August 2022 translation news roundup

The jury of the 2023 International Booker Prize(opens in a new tab) was announced this month. Its members will include Leïla Slimani, Francesca Mantovani, Frederick Studemann, Uilleam Blacker, Parul Sehgal, and Tan Twan Eng.

Submissions are now open for the 2023 Sheikh Zayed Book Award(opens in a new tab), “presented annually to outstanding writers, intellectuals, and publishers, as well as young talent whose writing and translation in humanities objectively enriches Arab intellectual, cultural, literary and social life”

U.S. and Canada applications for 2023 Guggenheim fellowships are open(opens in a new tab) until September 16.

The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library is accepting fellowship applications (opens in a new tab)until September 30.

the seams(opens in a new tab), a small new translation collective dedicated to Southeast Asian literature, launched this month. Their website includes an extensive (and growing) database of Southeast Asian titles translated into English(opens in a new tab), event updates, and more. Follow them on Twitter @seams_translate(opens in a new tab).

Consequence Forum is accepting submissions for a new feature focused on North & South Korea(opens in a new tab), seeking projects in “translated prose, poetry, and graphic/visual arts” that engage with the nations’ ongoing history of war. Submissions close on October 15.

Poetic Africa(opens in a new tab), a quarterly trilingual poetry magazine published by Writers Space Africa(opens in a new tab), is accepting submissions in English, French, or Swahili until September 10 for publication in its November 2022 issue.

The antitrust trial to block the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster has prompted many to ask — is publishing about art or commerce?(opens in a new tab)

Writers “gather to read Salman Rushdie’s words and raise his spirits(opens in a new tab)” at the New York Public Library

Oozing Class(opens in a new tab) — The leaky fictions of Wolfgang Hilbig

Read Your Way Through Cairo(opens in a new tab) — Featuring Slipping by Mohamed Kheir

A Text Adrift(opens in a new tab) — How does the death of the author change the task of the translator?

A Fertile Contamination(opens in a new tab) — Valeria Luiselli on considering translations among the year’s best short stories for the O. Henry Prize

“Some say my translations read like originals, and originals, like translations”(opens in a new tab) — An interview with Bengali translator turned critically-acclaimed author Aruna Chakravarti

Found in Translation(opens in a new tab) — How well are translated Chinese novels doing?

Hopscotch Translation’s 2022 Publisher Forum(opens in a new tab) — Nine presses discuss the challenges and joys of publishing literature in translation

Don’t miss ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly’s collections of short fiction by Arab women(opens in a new tab) for #WITMonth(opens in a new tab).