Susan Bernofsky's Blog, page 45

Translation on Tap in NYC, March 1 – 15, 2015

Welcome to March! I’m looking forward to “out like a lamb.” Meanwhile, have some translation events!

Tuesday, March 3:

Your Language—My Ear: Russian and American Poets at Close Quarters: Bilingual reading with four leading Russian poets including Shamshad Abdullaev (Fergana, Uzbekistan), Keti Chukhrov (Moscow), Alexandra Petrova (Rome), and Alexander Skidan (St. Petersburg). The poets will be joined by poet/translators Julia Dasbach (Philadelphia), Kevin M. F. Platt (Philadelphia), Alexandra Tatarsky (New York; Philadelphia) and Matvei Yankelevich (New York). This is such an incredible lineup! At Columbia University, International Affairs Building (upper level of campus, most easily accessed via main campus – take the bridge over Amsterdam just north of 116th St.), Room 1512, more info here. I’d get there early if I were you. Official start time 6:15 p.m.

Thursday, March 5:

Cuba Cuba Cuba! Launch party for the new collection Cuba in Splinters: Eleven Stories from the New Cuba, with translator Hillary Gulley joined by the anthology’s editor (and represented author) Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, and fellow author Lizabel Mónica. They’ll be talking about Cuban literature today and the state of things in Cuba now in light of the recent changes to U.S.–Cuba policy. Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue, $10 for non-members, more information here. 7:00 p.m.

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Translate with Translationista at Bread Loaf

The Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences have a long and distinguished history, and this year for the first time, they will include a Translator’s Conference, the brainchild of Bread Loaf Conference Director Jennifer Grotz. I am honored to have been asked to join the inaugural faculty, which also includes Maureen Freely, Bill Johnston, and Don Share as well as Grotz herself, who, as you no doubt know, is a translator as well as poet. As is customary at Bread Loaf, each conference is comprised of several workshop groups. The translation conference will include five different workshops: one introductory workshop (taught by Jennifer Grotz), a pair of fiction workshops (taught by Maureen Freely and me), a poetry workshop taught by Don Share, and a mixed-genre workshop (Bill Johnston). Translators from all languages are welcome in any of the workshop groups. I am honored to be sharing billing with this dream team of colleagues. The week-long program will also feature lectures and guest speakers, usually in the afternoons (workshops meet in the mornings). I’ve never been to Middlebury before, and I can’t wait – I hear it’s gorgeous up there, and that Bread Loaf is an exciting and inspiring experience. This year’s dates are June 1 – 7, 2015. If you’d like to apply to take part in the conference, I suggest you get your application in ASAP. The deadline is March 15, but applications are evaluated on a rolling basis, so it’s possible for any given workshop to fill up in advance of the deadline. For application information and other details, visit the Bread Loaf website.

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Monique Truong on the Art of Translation

I’m just back from the opening ceremony of the 2015 Festival Neue Literature and the presentation of the Friedrich Ulfers Prize to legendary editor Robert Weil. There were speeches, good ones, by Weil and his laudator Harold Augenbraum. And as part of the ceremony, Festival Chair Monique Truong gave a welcoming address that turned out to be an eloquent ode to the art of translation. It was lovely. She started out quoting Benjamin, and then launched into thoughts of her own. I especially appreciate what she had to say about what the experience of being translated has meant to her as a writer in terms of contemplating her own work. Here’s an excerpt from her speech:

As an author of two novels that have been translated into thirteen languages, I know firsthand how each of these translations and their respective translators has helped to expand my world. I mean this beyond the sense of my ability to reach new readers. For me, the benefit of being translated begins at the moment of correspondence with the translator. Their questions often require that I re-examine my word choices, my double entendres, my euphemisms, and the implied and secret meanings of my character’s vocabulary. I reveal to my translators the hidden codes of my text. In fact, I consider it less of a revelation and more of an entrustment. I have created my art form, and it is now their turn. I have been fairly compensated for my art form, and they should be as well.

You can read the rest of her address on the Publishing Perspectives website, where it was posted earlier today. And when you’re done reading it, please join us for Festival Neue Literatur, including a panel about literary translation on Saturday afternoon featuring several translator-editor pairs (including me).

Big thanks to Monique Truong for her kind and wise words!

