The Business of Literary Translation: A Bridge Series Event in Four Parts, Co-Presented by the PEN America Translation Committee. Part Two: Editing
The Business of Literary Translation: A Four-Part Series
Literary translation — as an art, a profession, and a presence in the publishing industry — has come a long way in the past decade. In this four-part event, co-presented by the Bridge Series and the PEN America Translation Committee, translators, editors, publishers, and booksellers hone in on four aspects of the business of literary translation, discussing what’s changed and what hasn’t, for better and for worse.
Part Two: Editing
How do you edit a translation? What do you need to know, or not know? How do you deal sensitively and appropriately with a text written in another language, and the writer, translator, foreign editor, and other parties who might have had a hand in creating it? Four experienced editors discuss the pleasures and puzzles of working on translations, from dealing with cultural differences to handling “translationese.”
Moderator: Sal Robinson
Participants: Lexy Bloom, Jeremy Davies, Declan Spring
Sal Robinson has been an editor for international literature at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Melville House. With Bill Martin and Monika Zaleska, she runs the Bridge.
Jeremy M. Davies was for some years Senior Editor at Dalkey Archive Press. He is the author of two novels, Rose Alley (2009) and Fancy (2015), as well as The Knack of Doing, a collection of short fiction forthcoming in March from David R. Godine.
Declan Spring is Vice President and Senior Editor at New Directions, where he has been working since 1991. He has edited books by Jorge Luis Borges, Horacio Castellanos-Moya, Inger Christensen, H.D., Thalia Field, Forrest Gander, Gustaw Herling, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Enrique Vila-Matas, and Paul West.