New Voices in Self-Translation: Cristina Sandu (Finnish-English)

Finnish author Cristina Sandu (*1989) was born in Helsinki to Finnish-Romanian parents. She currently lives in the UK and is signed with the literary agency Rights & Brands. Sandu grew up bilingual and speaks six languages, however she only self-translates between Finnish and English:

"I grew up in a bilingual family, speaking Finnish with my mother and Romanian with my father. In Finland everybody needs to learn Swedish too, as those are the two official languages of the country. In addition to that, I learned French and English at school, and Spanish by myself mainly out of passion for Latin American literature." (Loughran 2021)

Sandu wrote her debut novel Valas nimeltä Goliat (Otava 2017) in Finnish. While it has been translated into several languages and got nominated for the prestigious literary Prize Finlandia, it is not yet available in English translation. Her second novella Vesileikit (Otava 2019) / The Union of Synchronised Swimmers (Scribe 2021 (UK,USA & Australia); Book Hug 2021 (Canada)), however, Sandu wrote in both Finnish and English. She was shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize for literary translation for the English version (see https://www.occt.ox.ac.uk/oxford-weidenfeld-prize). So why did Sandu started self-translating? Like Itäranta, Sandu start self-translating early on to get feedback on her drafts:

"My closest writer friends don’t speak Finnish, so when I needed readers, already while writing the Finnish draft, I started working on the manuscript in two languages. It was more writing in two languages than translating, really." (Sidal 2021)

The bilingual writing process resulted in "dozens of drafts in both Finnish and English." (Sidal 2021) While the initial impulse to self-translate was reader-orientated, Sandu soon became aware of the potential of translation to improve the draft:

"But then I also realized that translating is a very useful tool for editing, because as I moved from one language to the other, I got some distance with the text and I could see more clearly my own excesses, repetitions, clumsinesses, and so on." (Book*hug Press 2021: 01:42-02:04)

Sandu feels that the English version has lost some clarity and dynamics compared to the Finnish version:

"In Finnish there are no genders, nor articles or prepositions (Finnish has cases). I sometimes feel that these details make the English version less dynamic and clear. This is probably because I still approach English from the outside, and translating/writing happens slowly, with the help of dictionaries. (Siddal 2021)

The novella is still trying to break through to the international market, but translation rights have been sold for Dutch in April 2022.

References:

Book*hug Press. 2021. "Cristina Sandu Introduces The Union of Synchronized Swimmers". Published on June 21, 2021 on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3khKnApJFw&ab_channel=Book%2ahugPress 

Loughran, Sean.2021."In conversation with Cristina Sandu". Published on September 16, 2021 on the book review platform Avocado Diaries: https://www.avocadodiaries.com/2021/09/in-conversation-with-cristina-sandu.html

Rights & Brands. 2021."Finnish-Romanian author Cristina Sandu navigates between two cultures in her narrative". Podcast Episode 7 on: https://rightsandbrands.com/news/rights-brands-podcast-episode-7-finnish-romanian-author-cristina-sandu-navigates-between-two-cultures-in-her-narrative

Siddal, Lizzy. 2021. "Meet The Author/Translator: Cristina Sandu". Published on June 10, 2021 on the blog Lizzy's Literary Life (Volume One) – Celebrating the pleasures of a 21st century bookworm. URL: https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/2021/06/10/meet-the-author-translator-cristina-sandu/

New Voices in Self-Translation: Emmi Itäranta (Finnish-English)

Acclaimed science fiction author Emmi Itäranta (*1976) writes her novels in both Finnish and English, with manuscripts always created side by side. She was born in Tampere, Finland, but moved to Canterbury, UK, in 2007 where she lived for 14 years. Recently, she moved back to Finland. Since she kept travelling back to Finland while living abroad, she can be classified as a transmigrant self-translator (Gentes 2019).

Thus far, Itäranta has published three self-translated novels, which won several awards both in Finland and in the UK:

• Teemestarin kirja (Teos, 2012) / Memory of Waters (Harper Collins 2014);
• Kudottujen kujien kaupunki (Teos 2015) / The City of Woven Streets (Harper Voyager, UK 2016) / The Weaver (Harper Voyager USA 2016);
• Kuunpäivän kirjeet (Teos, 2020) / Moonday Letters (Titan Books, UK 2022)

Itäranta wrote the manuscript of her first novel while pursuing a master's degree in creative writing at the University of Kent. Because the Finnish manuscript of her first novel Teemestarin kirja (Teos, 2012) / Memory of Waters (Harper Collins 2014) won Teos Publishing's science fiction and fantasy novel contest in 2011, the Finnish version of the novel was published much earlier than the English one. As is often the case, however, the gap between the two publications does not indicate a consecutive self-translation process. Itäranta is indeed a systematic simultaneous self-translator (for the distinction between simultaneous and consecutive self-translations see Grutman 2009), writing both versions of her novels at the same time. So how did Itärante become a bilingual writer?

