May 2019 translation news roundup
Lots of exciting goings-on in the translation world in May, here’s what you may have missed!
PRIZES
The 2019 Man Booker International Prize(opens in a new tab) was awarded to Omani author Jokha Alharthi and translator Marilyn Booth for Celestial Bodies. Alharthi is the first Omani woman author to be translated into English.
The 2019 Best Translated Book Awards(opens in a new tab) went to Patrick Chamoiseau’s Slave Old Man, translated by Linda Coverdale; and Of Death. Minimal Odes, written by Hilda Hirst and translated by Laura Cesarco Eglin.
Translator Damion Searls won this year’s Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his translation of Uwe Johnson’s Anniversaries.
Kim Sagwa’s Mina (translated by Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton) is a CLMP Firecracker Award finalist(opens in a new tab)! Awards will be announced June 5.
NEWS
The Guardian(opens in a new tab) noted that 11 of the 13 books longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize were published by independent presses, leading prize judge Maureen Freely to say that “The really good independents have become the cultural talent scouts.”
Open Letter Books publisher asks “will translated fiction ever really break through?”(opens in a new tab)
“Untranslatable” words (opens in a new tab)tell us more about English speakers than other cultures
Las Vegas has emerged as a new literary hub(opens in a new tab)
Translator Daniel Hahn talks about the art of translation(opens in a new tab)
The BBC World Service(opens in a new tab) posted short interviews with all of the Man Booker International Prize finalist authors and translators.
Vulture put together a list of 15 Must-Read Translated Books From the Past 5 Years(opens in a new tab)
READING LIST
Two Lines founder Olivia Sears was interviewed in the Kenyon Review(opens in a new tab)
Beyond Babylon was reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement(opens in a new tab): “ten years since publication, the message of Igiaba Scego’s novel of intertwined identities is no less urgent in Robertson’s new translation.”
An excerpt from Beyond Babylon appeared on Literary Hub(opens in a new tab)
Words Without Borders(opens in a new tab) reviewed Duanwad Pimwana’s new books Bright and Arid Dreams, both translated by Mui Poopoksakul
TranslatedLit included Bjørn Rasmussen’s The Skin Is the Elastic Covering That Encases the Entire Body on its Most Anticipated Books(opens in a new tab) for June.
UPCOMING EVENTS
June 20 | Translating Natalia Ginzburg: Minna Proctor in Conversation with Ismail Muhammad
