The Art of Translation at NPR
This piece doesn’t necessarily break any new ground, but it’s nice to see NPR covering the art of literary translation. Rick Kleffel’s piece begins by pointing out the impossibility of a literal translation, then focuses on three translators: Bea Basso, who points out the difficulty of capturing the ...
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Publishing Models, Translations, and the Financial Collapse (Part 7)
This is the seventh part of a presentation I gave to the German Book Office directors a couple weeks ago. Earlier sections of the speech can be found here. There are still a number of parts left to post, but these should all be up before the end of the month. Stage Three: Financial Collapse, the Borders Situation, ...
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Latest Review: Belonging
Our latest review is of Belonging: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World, edited and translated by Niloufar Talebi. Niloufar is an extremely talented translator and performer, and runs the very impressive Translation Project, which promotes contemporary Iranian literature through a variety of media. A great example of ...
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Belonging: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World
Let’s start with a disclaimer. I am in no way qualified to discuss Iranian poetry as it relates to the country’s larger social, historical, or literary culture. The sad truth is that the number of critics in America who are qualified—fully, truly qualified—to critique a translation of Iranian poetry is miniscule. ...
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Mathias Enard's Zone
Yesterday afternoon, Publishers Weekly sent out an e-mail alert regarding Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s decision to “temporarily” (their quotes, not mine) pause acquisitions. Which doesn’t sound very good: Josef Blumenfeld, v-p of communications for HMH, confirmed that the publisher has ...
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New Frankfurt Book Fair Newsletter
The November Issue of the Frankfurt Book Fair Newsletter is now available online. There are a few interesting pieces in here, including one about China’s new program to fund translations: Dr. Jing Bartz: The minister from the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) approved the first list of ...
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Publishing Models, Translations, and the Financial Collapse (Part 6)
This is the sixth part of a presentation I gave to the German Book Office directors a couple weeks ago. Earlier sections of the speech can be found here. There are still a number of parts left to post, but these should all be up before the end of the month. There are a few key differences between the commercial houses and ...
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