Her first novel grew out of an attempt to write a short  story during a creative writing course at the University of Kent. So English was an obvious choice. So why did she decide to include Finnish in the process?

"Once I had written one or two chapters, I realised that it would be really useful to get some feedback from my Finnish writing group. We meet once a month online. So I wrote those early chapters in Finnish, too. As I was doing that, I began to realise that working in both languages actually helped me polish the writing, because I had to look at it so closely." (Marten 2015)

Itäranta takes a very strategic approach to writing (on her writing process, see Riikonen 2014 in detail), and so it is not surprising that she also immediately developed a strategy for her bilingual writing process, which she improved upon for her next two novels:

“Most of the time I ended up writing the first draft of each chapter in Finnish, then I would translate it into English and edit it, making some changes as I translated, then update the Finnish version of the chapter” (Marten 2015). 

Each chapter goes through several versions in both languages before Itäranta moves on to the next chapter. The editing process is never unidirectional and both versions influence each other throughout the self-translation process: “Each chapter actually took shape through those two languages” (Marten 2015). Being constantly aware about the translation task ahead, may affect a self-translator's choice of style, as Itäranta confirms:

"I thought about how sentences and words would translate from one language to the other already while writing, and sometimes this may have simplified the language unnecessarily. [...] In order to find balance between the languages, I had to make some compromises. [...] I would have probably used Finnish more daring had I not been thinking about the English equivalents when writing. On the other hand, using two languages stripped away superfluous words and unnecessary decorations, because I had to think about the way each sentence worked several times" (Riikonen 2014, p. 18).

The negotiation between the two languages sometimes results in neologisms which prove challenging for her translators: "Sometimes I hear back from translators who don’t know what to make of my neologisms or other choices" (Karppanen 2017:7). The bilingual writing process also presents an additional challenge for her Finnish editors: 

“Finnish editors also need to be able to spot any Anglicisms in my writing. I try to be careful not to use them, but sometimes I slip up. Readers are also very particular about good language, so it’s important that any foreign structures are edited out” (Kortela 2021).

The textual relationship between the two versions is a subject of much controversy in research on self-translation (see, e.g. Fitch 1988, Oustinoff 2001). Itäranta takes a clear stand on this issue: 

"The English version is not a translation. The Finnish version is not a translation. They are both the original, and each was shaped by the constant presence of the other. They are twins, inseparable, and would not be the same without each other." (Itäranta 2014) 

In her analysis of the debut novel Memory of Waters, Katarina Leppänen underscores that the bilingual approach to writing creates a novel that "transgresses culture" in a unique way: 

"What Itäranta does is to build her work on two sets of languages and cultures simultaneously. In contrast to the effect of multilingual or bilingual texts, where distance and familiarity is created by words present in the text, such as slang, foreign words or sentences, or dialect, Itäranta’s text produces a world beyond the assumed British and Finnish literary and cultural contexts. What is achieved is not a hybrid, but rather an abstraction. It is thus already in the moment of creation a piece of world literature that transgresses culture not only by placing the events in another (fictive) world, but also by the cross-fertilization in making sense of different cultural contexts, the very process of intellectual back-and-forth movement, which cannot be grounded anywhere in between." (Leppänen 2020: 428)

Self-translation is often portrayed as a painful experience, a tedious re-enactment of a once creative act: "a real torture" (Miletic 2008: 44), "Boring, frustrating, painful" (Cordingley 2013: 5), "exquisitely painful" (Beaujour 1995: 719).  Itäranta, however, asserts: "It's not a burden.[...] I enjoy the interaction between the two languages" (Islam 2022: 3:59-4:27). In fact many statements by authors are followed by a "but" (see Gentes 2017: 109-112), and writers like Itäranta highlight the rewarding nature of self-translation:

 "You get very, very close to the text when you work in two languages; translators often spot details that the author and editor may have missed. It is a slow process, and hard work, but ultimately I find it rewarding." (Moore 2014)

Itäranti's novels are internationally successful: According to the website of her literary agency Elina Ahlback, the debut novel was translated into 21 languages, translation rights for her second novel have already been sold to Brazil, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy and for her third novel to Czech Republic and Hungary. Katarina Leppänen suggests that the English self-translation may have played a decisive role in this success: "When it comes to the question of quick global publication, an existing English version is of course a great benefit for a debuting author as it gives access to the transnational world literary networks" (Leppänen 2020: 428).

