Spitfire Translations is Deborah Wassertzug. Deborah translates into English from Spanish, Italian, and French. She’s a writer, and spent over twenty years working as a research librarian. She is based in the Washington, D.C. area.
Since 2014, Deborah has translated a wide range of content — interviews from factory floors detailing the production of high-performance automobiles, and interviews from sweltering artisanal kitchens; essays on critically-acclaimed films; literature, ranging in genre from children’s literature to thrillers to romance to experimental dystopian tales; reports from the world’s foremost perfumers; and websites for nonprofits. Bringing texts to new life in English is a great satisfaction to her, and each project expands her understanding of the world.
Deborah was raised in a multilingual home, and sought out languages everywhere she could find them — furniture tags, auto repair manuals, phrasebooks. She kept up this obsessive quest for languages in her life and studies all the way through college, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Romance Languages and Literature from the University of Maryland, where she also earned a Master’s in Library Science. Prior to entering the translation field, Deborah worked as an academic research librarian. This career gave her a keen understanding of terminology, and a fascination with many different types of information. She also honed the efficient communication style and sharp eye for detail that her translation clients appreciate.
Whether the requirement is a quick turnaround on an article for publication, a longer-term collaboration with an author, or something else entirely, Spitfire Translations is eager to hear from you.
Spitfire Translations 