An ISU professor’s work to bring Bolivian literature and culture to Iowa State got a little easier after she received a $24,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Kathy Leonard, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures, initially applied for the grant in 2000 to translate the Bolivian novel Bajo el oscuro sol by Yolanda Bedregal. That year she was selected as an alternate and was encouraged to try again in 2001.

“They were very encouraging,” she said. “Next year, who knows what could happen.”

Leonard was given some suggestions on how to improve her application. She said they wanted more of a research component. So in her second application Leonard provided more information about research she is conducting for the biography she wants to write on the author.

In December, Leonard learned that she had received her grant. She plans to use the money to spend the 2003 spring semester working on translation.

The grant is “salary replacement,” Leonard said, and she’ll use the money to live on while she works in Bolivia.

While in Bolivia, Leonard will conduct interviews with native speakers to make sure the translation is correct while she tries to gain insight to the culture to add to the book.

“I try to maintain a foreign flavor,” she said.

Her goal is to complete the translation by the fall of 2003 and to have a publisher lined up before that.

“I’m pretty confident that I’ll find a good publisher,” she said.

Daniel Jones, senior program officer for the National Endowment for the Humanities, said grants are given to help individuals who have an interest in the humanities.

“Some contribute to scholarly knowledge, while others increase the general public knowledge of the humanities,” he said.

Leonard said the opportunity she has been given to translate the novel will bring many benefits to Iowa State.

“It opens up the work to a whole other audience,” she said. “It becomes accessible.”

Bolivian literature is virtually unknown in the United States. When Leonard first started working on the book, she said, she couldn’t find any research about Bolivian literature.

“That’s my main goal,” she said, “to make Bolivian literature by women authors more accessible to readers in the United States.”