References on Itäranta:

Homepage: https://www.emmiitaranta.com/
Literary agency: https://www.ahlbackagency.com/author/emmi-itaranta/?authorId=15

Islam, Mahmudul.2020. "Dystopian thinking, bilingual writing, and Finnish culture". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXntTW-F7jM&ab_channel=MahmudulIslam-Finnophile

Itäranta, Emmi. 2014. "Guest Post: Emmi Itäranta, author of MEMORY OF WATER". Published on 16.06.2014 on Harper Voyager: https://www.harpervoyagerbooks.com/guest-post-emmi-itaranta-author-of-memory-of-water/

Karppanen, Pasi Karppanen. 2017. "Conquering the World as a Finnish Author". In: Spin, issue 2/2017. http://pasikarppanen.net/texts/2017-02a_Conquering-the-World-as-a-Finnish-Author.pdf 

Kortela, Anne. 2021. "Turku Book Fair. Digging into the Core". https://anjasnellmanbooks.com/book-fair.html

Leppänen, Katarina. 2020. "Memory of Water: Boundaries of Political Geography and World Literature." European Review, 28(3), 425-434. doi:10.1017/S1062798719000541

Marten, Peter. 2015. "Finnish author writes memories of the future". May 2015. https://finland.fi/arts-culture/finnish-author-writes-memories-of-the-future/

Moore, Lucy. 2014. "Exclusive interview with Emmi Itäranta". Published on 15.05.2015 on Female First, https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/books/emmi-itaranta-memory-of-water-470063.html

Riikonen, Marika. 2014. "The words will flow as long as she can move her hands". Finnish Weird. Translated by Marianna Leikomaa. First published in Tähtivaeltaja 2/2011. English translation available on: https://www.finnishweird.net/files/finnish_weird_2014.pdf

References on self-translation research:

Beaujour, Elizabeth Klosty. 1995. "Translation and self-translation". In: Vladimir E. Alexandrov (ed.): The Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov. New York / London: Garland, 714–724.

Cordingley, Anthony. 2013. “The Passion of Self-Translation: A Masocritical Perspective.” In: Anthony Cordingley (ed.), Self-Translation: Brokering Originality in Hybrid Culture. London: Continuum, 81–94.

Fitch, Brian T. 1988. Beckett and Babel. An Investigation into the State of the Bilingual Work. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Gentes, Eva. 2017. (Un-)Sichtbarkeit der literarischen Selbstübersetzung in der romanischsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur. Eine literatur- und übersetzungssoziologische Annäherung. Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf.  https://docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-45333/Gentes_Dissertation.lit_Selbstübersetzung.pdf

Gentes, Eva. 2019. “Transmigration und Selbstübersetzung – Linda Olsson und Miroslav Penkov.” In: Bruno Berni & Alessandra D’Atena (eds.), Autotraduzione. Obiettivi, strategie, testi. Roma: Istituto italiano di studi germanici, 122–144.

Grutman, Rainier. 2009. "Self-translation". In: Mona Baker (ed.): Routlegde Encyclopaedia of Translation. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge, 257–260.

Miletic, Tijana. 2008. European Literary Immigration into the French Language. Readings of Gary, Kristof, Kundera and Semprún. Amsterdam / New York: Rodop.

Oustinoff, Michaël. 2001. Bilinguisme d’écriture et auto–traduction: Julien Green, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov. Paris: L’Harmattan.

