eastern political and economic affairs, human rights, refugee issues, and foreign investment amid strategic competition.
Volk's translations have earned praise from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Book Review, Choice, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and more. Carol’s literary work has been supported by fellowships and awards from the Witter Bynner Foundation (Reader’s Digest), the French Ministry of Culture, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. She is a founding board member of the DC-Area Literary Translators Network, where she has worked to nurture a thriving community of literary translators. She has moderated panels and interviews with contemporary French writers at venues including Politics and Prose.
In 2025, she concluded a successful career in the U.S. Foreign Service (see "Bio") after assignments in Rabat, Baghdad, Tel Aviv, and Rome, and an assignment as a Transatlantic Diplomatic Fellow. She served in numerous Washington assignments as well, including as the first director for infrastructure development in which role she spearheaded the launch of the Blue Dot Network certification, as an Advisor to the World Bank's U.S. Executive Director, and in the bureau of Intelligence and Research. Her work focused on European and Middle Eastern political and economic affairs, human rights, refugee issues, and foreign investment amid strategic competition.
Carol Volk's Amazon Books Profile
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“A superb English translation...”
The Failure of Political Islam, Boston Book Review, Peter Theroux “A particular word of praise should be given to the translator... In addition to its fundamental accuracy, the translation is spirited, simple and readable." Asphyxiating Culture, Choice Magazine “The translator has rendered the text into English so fluent that only an occasional sentence hints at its French origins.... ” The Broken Dice and Other Mathematical Tales of Chance, Physics Today “fluidly translated by Carol Volk,” Corruption, Washington Post Book World “...knowledgeably translated by Carol Volk,” The Taste for Beauty, Andrew Sarris in The New York Times Book Review |
