Lose your language to find it.. Mikhail Shishkin

There's a whole bunch of Russian writers at the Book Fair, something that warms my soul..

Of course what's hype, what's not... even the Saturday Guardian seemed to warm most to the sensational side of things: mentioning only one of the authors brought over - who happens to be a larger-than-life figure willing to splash right into hot water by making all sorts of statements about Jews and Russians. Bykov is certainly a gifted orator, I haven't read his writing yet.

Anyway - the authors are reading in London (Waterstones, Picadilly at 6:30 every day this week incl. Saturday), and on Thurs and Fri around our island (Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Cambridge, Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh, St Andrews).

I did hear Mikhail Shishkin talk about his writing last night. And read a short translated extract. He seems like the real thing. He talked about how he lost his language when he moved to Switzerland with his Swiss wife - in order to find it again. He said that every writer must decide if he's chasing today's language - and nothing changes as fast as that, becomes stale as quickly - or if he's going to find his own language.

He said lots more interesting stuff too, but best to point you towards his books. Which is tricky. Nothing in English yet, (surprise, surprise), except a short excerpt or two (see Rossica 19, the beautifully produced magazine from the organization behind the reading tour).

But a novel is coming out next year in Germany (Venushaar), and some travel writing is available in German. If you read French, look for 'Chichkine' on the publisher Fayard's list, that's him.

oh, and another green shoot!

About this time last year Meike Ziervogel was wandering round the London Book Fair, hatching a little plan, and it seems it's not only hope that springs eternal:
Her publisher Peirene Press is now up and running and no doubt her authors in translation will, like Peirene's fountain, inspire British readers and writers. One title coming up is by the Catalan writer Maria Barbal - a novel with an unusually calm voice Meike says. I'm looking forward to reading it in English, as it will be co-translated by Laura McGloughlin.. someone with a similar name claims she's having Pete Doherty's baby, that's not her!
Laura is a great translator, and when I was getting a short extract of Willemsen's An Afghan Journey translated her editing eye was invaluable (thank you!).

company for a trip to berlin, paris or amsterdam?

So.. here's news of another little outfit that's started in spite of larger publishers crashing and burning right now.
They're two people with publishing experience, who realized that when they travelled they didn't have a ready way to accompany their travels with reading from that place.. hence Oxygen Books, a kind of city-themed anthology series. They are very keen on contemporary writing, stuff that hasn't been translated yet, stuff about what it's like to be in that city now (as well as more classic bits of writing on that city).

the fun of the fair

Decided to head down to London for the headrush of the fair this year, and it's worth it. So many feel-good signs of plucky little publishing. Here's one very new, very green shoot..

A website and events put together by a group of translators from Chinese. They know some great authors.. for now I'll let you explore their site, Paper Republic.

They also have an event on soon, wish I was still in London!:

Thursday 23 April 2009 – London, East meets West: Authors Talking to Authors, featuring Han Dong, Xinran, Aamer Hussein, Kate Pullinger, and Richard Lea of the Guardian newspaper. Venue: Oxfam shop, 91 Marylebone High St, London, W1U 4RB. Tel: 020 74873570. Please call in advance to book a place. 7pm.

Expect another few little posts over the next few days.

the wealth of translation: Brazilian poets: 5, in the UK, ever.

Without wanting to labour a point raised in the last post - trawling British Library and other catalogues, I've found a total of five Brazilian poets who have been graced with full poetry collections from a British press!:

Andrade, Carlos Drummond de (1981) The minus sign (Manchester: Carcanet).
Translated by Virginia de Araujo.

Bandeira, Manuel (1984) Recife (London: Rivelin Grapheme).
Translated by Eddie Flintoff.

Espínola, Adriano (1992) Taxi, or, Poem of love in transit (New York; London: Garland).
Translated by Charles A. Perrone.

Olinto, Antonio (1972) Theories and other poems (London: Rex Collins).
Translated by Jean McQuillen.
Olinto, Antonio (1986) O Dia da Ira = The Day of Wrath (Rio de Janeiro: Nordica; London: Collings).
Translated by Richard Chappell.

Padilha, Telmo. (1976) Bird/Night (London: Collings).
Translated by Fernando Camacho.

I've probably missed someone.
And no, the fact that Olinto had two translations doesn't mean he's the one to go for necessarily. Olinto and Espínola aren't household names, and I'll be honest that I haven't come across their poetry yet, so won't comment on it.
Bandeira and Drummond de Andrade are incredible though. Michael Hamburger talks a lot about Drummond de Andrade in his The Truth of Poetry.

the famous 3 per cent? If only!

It often gets bandied about that only 3% of books published in English are in translation. Well, it's probably worse.
The source of this out-of-date figure seems to be Venuti's The Translator's Invisibility (p20 of Routledge's 95, edition): he says 3 per cent of US books are in translation - of UK books he finds the figure is 2.4 per cent!

In any case, as a blog linked to a brilliant new U.S. publisher of translations points out:
"that 3% figure includes all books in translation—in terms of literary fiction and poetry, the number is actually closer to 0.7%"
0.7% for the U.S., and it's clear as day that the % of literary fiction/poetry in translation in the UK is lower still.