New Voices in Self-Translation: Heddi Goodrich (Italian-English)

Heddi Goodrich (*1971, Washington) translated her debut novel Perduti nei Quartieri Spagnoli (Giunti, 2019) into English. Lost in the Spanish Quarter was published by HarperCollins in 2019. 
Born in the United States, Heddi Godrich spent her high school and university years in Naples and moved to New Zealand in the 1990s. The autofictional novel is inspired by her own experiences in Italy. The creation process was in fact more complex than one might assume. Goodrich explained that she initially started writing the novel in English: 

"My first few drafts were actually in English. I'm an English teacher after all, and a copyeditor too: that is, I'm a very competent writer in my native language. But, as it turns out, I'm not a very inspired writer." (Goodrich, 2019)

Not being able to find a publisher for her novel, she first tried to get the novel translated into Italian, but soon realized that she has to give the novel a fresh start by writing it directly in Italian:

"Everything started to flow. And I thought this was the language that I needed to be writing it in all along, my whole life. This is actually my voice." (Herkt 2019)

Since she is not only a teacher and editor, but also a translator, there was no question in her mind that she would translate the novel herself. She describes translating her novel into English as a "fun intellectual challenge" (Goodrich, 2019). Encouraged by her editor she started self-translating within a week after the editing of the Italian version was completed (cf. Carlacchiani 2021). In an interview with Debora Carlacchiani (2021) she describes the difficulties of finding her voice in the English translation, feeling clumsy and awkward at times, not finding the right metaphors or melody of a senctence: "La traduzione mi riusciva bene ma non fluiva spontaneamente. [I could translate well but it did not flow spontaneously.]" Goodrich explains that in her constant search of her authentic voice she kept editing her translation, questioning every word: "l’italiano era la lingua del cuore, l’inglese quella della testa – e la testa poteva ingannare" [Italian was the language of the heart, English the language of the head - and the head could be deceiving].: 

"Nemmeno una volta durante l’auto-traduzione mi è arrivata una frase bella e fatta: niente parole sussurrate, illuminazioni o intuizioni di alcun tipo." (Carlacchiani 2021) 

[Not once during the self-translation did a beautiful sentence come to me: no whispered words, illuminations or insights of any kind.]

Nevertheless, she enjoyed the intellectual challenge of the translation process and the privilege of being both author and translator:

"Sono stati tre mesi divertenti; ogni mattina mi svegliavo felice di vedere quali nuovi ostacoli linguistici avrei affrontato quel giorno e quali soluzioni creative avrei escogitato per superarli. Inoltre, avevo l’enorme vantaggio di conoscere ogni intenzione dell’autrice e quindi di non dover mai chiedere spiegazioni." (Carlacchiani 2021)

[It was a fun three months; every morning I woke up happy to see what new linguistic obstacles I would face that day and what creative solutions I would come up with to overcome them. Moreover, I had the enormous advantage of knowing the author's every intention and thus never having to ask for explanations]

She wanted to stay as close as possible to the original version but introduced "some small additions, relating to the dialect or other cultural or historical factors" (Goodrich, 2019). 

At first she considered the original Italian version superior to her English self-translation and was not really satisfied with the result, but over time she began to recognize the value of the English version:

"Questa sensazione di “perdita” ha caratterizzato il mio atteggiamento verso il testo inglese. Fino a poco tempo fa l’ho considerato un’ombra dell’originale, e soltanto negli ultimi mesi ho cominciato a vederlo come un romanzo a sé e, un poco alla volta, ad affezionarmici." (Carlacchiani 2021) 

[This feeling of "loss" has characterized my attitude toward the English text. Until recently I regarded it as a shadow of the original, and only in recent months have I begun to see it as a novel in its own right and, little by little, become attached to it.]

Her debut novel was translated into several languages, among them:

• Dutch: Verloren in Napels (Wereldbibliotheek). Translator: Manon Smits. 2019.
• French: Perdus dans les quartiers espagnols (Marabooks). Translator: Françoise Bouillot. 2021.
• German: Eine Liebe in Nepal (btb). Translator: Judith Schwaab. 2020.
  
• Norwegian: Forelsket i Napoli (Cappelen Damm). Translator: Siv Erle Wold. 2021
  
• Polish: Zagubieni w Neapolu (Zysk i S-ka). Translator: Iwona Banach. 2020.
• Portuguese: Perdidos no Quarteirão Espanhol (Planeta). Translator: Ana Maria Pinto da Silva. 2019.
• Romanian: Pierduți în cartierul spaniol (RAO). Translator: Elena Banica. 2019
• Spanish: El futuro es simplemente un nuevo día (Planeta). Translator: Maribel Campmany Tarrés. 2019

The novel was also translated into Arabic and Greek. Interestingly, the Dutch translator Manon Smits started working on the translation while Goodrich was still wrapping up the Italian original:

