Translated literature - books, websites

[Eric]

I do remember, now that you've reminded me. This is rather an eye-opener, Miss Maggs. If all you have written is true, this is a veritable scandal worthy of TV programmes such as Panorama or Newsnight.

You say:

The British Library must statutorily receive a copy of each book published on the British Isles and in Ireland. It is then their obligation to research the data and provide UNESCO with a bibliography of translations published in all fields of writing. Unfortunately, for some odd, altogether wonderous reason, the Her MAjesty's National Library (over on the Isles ) has not supplied the Index Staff with any records since 1990!!! Britian is amongst the worst laggers participating in the entire project. The staff are dubbing this behaviour a veritble streak of British eccentricity.... hmm...

It's more than eccentricty. Without wishing to prejudge the whole issue, it could very well be another instance of Britain, which is in the doghouse for many things at present, failing to fulfil its promises. But a couple of my recent translations were published in the USA and even Hungary. So I'd have to look again to see whether those are, or are not listed. Since we last discussed this in June, I have moved house and will have to try to remember and investigate everything again.

I'll investigate this. It's all rather interesting.

[chuvak6]

Actually, one of the unfortunate things about living in America is the small percentage of translated literature that we have from other parts of the world. However, I actually am doing an internship right now for a very small press which only publishes literature in translation, which is great. They only publish 10 or 12 books a year, but they're always interesting and sometimes from this little-heard of places.

Their website is:
Open Letter Books

I speak Russian and have seem some pretty "shabby" translations, that I know we've all run across, but their translations are actually really great, and I'm very excited that the first fully-translated The Golden Calf will be coming out in December! At last Americans can have access to this hilarious and insightful book! Can't wait to see what their picks will be for next year...

[Purple Peacock Books]

We have been translating French literature (modern classics and contemporary) into Bengali for the past 5 years now and have done Genet, Duras, Gavalda and now Atiq Rahimi. We are looking to spread our wings and find more world literature. Any ideas where to find details on this?