by Siobhan O’Leary For years, those who move and shake in the international publishing scene have bemoaned the fact that only three percent of the books published in the US are books published in translation. There are signs, however, that German authors — from Jenny Erpenbeck to Daniel Kehlmann — are gaining in popularity worldwide. Ullstein’s foreign rights director Pia …
2011 Best Translated Book Award Winners Announced
Poetry: Aleš Šteger’s The Book of Things translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry Fiction: Tove Jansson’s The True Deceiver translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal Each winning author and translator will receive a $5,000 prize sponsored by Amazon.com From the press release: April 29, 2011 — The winning titles and translators for this year’s Best Translated Book Awards …
How To Get Published When You’re Not a Cliche
David Unger is the US rep for the Guadalajara International Book Fair. Born Guatemala, he lives in New York, writes in English, but is more widely published in Spanish. By David Unger NEW YORK CITY: I am the US rep for the Guadalajara International Book Fair so I know more than I need to know about the schizoid business of …
Do Too Many Publishers Traffic in Stereotypes?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature story by David Unger discusses his circuitous path toward publication, writing in English and being published in Spanish. One of the complaints foreign authors have who have failed to find publishers abroad is that publishers often have a narrow, if not limited view of a culture. The argument often heard is that readers expect books …
Did Russia’s Spotlight at the London Book Fair Generate Business for You?
By Edward Nawotka Russia is taking several star turns at book fairs as “guest of honor” — first in London earlier this month and next year at BookExpo America. The country’s literary reputation overseas is largely based on classic texts and a handful of translated authors who have broken through — Boris Akunin, Viktor Pelevin, Tatyana Tolstaya, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, and Lyudmila Ulitskaya …
Russia’s Literary Monster: The Wild, Unpredictable World of Vladimir Sorokin
A “living classic,” Sorokin pushes boundaries by writing about a Russia rife with violence, coprophilia, violence, rape, violence, aliens, violence, clones and more violence. He makes his American debut in New York this weekend at the PEN World Voices Festival. By Daniel Kalder At the London Book Fair earlier this month, Russia was featured as Guest of Honor. Nearly every Russian …
Does a Narrow Focus Give a Trade Publisher a Competitive Advantage?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature story offers a profile of Gallic Books, a UK-based publisher that specializes in translations from the French, a previously underserved niche in the market. As publishers face increasing competition from self-publishing, tech start-ups and the Web, does such single-mindedness offer them any competitive advantage? Certainly by developing an expertise in a particular market segment, publisher …
The Elegance of Gallic Books
The English publisher is devoted exclusively to translations from French, and business is good By Olivia Snaije Books in translation? And only from French? Most would have seen it as a long shot. Yet the founders of the 3-year old London-based Gallic Books, Jane Aitken, Managing Director, and Editorial Director Pilar Webb, have pulled it off and then some. They …
Brazil Is the Country of the Future, and the Future is Now
By Carlo Carrenho “For so long, Brazil was a nation brimming with potential but held back by politics, both at home and abroad. For so long, you were called a country of the future, told to wait for a better day that was always just around the corner. My friends, that day has finally come. And this is a country …
Has a Translation Prompted You to Seek Out The Book in the Original Language?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature story suggests that English-language literature is at risk of being diminished because of writers’ and readers’ limited language skills in the English-speaking world. As part of that argument, he suggests that numerous titles are now being written specifically to cater to the translation market, further diminishing the richness of a work. Smith also suggests that …