"Ho avuto il privilegio di collaborare un poco con la traduttrice olandese di Perduti nei Quartieri Spagnoli, che aveva cominciato a tradurre il testo quando non era ancora definitivo. Spesso, nelle sue mail in cui cercava chiarimenti, mi faceva notare alcuni piccoli problemi nel testo che credo soltanto uno che ci lavora da molto molto vicino possa vedere. Le sue osservazioni sono state preziosissime per il testo italiano finale. Allora lei non è soltanto traduttrice e scrittrice ma anche correttrice di bozze e editor!" (Carlacchiani 2021) 

[I had the privilege of collaborating a little with the Dutch translator of Lost in the Spanish Quarter, who had begun translating the text when it was not yet final. Often, in her emails seeking clarification, she would point out to me some small problems in the text that I think only someone working on it from very very close up could see. Her observations were invaluable to the final Italian text. So she is not only a translator and writer but also a proofreader and editor!]

Goodrich recently published her second novel in Italian: L'Americana (2021). The novel has not been published in English yet, so we have to wait to see if she opts for self-translation once again.

Interviews:
Carlacchiani, Debora (2021): "Intervista a Heddi Goodrich", published on La bottega dei traduttori on March 28, 2021: https://labottegadeitraduttori.wordpress.com/2021/03/28/intervista-a-heddi-goodrich-a-cura-di-debora-carlacchiani/

Goodrich, Heddi (2019): "Heddi Goodrich on Lost in the Spanish Quarter", published on Shelf-Awareness on August 8, 2019: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/dedicatedshelf/2019-08-08/heddi_goodrich_on_lost_in_the_spanish_quarter.html

Herkt, David (2019): "The New Zealand author who wrote her first novel in Italian", published on Stuff on November 03. 2019: https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/116850415/the-new-zealand-author-who-wrote-her-first-novel-in-italian

Podcast:
"Heddi Goodrich and Lost in the Spanish Quarter". 
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/standing-room-only/audio/2018716447/heddi-goodrich-and-lost-in-the-spanish-quarter 

CfP: International conference "The Author and “his” Translator: the Genealogy of an Asymmetric Relationship" (2023, Tours, France)

 The Author and “his” Translator: the Genealogy of an Asymmetric Relationship 
 International conference: call for papers
 University of Tours (France), June 12th -13th 2023

To read the full CfP in French and English please visit: https://www.fabula.org/actualites/lauteur-face-a-son-traducteur--la-genealogie-dune-relation_109217.php

Shortened version:
The international conference The Author and “his” Translator calls on researchers from a wide range of disciplines (literary and cultural studies, history, sociology, law, economics, linguistics, etc.) who would like to contribute to investigating this evolution by reconstructing the emergence of this publishing field structure in order to reach a better understanding of the processes of harmonisation of national book markets, which determine contemporary literary translation practices and international distribution of literary texts. Four aspects of this subject seem to deserve our special attention:

— analogies between the process of codification of the translation profession (diplomas and certifications in translation studies, formalisation of translators’ contracts, emergence of professional networks, prizes and awards for the best translators, etc.) and the one of consolidation of the body of laws on copyright and intellectual property [...]

— relationship between the history of translation and literary/cultural history [...]

— typology of collaborations between the writer and the literary translator throughout history. Looking into the diversity of forms of interaction between writer and translator reveals an impressive diversity of practices: benevolent laissez-faire of the author, long and detailed epistolary discussions about the dilemmas of translation, reciprocal translation by the two peers, collaborative translation, choice of self-translation and refusal to cede copyright for non-authorial translations or even legal proceedings against the authors of translations judged to be unfaithful. [...]

— translation and book market [...]

The international conference The Author and “his” Translator intends to offer researchers from all fields of humanities and social sciences an opportunity to question the functioning of contemporary cultural field from the point of view of the place that translators are bound to occupy within it. In order to allow for an in-depth examination of this subject, the programme of this scientific event will include various forms of work: in addition to individual papers and thematic panels proposed by several researchers, the conference will comprise a series of talks with a writer and his/her translator, round tables with publishers and directors of foreign literature collections, workshops devoted to the key points of the conference.

Proposals containing a title, a paper summary of 300 words and a short biographical statement must be sent to anna.krykun@univ-tours.fr  before September 7th 2022. Notification of admission will be sent at the beginning of November after evaluation of all proposals by the members of the scientific committee.

