Writing in French

Today I would like to present you the book "La langue française vue d'ailleurs" which consists of 100 interviews conducted by Patrice Martin and Christophe Drevet with writers from all over the world who chose to write in French. The book has been published by Tarik Editions in 2001 and is based on the radio emission "La Langue française vue d'ailleurs" (MEDI 1). Each interview is about two to three pages long and focuses on the questions of bilingualism and the choice of their literary language. Each interview is accompanied by a few bio- and bibliographical information on the writer. Amongst the 100 writers are also a few self-translators, namely Vassilis Alexakis, Rachid Boudjedra, Nancy Huston and Anne Weber.

Anne Weber in Düsseldorf

I am very happy to host a lecture with the German-French self-translator Anne Weber on 18th June at 8pm in the zakk, Düsseldorf, Germany. She will present the German version of her new book "August" and will also read from her translation of Pierre Michon "Das Leben der kleinen Toten".

Jorge Semprún

Today is a sad day. The Spanish-French writer and self-translator Jorge Semprún passed away...
Read here the obituary of El País.

In an interview with Patricia López López-Gay he has talked about his self-translation of Federico Sanchez vous salue bien/Federico Sánchez se despide de ustedes: "Bueno, la libertad del autotraductor es total, hay que refrenarla, limitarla. Supongo que para todo autotraductor, la tentación sería el escribir un libro diferente. [...] no sé, en un libro autotraducido me permitiría cambiar el orden de las cosas, con el tiempo pasado; permite corregirse."

LÓPEZ LÓPEZ-GAY, P., “Conversación con Jorge Semprún. Sobre autotraducción: de los recuerdos y sus formas de reescritura”, Quaderns: revista de traducció, 16, 2009, pp. 157-164.