Carol Volk is a French literary translator, former U.S. diplomat, writer and editor with a distinguished career spanning literature and international affairs.
She has translated more than 30 literary and scholarly works by French and francophone authors. Her work has been published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt, The New Press, and Harvard, Chicago, MIT, Columbia, and Nebraska university presses, and excerpted in The New Yorker, Grand Street, and elsewhere. She is a founding board member of the DC-Area Literary Translators Network (DC-ALT) and recently joined the board of the World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley (WACMHV).
Volk's translations have been praised (Reviews) in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Book Review, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and other publications, and supported by fellowships from the Witter Bynner Foundation (Reader’s Digest), the French Ministry of Culture, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo.
In 2025, she concluded a successful career as a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service ("Bio") after assignments in Rabat, Baghdad, Tel Aviv, Rome and DC. She and her husband have two grown sons, and live in the Hudson Valley.
Current WorkCrossing the Queensboro Bridge
A coming-of-age story about class, language, ambition, and the unexpected turns that shape a life.
Recent Writing"The $64 Tomato and Other Lessons" -- A personal essay on a new life in the Hudson Valley
She has translated more than 30 literary and scholarly works by French and francophone authors. Her work has been published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt, The New Press, and Harvard, Chicago, MIT, Columbia, and Nebraska university presses, and excerpted in The New Yorker, Grand Street, and elsewhere. She is a founding board member of the DC-Area Literary Translators Network (DC-ALT) and recently joined the board of the World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley (WACMHV).
Volk's translations have been praised (Reviews) in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Book Review, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and other publications, and supported by fellowships from the Witter Bynner Foundation (Reader’s Digest), the French Ministry of Culture, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo.
In 2025, she concluded a successful career as a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service ("Bio") after assignments in Rabat, Baghdad, Tel Aviv, Rome and DC. She and her husband have two grown sons, and live in the Hudson Valley.
Current WorkCrossing the Queensboro Bridge
A coming-of-age story about class, language, ambition, and the unexpected turns that shape a life.
Recent Writing"The $64 Tomato and Other Lessons" -- A personal essay on a new life in the Hudson Valley
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 |