 

New Voices in Self-Translation: Lana Bastašić (Serbo-Croatian->English)

The first author featured in the new series "New Voices in Self-Translation" is Serbian writer Lana Bastašić (see blog entry on October 23, 2021). The English self-translation of her debut novel Catch the Rabbit was published in 2021 with Picador (UK) and Restless Books (US). The self-translation is visible to the reader as the title page of the Picador version states "Translated by the author". We are thus dealing with a case of a transparent self-translation (for the distinction between opac and transparent self-translation see Dasilva 2011).
Lana Bastašić  wrote Uhvati zeca (Kontrast 2018) while living in Barcelona, Spain. She can thus be considered a migrant self-translator, but unlike most migrant self-translators she does not use Catalan or Spanish, the language of her current residence, for self-translation. Bastašić explains, that she had to translate the manuscript into English in order order to approach agents and publishers, "I was a Bosnian living in Barcelona. No one spoke my language." (Behnke 2021). She thus translated the manuscript for mere practical reasons - not thinking about a possible publication of the English version: 

"When I set out to translate the novel, I never thought my translation would be published. I simply needed a readable draft to show to an agent, so that he or she would know what the book was about. Later, I had to rework the text and improve it because the UK publisher wanted my original translation." (Kalaba 2021)

The self-translation process proved to be complex. While translating, Bastašić identified weaknesses in the original and thus began to edit the new edition of the original version as well: “If I don’t want to bother translating this sentence, then it shouldn’t be in the book." (Behnke 2021). The English self-translation  helped her improve the text, find an agent and get translated into several languages: "That’s how in the end I got an agent, and that’s how I got all these translation deals. Otherwise, I think maybe it wouldn’t have happened." (Listi 2021)  However, she would still prefer to be translated by a professional translator: "Of course, I still believe it is better to have someone else translate your work. There is a distance and you feel more responsible. But unfortunately, if your language is considered “small,” that is highly unlikely to happen". (Behnke 2021)

Thanks to her initial self-translation into English, the novel gained visibility on the international market and attracted the interest of publishers around the globe. The novel Uhvati zeca (Buybook 2018) was awarded the 2020 European Union Prize for Literature and is now available in many languages:

• Catalan: Atrapa la llebre (Edicions del Periscopi / Navona) Translator: Pau Sanchis Ferrer, 2018.
• Dutch: Vang de Haas (Meulenhof). Translator: Pavle Trkulja, 2021. Translated from the Serbo-Croatian.
  
• French: Attrapez le lapin (Actes Sud, Éditions Gaïa). Translator: Aleksandar Grujičić in collaboration with Isabelle Liber, 2022. Translated from the Serbo-Croatian.
• German: Fang den Hasen (Fischer Verlag). Translator: Rebekka Zeinzinger, March 2021. Translated from the Bosnian.
• Hungarian: Kapd el a nyulat! (Metropolis). Translator: Emese Rajsli, 2020
• Italian: Afferra il coniglio (Nutrimenti edizioni). Translator: Elisa Copetti. Translated from the Serbo-Croatian. 2020
  
• Russian: Поймать зайца (Eksmo). Translator: Larisa Savelieva, 2021
• Slovenian: Ujemi zajca (Sanje). Translator: Dijana Matkovič, 2021
• Spanish: Atrapa a la liebre (Navona). Translator: Pau Sanchis Ferrer, 2020
• Turkish: Tavşanı Yakala (Ilksatir). Translator: Gökce Cicek, 2020

Translation rights have also been sold to  Perseus (Bulgaria), Artconnect (Macedonia), Dituria (Albania). Bastašić, who was born in Croatia and grew up in Bosnia, lives today in Serbia after spending several years in Barcelona. She explains that publishers have difficulties locating her: 

“Now some translations have come out, some say ‘translated from the Serbo-Croatian,’ some say ‘translated from Bosnian,’ some say ‘from Serbian.’ Then this article came out in Switzerland, where I was a Croatian writer,” she laughs, “I love it." (Petrick 2021)

Translation rights are handled by Salmaia Literary Agency on behalf of Edicions del Periscopi.

