By Chip Rossetti I want to thank Ed for letting me take a turn guest-editing Publishing Perspectives while he takes a well-deserved break — even if, in Ed’s case, it’s a working vacation. It’s been amazing to witness the growth of Publishing Perspectives in the last year-and-a-half: it’s hard to believe it was only at BEA 2009 that Ed first …
Mesmerism, Hiccups: Roberto Bolaño’s Strange Early Novel of the Occult
Monsieur Pain by Roberto Bolaño (translated by Chris Andrews) reviewed by Gwendolyn Dawson Set in Paris in 1938, Monsieur Pain is the first-person account of a series of strange events in the life of a practitioner of animal magnetism (a mesmerist). With typical élan, Pain, an eccentric bachelor, explains how he became a mesmerist after a bad experience in World …
M. Frédéric Grellier, The Blind Book Translator of Paris
By David Fulmer In the spring of 2006, I heard the exciting news that my first three novels — Chasing the Devil’s Tail, Jass, and Rampart Street – would be published in French translation by Rivages. It had been a long time coming, but the wait was worth it. Not only was France a natural fit for books set in …
Bakkers “The Twin” Wins €100,000 IMPAC Prize
By Edward Nawotka The Twin by Dutch writer Gerbrand Bakker has won the 2010 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award. The prize is touted as being among the richest book prizes in the world, with €100,000 awarded to the winning author. In this case, since the book was translated, Bakker receives €75,000 and the translator, David Colmer, wins €25,000. The Twin …
Talking Turkey: Istanbul’s Amy Spangler on Founding a Literary Agency Abroad
By Amy Marie Spangler ISTANBUL: When I arrived in Istanbul in August of 1999, just a few months after graduating from college, I had not planned to launch a literary agency in Turkey. My plan was to brush up on my Turkish for a year before pursuing graduate studies in Germanics. (Sounds odd, I know, but I wanted to focus …
What Turkish Authors Do You Want Translated?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story describes Amy Spangler’s experiences launching a literary agency in Istanbul and the challenges of selling Turkish authors abroad. Asked what some of her top clients are that she’d like more attention for, she replied: Hatice Meryem, whose book May I Have a Fly-Sized Husband to Watch Over Me, is being published in Germany by …
Want More Rights Deals and Translations? Try Taking Editors and Publishers Overseas
By Chad Post TURIN: “Let me tell you something: the U.S. market is closed to Italian books,” said Italian literary agent Marco Vigevani on a panel about translation at the Turin International Book Fair last month. “It may sound crazy,” he continued, “but I want you to face the facts. Yes, it used to be different. There were editors like …
Whatever Happened to US Spanish-language Publishing?
By Edward Nawotka In today’s lead story, we look at how one small bilingual Spanish-English publisher makes the most out of cross-border collaboration. Less than a decade ago, Spanish-language US publishing was all the rage, with new imprints opening at most of the major publishing houses? But years later, the excitement is gone, despite the fact that the Spanish-speaking populating …
The Arte Público Alternative: How One Small Press Tackles Foreign Sales and Distribution
In the lead up to next week’s BookExpo America, where Spain is the focus of the Global Market Forum, we offer a look at how one bilingual Spanish-English publisher makes the most out of cross-border collaboration. By Dr. Nicolás Kanellos HOUSTON: As the director of non-profit Arte Público Press (APP), a program of the University of Houston that focuses on publishing …
Whatever Happened to US Spanish-language publishing?
By Emily Williams With Spain as the Global Market Focus this year, we thought it worthwhile to look at the existing market for Spanish-language books in the US. The Hispanic book buying market is estimated at about $1 billion, of which 30-35% of those sales are in Spanish language books. But less than a decade ago Spanish-language readers in the …