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Festival Neue Literatur 2015

Pretty high up on the list of things I like better about February than slushy-salty sidewalks is Festival Neue Literatur, a long-weekend festival that brings six talented younger German-language writers to New York for readings, discussions, and a delicious brunch at NYU’s Deutsches Haus. The festival’s been going on for six years now. For three of them I served as curator, so I know how much work it is to put something like this together. Now that I can just watch from the sidelines, I like the festival even more. Literary translator Tess Lewis has been doing a wonderful job with curating, and the festival is bringing some really interesting writers this year: Marjana Gaponenko and Anna Weidenholzer from Austria, Navid Kermani and Matthias Nawrat from Germany, and Jonas Lüscher and Monique Schwitter from Switzerland. I won’t detail the entire program here; you’ll find all that information on the FnL website. The short version is: an afternoon of conversations with the authors (in English) at Columbia University’s Deutsches Haus on Friday afternoon (open to the public, and followed by a reception); and two events each on Saturday and Sunday with the festival authors joined by local authors Adam Haslett, Eric Banks, Tiphanie Yanique and Eric Jarosinski. Please check the listings for venues, times and RSVP information. And note in particular that the Sunday brunch always books up far in advance, so reserve your seat and plate now!

Also, guess what, @NeinQuarterly (Jarosinski) has been tweeting for FnL. Seriously.

In short, this festival is one of the most fun things can can possibly happen to you in Feburary. You don’t want to miss the chance to improve your month.

I’ll leave you with a word of welcome from the festival’s director, Brittany Hazelwood:

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Translation on Tap in NYC, Feb. 16 – 28, 2015

February has relented! Just as I was bemoaning the dearth of translation events in the earlier half of the month, all sorts of great offerings for the second half started rolling in. Feast your eyes on this!

Tuesday, Feb. 17:

The Bridge Series this month is all about 2014 Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano. A translator (Mark Polizzotti) and publisher (David. R. Godine) of his work will share the stage with Wall Street Journal fiction critic Sam Sacks to discuss the great French author, who despite receiving the prize of prizes is still too little known in this country. Moderated by Sal Robinson. Note the new Bridge venue: Albertine at 972 Fifth Ave. (between 78th and 79th St.), 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 21:

Festival Neue Literatur will be going on from Feb. 20-22 – all of it’s worth checking out – but one of the events on Feb. 21 is particularly translationtastic: Bowery Arts & Science at the Bowery Poetry Club will be hosting an FnL event cosponsored by Words Without Borders entitled “For the Love of Translation,” featuring translator + editor pairs discussing particular projects they’ve collaborated on: Tim Mohr talking with Michael Reynolds; Ross Ufberg with Michael Wise; Lisa Boscov-Ellen with Chad Post, and Translationista with Katie Raissian. Moderated by Sal Robinson. More details here. Probably not the worst idea to RSVP. 308 Bowery, 12:30 – 2:30. (Caution: the starting time given on the BPC website is wrong.)

Wednesday, Feb. 25:

Birds of Metal in Flight: An Evening of Poetry with 5+5. If you haven’t been to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Amsterdam Ave. in the past year, you’ve missed out on something spectacular: an incredible pair of enormous phoenixes made of scrap materials flying through the nave. It is truly a sight worth seeing, and they won’t be here much longer. And now you have a particularly good occasion to come see them: an extravaganza of a reading featuring five Chinese and five American poets (and translators): Bei Dao, Charles Bernstein, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Pierre Joris, Marilyn Nelson, Ouyang Jianghe, Afaa Weaver, Xi Chuan, Zhai Yongming, and Zhou Zan. All works will be presented bilingually (not sure whether the translating poets in the mix worked on these particular translations). And Xu Bing will be there as well. RSVP required, and I’m thinking this one is likely to fill up, so click the link soon if you’re able to attend. 1047 Amsterdam Ave. at 112th St., 7:00 p.m.

Also Wednesday, Feb. 25:

French Night à la Modiano at the Cornelia Street Cafe, with bilingual readings from three different Patrick Modiano novels, starting with Missing Person, translated by Daniel Weissbort. The readers will include Chris Clarke reading from his translation of Modiano’s 2009 Dans le cafe de la jeunesse perdue, forthcoming from NYRB Classics, and students from NYU’s MA program in Literary Translation reading their translations of excerpts from Modiano’s 2014 Pour que tu ne te perdes pas dans le quartier. More information here. 29 Cornelia Street, 6:00 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 27:

Magnificent Strangeness: An Evening with Yoko Tawada and Rivka Galchen. This event is being posted in violation of Translationista’s strict only-events-featuring-translators policy because of my utterly unabashed love of Yoko Tawada (whom I translate). I don’t want anyone to miss the chance to see her speak and perform as often as possible. And she’ll be in such good company: with Rivka Galchen as conversation partner, moderated by Alys George. This is definitely going to be a memorable evening, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. If you don’t RSVP right now, you might not get in. Deutsches Haus at NYU, 42 Washington Mews, 6:30. p.m.

 

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Time to Apply to Translate in Banff!