Sources:
Behnke. Emily. 2021. "An Indies Introduce Q&A With Lana Bastašić".  Published on May 20, 2021 on: https://www.bookweb.org/news/indies-introduce-qa-lana-bastašić-1625833 

Kalaba, Jovanka. 2021. "Lana Bastašić Still Believes in Beauty". Published on August 19, 2021 https://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2021/08/19/lana-bastasic-still-believes-in-beauty/

Listi, Bradi. 2021. "“It’s Not Something I Would Recommend.” Lana Bastašić on Translating Her Own Book In Conversation with Brad Listi on Otherppl". Podcast "Otherppl", June 16, 2021, published on: https://lithub.com/its-not-something-i-would-recommend-lana-bastasic-on-translating-her-own-book/

Petrick Daniel. 2021. "In her novel Catch the Rabbit, Lana Bastašić explores who tells the story of Yugoslavia’s ethnic conflict". Calvit Journal. Published on June 17, 2021 on: https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/12868/novel-catch-the-rabbit-lana-bastashi-90s-yugoslav-war 

Cited research literature:
Dasilva, Xosé Manuel (2011): "La autotraducción transparente y la autotraducción opaca". In: Xosé Manuel Dasilva & HelenaTanqueiro (eds.), Aproximaciones a la autotraducción. Vigo: Editorial Academia del Hispanismo, 45–68. 

UJ Literary Translation Prize 2022

SJ Naudé won the R50 000.00 UJ Literary Translation Prize 2022 for his self-translation of Dol heuning (2021) / Mad Honey (2021) from Afrikaans into English. Both versions of SJ Naudé’s second collection of short stories were published simultaneously with Penguin Random House. The jury praised the self-translator for his

"total command of the source text and the freedom to adjust that text to the demands and resources of the target language. Thus, in this case, we have at times a meticulously faithful translation, and at times a slightly more adventurous translation.”

The prize is awarded by the University of Johannesburg.

Source: https://www.uj.ac.za/winners-announced-for-the-2022-uj-prize-for-creative-writing-and-literary-translation/

Two self-translations make it to Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2022 shortlist

Among the 26 short stories who made it to the shortlist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2022, are two self-translated stories:

• ‘What Men Live By’ by Shagufta Sharmeen Tania, translated from Bangla by the author (United Kingdom/Bangladesh)
• ‘Wonem Samting Kamap Long Mama?’ (‘What Happened to Ma?’) by Baka Bina, translated from Tok Pisin to English by the author (Papua New Guinea)

Source: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2204/S00179/2022-commonwealth-short-story-prize-shortlist-announced.htm

Talk: Emotional Response to Self-Translation. The Case of Jhumpa Lahiri

 The talk "Emotional Response to Self-Translation. The Case of Jhumpa Lahiri" by Andrea Bergantino (Trinity College Dublin) is available on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJf45YilDnM&ab_channel=TrinityCentreforLiterary%26CulturalTranslation

CfP: Literary Self-Translation in the 21st Century: A Global View (special issue 2024 Journal of Literary Multilingualism

Guest-edited by Eva Gentes and Trish Van Bolderen
brill.com/view/journals/jlm/jlm-overview.xml?contents=editorialcontent-57548

Literary self-translation is defined as the phenomenon of authors translating their own writing and producing more than one linguistic version of a given literary work. While research on the topic has surged since the turn of the 21st century (for reference, see the Bibliography on Self-Translation), scholarship is overwhelmingly dominated by a restricted set of focal points: bilingual practices, literary figures of international renown (typically in the West), 20th-century contexts, a selection of major Western European languages, and minority-language settings in Spain.

This special issue of the Journal of Literary Multilingualism explores 21st-century self-translation related to languages, regions, writers, and literary genres that have thus far received little to no critical attention within self-translation research.

We welcome case studies, ethnographic research, larger-scale studies, genetic criticism, theoretical reflections, and any other approach that engages with and adds meaningful new perspectives to existing self-translation research. Possible research questions include:

• How do understandings of self-translation shift when we account for projects that are not limited to transfers between English, French, and/or Spanish, such as those incorporating lesser-translated languages like Bulgarian (e.g. Miroslav Penkov), Slovenian (e.g. Brina Svit), Swedish (e.g. Linda Olsson) or Yiddish (e.g. Chava Rosenfarb)? 

• What idiosyncrasies characterize the self-translation process when writers work with three or more languages, as in the case of Lisa Carducci (English-French-Italian-Spanish), Laià Fabregas (Catalan-Dutch-Spanish) or Monika Zgustovà (Catalan-Czech-Spanish)? 

• How can self-translation be mapped out in geopolitical regions or sociocultural spaces whose self-translation practices remain un(der)studied, such as Guatemala, India, Japan, and New Zealand? 

• How is the decision to self-translate shaped by linguistic and cultural minority settings, such as in Ireland (e.g. Doireann Ní Ghríofa), within the Francophonie like the Occitanie (e.g. Aurélia Lassaque) or Saint Boniface (e.g. J.R. Léveillé), or in indigenous communities in regions like Guatemala (e.g. Humberto Ak’abal), Canada (e.g. Joséphine Bacon), or Paraguay (e.g. Susi Delgado)?

