The weather’s heating up and the holidays are coming. So, our June translation news includes some summer reading. Whether you’re planning on lying on a beach somewhere or just relaxing at home, why not enjoy some translated literature? Writing for Paperback Paris, Melissa Ratcliff has created a list of 18 works of translated literature that will be released between May and July this year.
Titles include Mieko Kawakami’s Heaven, Shiori Ito’s memoir, Black Box, and Genzaburo Yoshino’s How Do You Live Now? The list includes works from a range of different languages, all translated into English.
Staying with literary translation, The Guardian reports that the first ever direct translation into English of the Polish science fiction author Stanisław Lem’s most famous novel, Solaris, has been published this month. The article explains: “the only English edition to date is Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox’s 1970 version, which was translated from a French version which Lem himself described as poor.” It’s been published as an audiobook, with an e-book to follow in the coming six months or so.
If all that’s inspired you to find out more about translated literature, or you just love a good book fair, it looks like the Lisbon Book Fair is going ahead this year. Usually held in May or June, COVID-19 restrictions have meant it’s been pushed back to later in the summer. Dates for 2021 are 27 August to 13 September.
One of the oldest cultural festivals, the Lisbon Book Fair has been held in the Portuguese capital every summer since the 1930s and is open and free to the public.
If you’re interested in working on your literary translation skills, watch out for our new group translation sessions starting in the autumn. They’ll focus on different areas of the DipTrans exam, which will include sessions where we translate literary texts. Check out our courses for Spanish-to-English translators.
