Does anyone know anything about the field of literary translation?

My niece has been accepted into the master's programs in literary translation at both Iowa and Arkansas. She has studied French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hindi. She has gone to school in Madrid for a semester and is now doing a State Dept internship in Paris. Probably will be doing some State Dept program in India this summer...... She's a language whiz and also a very talented writer. Are there people actually earning a living at literary translation, or is it something people do in addition to their "real" jobs??

I'd hate to see her get into a field of work that is no more useful than underwater basketweaving, lol. (everybody else in the family is in hard sciences - she's the liberal arts nerd)

For instance, reliably translating an ad campaign or other
persuasive literature into another language.

translation work privately. I think it's Lydia Leftcoast, IIRC.

So you might want to send her a DU mail about it.