Susan Bernofsky's Blog, page 19

Translation on Tap in NYC, Jan. 1 – 31, 2018

Happy new year, everyone! Here’s what’s going on in translation events news:

Wednesday, Jan. 3:

Old Demons, New Deities: Himalayan Heritage Meetup, featuring Tenzin Dickie, translator (and editor and author) of the first-ever English-language collection of Tibetan short fiction, in conversation with author Tsering Yangzom Lama about Tibetan writing by women and more. Ticketed event, more information here. The Rubin, 150 West 17th St., 7:00 p.m.

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2018 PEN Translation Prize Longlist Announced

Just in time for your last-minute holiday shopping needs (what better gift than a great book? purchase links provided for your convenience), PEN America has announced the longlist for the 2018 PEN Translation Prize for a book-length translation of prose, judged this year by Eric M. B. Becker, Lisa Hayden, Jenny Wang Medina, Denise Newman, and Lara Vergnaud. Since I like to count things these days, let me point out that the PEN Translation Prize longlist is 40% women (not enough, but could be worse, I guess). I wish I could also report on the longlist for the PEN Poetry in Translation Award, but that one, I hear, is on hiatus right now for lack of funds 

Princeton Names Its First Translator-in-Residence

Michael Moore ©Lilia Pino-Blouin

Princeton University’s Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication has its first translator-in-residence: Michael Moore, former Chair of the PEN Translation Committee and member of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Advisory Board. Moore’s previous translations include novels by Alberto Moravia, Primo Levi, Nicola Gardini, Erri de Luca, and others; he’s currently at work on a retranslation of Alessandro Manzoni’s big fat classic novel, I promessi sposi (The Betrothed). Princeton had announced the opening for a translator-in-residence back in October; I understand that they were fairly flooded with excellent applications, so huge congratulations to Michael Moore on being selected. If the rumors I’ve heard are correct, there may a similar position next year, and if that’s the case, I’ll post a call for applications here.

I hope other institutions of higher learning will be inspired to appoint translators in residence to work with their students, especially in programs that don’t already have literary translators on their faculties!

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2017 Authors Guild Survey of Literary Translators’ Working Conditions

Earlier this year, a team from the NYC-based Authors Guild conducted the first ever comprehensive survey of literary translators across the country to learn more about their working conditions, in particular the terms of their contracts and whether they are able to make a living as translators. The survey was spearheaded by former PEN Translation Committee Co-Chair Alex Zucker and 2018 Man Booker International Prize laureate Jessica Cohen working with Authors Guild staff in collaboration with the American Literary Translators Association, the American Translators Association’s Literary Division, and the PEN America Translation Committee. The results are in part quite surprising. For one thing, far more translators receive royalties for their work than word-of-mouth might lead one to believe – a discovery that will no doubt be helpful to translators who’ve been refused royalties or even copyright in their work on the grounds that it (supposedly) isn’t usual for publishers to grant these things in translation contracts. Lo, but it is. Another welcome surprise: there seems to be very little differential in translator pay based on gender. That’s good to know, especially as nearly 60% of literary translators identify as female. Not so surprising (but it’s always good to see the hard facts & figures) is how white the field is: 83% of translators self-identify as white, with shockingly tiny percentages of African American, Asian American, and Native American colleagues (1.5%, 1.5%, and 1% respectively), and only 6.5% Hispanic or Latinx translators. I’d love to see all these figures change. A more representative field of translators will lead to a more diverse body of work and perhaps also to more diverse approaches to translation, which can only be an enrichment of the field. You’ll find lots more information from the survey presented on the website of the Authors Guild, where you can also click through to see the data itself. Seriously, it’s pretty fascinating, particularly the sections about compensation. The Authors Guild has announced a plan to repeat the survey every 5 years so as to be able to aggregate the data and track trends. Calvin Reid in Publishers Weekly reports that the legal staff of the Authors Guild is also putting together a model contract for literary translation, to be unveiled early in 2018 as part of the Guild’s ongoing Fair Contract Initiative, according to AG executive director Mary Rasenberger.

Corollary: Literary translators, please consider joining the Authors Guild to support this work! (The survey shows that over 91% of translators belong to at least one professional organization…) Please also join the American Literary Translators Association (which is doing important work to support emerging translators in particular) and, if you can afford it, others among these fine organizations that collaborated on this project. It’s a great time to purchase professional memberships and make charitable donations while you can still take them off your taxes…

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Apply Now for the 2018 Straelener Übersetzerpreis der Kunststiftung NRW

The Straeler Übersetzerpreis der Kunststiftung NRW (Straelen Translation Prize of the North Rhine-Westphalia Arts Foundation) is actually a pair of prizes for translators from German into a different specific language each year. This year’s language is English, so German-English literary translators (from any country) are invited to submit applications for the 2018 competitions. The Hauptpreis (main prize) goes to a translator with a substantial body of work (it’s a lifetime achievement award as well as a prize for a particular book), while the Förderpreis (advancement prize) is awarded to a translator still in the earlier phases of their career. In either case, the application is to contain, in German, a statement describing the challenges of translating the work in question (“kurze Begründung der Preiswürdigkeit der eingereichten Übersetzung”) along with other materials, including four copies of the book. The deadline for the receipt of all materials is January 10, 2018. You’ll find full details and application instructions on the website of the Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium in Straelen, a fantastic translators’ colony on the Dutch border in Germany that you all should know about anyhow. It’s a great place to apply for a residency!

