Now in its fifth year, the Out of Eden Walk has produced around 200,000 words of literary journalism: a unique archive of human life on planet Earth, as seen from boot level at the start of a new millennium.
A key mission of the project is to bring these stories, and the experience of Paul Salopek’s global voyage, home to communities along the walk’s route and around the world. So far, a small and enthusiastic group of volunteers has helped accomplish this goal by translating Salopek’s dispatches into a growing list of more than a dozen languages.
Now, we are opening up the translation process to our larger community of multilingual followers, in hopes that together we can build a truly global archive that helps to reconnect readers from around the world with our shared human history—transcending borders, languages, politics, religions, and continents.
Translators’ valuable contributions will be recognized with a credit line on each published submission and a public profile page on the Out of Eden Walk website that includes a photo, brief biography, and links to published translations.
Interested in joining the Translation Community? Getting started is easy. First, sign up to become a translator.
How to add your voice to a global story:
After you complete the sign-up process, you will be taken to the translator dashboard, where you can browse and select articles available for translation.
Select an article and click “Start Translating.” This will launch the translation interface, which presents the original article divided into short blocks of text. Your progress is saved as you work, so you can leave a draft translation and return to complete it later if necessary.
A "preview" function allows you to view the translation as it will appear when published. Once you are satisfied with the result, submit your translation for review. Another member of the translation community will review your submission and may add comments or suggest changes to your draft. If the reviewer adds comments, you will have the opportunity to access the translation from your dashboard and either edit the text or respond to the reviewer's comments. When all edits are finalized, the reviewer will publish the translation. It will become visible on your translator profile page and elsewhere on the Out of Eden Walk site.
In addition to receiving public recognition, our translators and reviewers will be invited to join the Out of Eden Walk Translator Facebook group, where you can ask questions, engage with the community, receive notifications of newly published posts available for translation, and hear from Paul Salopek and the Out of Eden Walk team directly.
Need more information to get you started? Check out the Translator Tool FAQs or contact outofedenwalk@ngs.org.
Looking for other ways to join the journey? Sign up to receive the Out of Eden Walk newsletter or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @OutofEdenWalk.