It’s February, which means it’s time to remind you, as I do every year, to apply to spend three weeks next June translating and talking about translation in Banff in the Canadian Rockies, one of the most spectacularly beautiful spots on earth. If you’ve read enough, just click over to the application form and get to work. If you want to read more about the Banff International Literary Translation Centre, I’ve written more about the place before. Or you can consult the website for more information. It’s a wonderful place to work (and hike when you’re done for the day), and the structure of the program allows for an ideal mixture of private work time and chances to interact with other translators and writers. The program is directed by Katherine Silver, who is seriously brilliant, as anyone who attended her “Debunking the Myth of the Literal” panel at ALTA 2014 can testify. Scholarships and travel stipends are available. The deadline this year is Feb. 18, so get to it!

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Translation on Tap in NYC, Feb. 1 – 15, 2015

I don’t know what to say. February would seem to be the cruelest month in Translationland. I’ve got nothing.

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Apply Now for the 2015 French-American Foundation Translation Prize

The French-American Foundation’s Translation Prize has been around since 1986 and offers one of the largest awards around ($10,000) for an outstanding translation from the French. The Foundation’s stated intention behind giving the prize is to promote French literature in the U.S., increase the visibility of translators and their craft, and support publishers of translated literature. Eligible projects for the 2015 competition are works of prose (fiction or non-fiction) published in the U.S. in 2014. The list of jury members is a veritable Who’s Who of French translation world celebrities. More details and instructions for submission here. If you have questions about the application process, contact Thibault Chareton in the French-American Foundation offices. The deadline is coming right up: Friday, February 13 at 12:00 p.m.

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2015 Austrian Cultural Forum Translation Prize Announced

The Austrian Cultural Forum has just announced that its 2015 translation prize is being awarded to Tess Lewis for her translation-in-progress of Maja Haderlap’s novel Engel des Vergessens (Angel of Oblivion). The $5000 award will be presented at a March 24 ceremony at the Austrian Cultural Forum (details to come). Lewis, whose previous translations from French and German include works by Peter Handke, Alois Hotschnig, Julya Rabinowich, Melinda Nadj Abonji, Pascal Bruckner, and Jean-Luc Benoziglio, is also the curator of Festival Neue Literatur, which will take place next month (Feb. 19 – 22) in New York.

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Apply Now for a 2015 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant

Michael Henry Heim

As most readers of this blog probably already know, winning a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant is one of the best ways to break into the translation scene as a newcomer, or to draw publishers’ attention to an unusual but worthy project. The size and number of available grants fluctuate every year along with the stock market, but usually there are something like a dozen grants awarded (last year there were 15), usually ranging from $2000-4000). Now that these grants have been around for a decade, many publishers of translations have gotten used to glancing over the list of winning projects to see if there’s anything likely to fit in the publisher’s list. According to PEN, “Among the 50 projects awarded grants in the Fund’s first five years of operation (2004–2008), 39 of those (78%) have thus far been published or are forthcoming from a publisher.” In other words, it’s definitely well worth your while to apply.

And how do you do that? For starters, hop over the PEN website for the application guidelines. The Fund recently transitioned to an online-based application process, so you’ll want to read the instructions carefully. This year’s deadline is Jan. 30, 2015.

One piece of information for the application that you should immediately start working on acquiring is the copyright notice, since this is information you’ll have to retrieve from the copyright holder. Here’s what the application guidelines say:

If the book is not in the public domain and the project is not yet under contract, please include a photocopy of the copyright notice on the original (the copyright notice is a line including the character ©, a date, and the name of the copyright holder, which appears as part of the front matter in every book), and a letter from the copyright holder stating that English-language rights to the book are available.

A letter like this is fairly straightforward to acquire in most cases. The copyright holder isn’t assigning the rights to you, the translator (that’s not legally possible in any case) but is simply confirming that the rights are available for purchase (by a future English-language publisher of the work). If the foreign publishing house has a website with contact information listings, you should easily be able to find the person in the publisher’s foreign rights division who’ll be able to give you such a letter If the publishing house isn’t online, you’ll have to put a query letter in the mail stat and hope for a speedy response. Or else start making some international phone calls. It’s my guess that in a difficult case (publisher not responding to letters after a reasonable amount of time) you won’t necessarily be disqualified from applying if you can demonstrate a good-faith effort to reach the right’s holder. But if the problem is that you waited to the last minute to start trying to round up this information, methinks that might not fly.

These grants were made possible by the incredible generosity of Priscilla Heim and the late Michael Henry Heim, a great translator from more languages than I have fingers. We’re lucky to have them. Check out the application instructions here, and then – Translationista advises – get cracking on your applications ASAP!

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