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Shortlist Announced / Voting Open for 2018 Albertine Prize

The Albertine Prize is unique in that the winner is chosen by you! This prize for a work of contemporary Francophone fiction in English translation honors a book that has found favor with an American readership – hence the public voting. This year’s shortlist was selected by Lydia Davis and French literary critic François Busnel, working together with the Albertine staff and the Book Department at the Cultural Services of the French embassy. Readers are encouraged to check out the shortlist and then vote for their favorites before May 1, 2018. The winner of the Albertine Prize will be announced at an award ceremony on June 6. The Prize comes with a $10,000 purse that according to the website “will be split between the author and translator of the winning title”; I hope that means a 50/50 split this year, since the prize is going to a translated book. (The split last year was 80/20.) To vote, visit the Albertine website. But first, check out this lovely list of finalists!

Incest by Christine Angot, translated by Tess Lewis
Compass by Mathias Enard, translated by Charlotte Mandell
Not One Day by Anne Garreta, translated by Emma Ramadan
The End of Eddy by Edouard Louis, translated by Michael Lucey
Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou translated by Helen Stevenson

More information on all these books is available on the Albertine website. Congratulations and best of luck to all the shortlisted translators, and to the rest of us: happy voting!

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Translate at Bread Loaf in Summer 2018

© 2015 Brett Simison

I loved teaching in the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference in 2016, and was delighted when they asked me back to teach again in 2018, this time running the Introductory Workshop designed for newcomers to translation. Here’s the official blurb on my workshop from the Bread Loaf website:

This workshop is ideal for those interested in literary translation who are still acquiring sufficient proficiency in a foreign language, those who do have some language skills but do not yet have a translation sample to submit for critique, students of literature, comparative literature, and creative writing, and teachers who are interested in learning how to incorporate translation into the classroom. The purpose of the workshop will be to acquaint participants with some of the recurring questions, problems, and pleasures of the activity of literary translation. Students will be provided with literary texts from different genres and languages and expected to create translations that will be reviewed in class.

For more experienced practitioners, Bread Loaf also offers manuscript workshops in prose and poetry for which one submits work in advance. The manuscript workshops will be taught this year by Mónica de la Torre, Kazim Ali, Sora Kim-Russell, and Bill Johnston. The dates are June 1 – 7, 2018; the place the Bread Loaf Campus of Middlebury College in Ripton, Vermont. Besides the workshop leaders, there will also be a number of guests (TBA) from the worlds of translating, editing, and publishing, giving talks and offering one-on-one consultations. Last year’s schedule will give you an idea of what awaits.

It’s gorgeous up in Vermont, and Bread Loaf is set among beautiful hilly woodlands filled with hiking trails (including one that leads to Robert Frost’s cabin down the road). The food served in the dining hall is wholesome and good, and the conference offers a friendly, convivial atmosphere – including the chance to mingle with participants in the Orion Environmental Writers’ Conference – there are joint readings, and all meals are served in the big communal dining room (and yes, you can also just sit by yourself in a corner if that’s what you prefer).

Applications for Summer 2018 are open now and being read on a rolling basis until Feb. 15, but certain workshops may fill up before that time, so get your application in soon if you’re interested. To apply, and for information on fees and scholarship aid, visit the Bread Loaf website.

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Translation on Tap in NYC Dec. 1 – 31, 2017

The year is ending, but it looks like it’ll go out with a bang – just look at all these great translation events to wrap up the year:

Friday, Dec. 1:

The Art of Losing and Finding: A Day of Translation at The New School:

12:00 – 12:45 p.m.: Book Launch: Advances in Embroidery: Poems with Translations from Mahmoud Darwish, by Ahmad Al-Ashqar (¶oets & Traitors Press)

1:15 – 3:00 p.m.: Translators’ Panel: Reading and Discussion featuring Tony Anemone, Alex Cigale, David Stromberg, and James Fuerst, moderated by Val Vinokur

3:30 – 5:00 p.m.: Open Forum on Literary Translation, Publishing, and the University, featuring Tynan Kogane (New Directions Publishing), Kendall Storey (Archipelago Books), Roman Kostovski (Plamen Press), Matvei Yankelevich (Ugly Duckling Presse), Rebekah Smith (Ugly Duckling Presse), Julia Johanne Tolo (PEN America), José Garcia Escobar (Asymptote Journal), Rose Réjouis, Stephanie Leone, David Larsen, Jennifer Hayashida, and others, moderated by Val Vinokur

5:30 – 6:30 p.m.: Book Launch: The Essential Fictions of Isaac Babel (Northwestern UP), edited, translated, and annotated by Val Vinokur