 • How does the question of audience affect approaches to self-translating children’s literature, such as in works by Tomson Highway or Lene Kaaberbøl? 

• What can graphic novels, like those by Geneviève Castrée, Apostolos Doxiadis, or Nora Krug, tell us about intersemiotic self-translation and collaborative forms of self-translation? 

• How might the notion of the authorial self be complicated by the creative process involved in the self-translation of plays, as in those by Rudi Bekaert, Nilo Cruz, or Gilles Poulin-Denis?

Informal queries are welcome, and contributors are asked to submit an abstract by October 30, 2022. Please direct queries to Eva Gentes (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany) and Trish Van Bolderen (independent scholar, Ireland).

Articles should be 6,000 to 10,000 words in length, and the deadline for their submission is April 15, 2023. Acceptance of the final versions of articles is subject to double-anonymous peer review. Please send articles as email attachments to Eva Gentes (eva.gentes[at]gmail.com) and Trish Van Bolderen (trishvanbolderen[at]gmail.com).

https://brill.com/view/journals/jlm/jlm-overview.xml?contents=editorialcontent-57548

Update Bibliography on Self-translation

The bibliography on self-translation has been updated (41th update, May 2022). To download the pdf-file please click here. If you have any suggestions for further entries, please leave a comment.

Call for Proposals special issue 2/2023: Global Migration and Literary Multilingualism

War, disease, famine, political oppression, climate change, and individual opportunity account for 280.6 million migrants in the world today. Although most migrants are not writers, scores of writers find themselves adjusting to lives as strangers in strange lands and adopting new literary languages. 

Issue 2/2023 of the Journal of Literary Multilingualism is dedicated to the nexus between global migration and literary multilingualism. We welcome contributions on diverse aspects of this interconnection and are particularly interested in new, hitherto under-researched perspectives on the topic. For instance, essays can examine the ways in which linguistic adaptation functions as a theme within literary works. Or they can examine the ways in which changing languages has shaped migrants’ literary texts through translingualism: code-switching, hybridization, intertextuality, cross cultural encounters, different forms of translation (including self-translation), and other literary strategies. 

The focus can be on the work of contemporary migrants such as Edwidge Danticat, Najat El Hachmi, Xiaolu Guo, Ha Jin, Aleksandar Hemon, Gazmend Kapllani, Milan Kundera, Alain Mabanckou, Shirin Nazammafi, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Atiq Rahimi, Igiaba Scego, and Yoko Tawada. Or it can be on the work of historical figures such as S.Y. Agnon, Mary Antin, Apuleius, Adelbert von Chamisso, Erasmus, Kahlil Gibran, Maimonides, and Anselm Turmeda. These are some examples; we are of course open to studies of authors who migrated at other times and into other languages. 

To contribute new perspectives to the topic of global migration and literary multilingualism, contributions might include but are not restricted to the following questions and topics: 

- What is the writers’ aesthetic approach to their multilingualism? Do they develop something like a multilingual/migratory poetics? Which literary strategies do they apply (see above)? How (if so at all) do they transfer migration and multilingualism into their literary works? - 

- To what extent can focusing on multilingual aspects of migrant literature shed light on hitherto understudied aspects of migrant writing? Which conceptual tools and theoretical frames can the study of multilingual literature offer to the study of migrant literature, and vice versa? - 

- Which methods are best suited to study multilingual migrant writing? Which methods should we include in our analysis (close reading, socio-literary methods, anthropological methods, cultural studies etc.)? - 

- What questions do we need to consider when it comes to the production, publication, circulation, translation, and reception of multilingual migrant literature? How can this be related to debates about the national canon and/or world literature? What role does academia play in this? Which place do multilingual migrant authors have in university curricula? 

We welcome informal queries, and potential contributors may submit an abstract by April 30, 2022. Please direct queries to Steven G. Kellman (University of Texas at San Antonio), steven.kellman@utsa.edu and Sandra Vlasta (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz / Università di Bologna), sandra.vlasta@gmail.com. 

The final deadline for the submission of articles of 6000-10000 words is October 15, 2022. Acceptance of the final articles is subject to double blind peer review. Please send articles as email attachments to Steven G. Kellman (steven.kellman@utsa.edu) and Sandra Vlasta (sandra.vlasta@gmail.com)