Here’s a set of links to translation-related essays, interviews, podcasts, virtual events, submission calls, and more to start the working week.
One of the books I’ve enjoyed a great deal this year is Daniel Hahn’s Catching Fire, A Translation Diary. I’ve already mentioned it a few times in other newsletter editions. What I like about it a lot is how Hahn, while walking us through his translation process for Diamela Eltit’s novel, Never Did the Fire, reveals not only the many challenges of translation as a craft but also his own ever-evolving translation philosophies and ethics. And he does all this with pragmatic humor rather than taking himself or his work too seriously. We need more such, I say. So this week’s quote is from Hahn’s book, which I encourage you all to read, no matter where you might be in your translation journey.
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READ: The Art of the Hand-Sell: (American) Booksellers Recommend Translations: 14 Books To Read In Honor of National Translation Month (Literary Hub) [My Note: It would have been nice to have at least one South Asian translation on this lovely list.]
READ: Breaking Down the 2022 National Book Award Longlist by Lee Yew Leong. (Asymptote Journal.)
READ: “Translation involves dressing up the original text in a different outfit”: An interview with Canadian writer and translator Émile Martel by Sheela Mahadevan. (Asymptote Journal.)
READ: A Uyghur Author and Translator Were Detained. Now, Their Novel Speaks For Them by Tiffany May (subscriber-only article gifted by me from The New York Times.)
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READ: Six Lyrics That Show Why ‘Hamilton’ is Tough to Translate by Michael Paulson. (subscriber-only article gifted by me from The New York Times.)
READ: Raising the Volume: Five Poet-Translators on Women in Translation. The Writer’s Chronicle.
LISTEN: Poetry Translation Centre’s poetry podcast [My Note: To subscribers of South Asian origin, could someone please start something similar for South Asian poetry in translation? Maybe something for the Ashoka Centre for Translation folks?]
WATCH: K-Literature Talks: Love in the Big City. An online book talk with author Sang Young Park, and translator Anton Hur.
WATCH: Unearthing her Voice: Women Translators and Charlotte Lennox’s Shakespeare Illustrated. Kiawna Brewster (University of Wisconsin-Madison) at the Trinity Center for Literary and Cultural Translation.
ATTEND: Poetry Translation Centre’s online poetry translation workshops
ATTEND: Translating Ædnan: A Conversation on Translation, (De)Colonialism, and Literary Advocacy. Linnea Axelsson, Johanna Domokos, OI Johan Gaup, Sarah Rivett & Saskia Vogel. PIIRS Princeton University. Online. September 23, 2022. 12:30 PM TO 1:30 PM.
ATTEND: World In Verse: A Virtual Poetry Reading by Words Without Borders. Sep 27, 2022, 7:00 PM EDT.
APPLY: Translation House Looren supports professional literary translators through a number of grants. Deadline: Various. Entry Fee: None that I could find.
SUBMIT: The Black Lawrence Press Rhine Translation Prize for a book-length literary translation from German into English. Deadline: December 31, 2022. Entry Fee: $30
SUBMIT: The 2022 Gulf Coast Prize in Translation is now open to poetry in translation. Deadline: September 14, 2022. Entry Fee: $20 or $10.
Looking for help? Check out my writing workshops and book consultation services.
SUBMIT: University of Florida’s Delos Journal solicits and welcomes translations from literature in any language into English—for practical reasons “any” language means those taught and researched at major universities in the United States. Open call. No entry fee. No payment.
SUBMIT: Poetry in translation to Azonal. Open call. No entry fee. No payment.
Please feel free to share these links (I’d appreciate it if you could credit this newsletter as the source.) And if you’ve got an upcoming essay, interview, or event you’d like me to include, you can send it via my contact page. I’ll try to include as many as I can.
Looking for book recommendations? Check out my ongoing book lists.