All events @The New School, Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th St., 5th Fl., 12:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 2:

A Very French Christmas: Translators Sandra Smith and Liesl Schillinger will celebrate Christmas à la française with a reading from and discussion of A Very French Christmas (New Vessel Press). More information here. Albertine, 972 Fifth Ave., 5:00 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 5:

Old Demons, New Deities: Launch event for this new collection of Tibetan short stories, featuring translator/editor Tenzin Dickie with authors Jamming Norbu and Pema Bhum. More information here (limited seating, purchase required, advance reservation recommended). The Strand Rare Book Room, 828 Broadway, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 6:

Albertine Prize Launch Party/Shortlist Announcement: The 2018 Albertine Prize countdown will begin festively this year, with actors stationed around three floors of the Gilded Age townhouse that houses the Albertine bookstore, reading from the five books that are up for this year’s prize, followed by a cocktail party. What a fun way to make the announcement! RSVP requested, more information here. Albertine, 972 Fifth Ave., 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 7:

Al Que Quiere!: Launch event for the reissue of William Carlos Williams’s third collection of poems, featuring the book’s editor, translator Jonathan Cohen, joined by transaltor/poet Mónica de la Torre and Julio Marzán, RSVP requested, more information here. Instituto Cervantes – Galeria, 211-215 E. 49th St., 7:00 p.m.

Also  Thursday, Dec. 7:

Harnessing the Humanities: Translator (among other things!) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak speaks with Rosalind C. Morris. More information here. Albertine, 972 Fifth Ave., 7:00 p.m.

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2017 Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry in Translation Announced

Every year the Stephen Spender Trust and The Guardian invite translators to submit up to five translated poems to compete for the Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry in Translation. This prize (created to honor the memory of poet and translator Stephen Spender) is unique in that entries are accepted both in an “open” category and in the categories “18-and-under” and “14-and-under.” Each year’s winners are presented in a booklet made available for download on the Stephen Spender Trust website. This year’s winners were announced at a ceremony in London on Nov. 15. Here they are:

Open category:

Gabi Reigh, for her  translation of Romanian poet Marin Sorescu’s “The Traveller”

Also recognized: Andrew Fentham (2nd place), Antoinette Fawcett (3rd), and Deirdre McMahon (highly commended), with commendations to Stewart Sanderson, Kevin Maynard, and Antoinette Fawcett (yes, a double commendation!)

18-and-under:

Ambah Brondum-Christensen, for her translation of Krio poet Daphne Pratt’s “Per Diem”

Also recognized: Euan McGreevy (2nd), Marina Kisluik (3rd), Isobel Sanders (commended)

14-and-under:

Katherine Linaker, for her translation of “This is the Way” by BL Pasternak

Also commended: Hannah Gillot, Natasha Symes, Warsan Zubeir Masabo

Work by all the translators honored with prizes or commended – as well as commentary by the judges – will soon be available on the Stephen Spender Trust website. Each translator was also asked to prepare a statement about the translation to accompany the work (an excellent practice also observed by Two Lines Journal), and these statements will be included as well.

Finally: how wonderful to offer prizes for young and very young translators parallel to the main competition and to print their work alongside those of the professional translators. I hope this practice will encourage young people to develop and pursue an interest in literary translation.

Next year’s competition will open to entries in late January or early February 2018 and close in May.

The Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry in Translation is open only to residents of the U.K. Maybe someone should think about starting a prize open to young and very young translators in the U.S. as well?

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NEA Announces 2018 Translation Fellowships

The National Endowment for the Arts has just announced its Translation Fellowships for next year, and the news should come as a relief to anyone who feared that the threatened cuts in that organization’s budget would impact its literary programs. (To be sure, an ominous notice on the NEA website reminds us that the appropriations bill governing the fiscal year 2018 budget has not yet been enacted by Congress, but let’s operate on the assumption that it will be.) This year’s fellowships total $300,000 – slightly down from last year’s amount – and will go to 22 translators. As I say every year, this is an excellent use of your tax dollars and guaranteed to produce no civilian casualties. Two translators this year (Kareem James Abu-Zeid and Derick Mattern) were singled out for grants at the $25,000 level (down from three last year), and the rest of the grants are for a still-quite-generous $12,500.

Here’s the list of the 2018 grantees. More information about these translators and their projects can be found on the NEA website.

Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Harold Augenbraum
Janine Beichman
Jacob Blakesley
David Burnett
Allison M. Charette
Christopher Childers
Terry Ehret
Todd Fredson
Amalia Gladhart
Narayan Hegde
Derick Mattern
Seth Michelson
Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
Matt Reeck
Maruxa Relaño
Anna Guercio Rosenwong
Ri J. Turner
Alissa Valles
Henry Weinfield
Brenda Werth
William Scott Wilson

Congratulations to all this year’s grant recipients!

The application deadline for the next round of fellowships is Jan. 11, 2018. You’ll find guidelines and more details on the Translation Fellowships page of the NEA website.

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