The 6th International Postgraduate Conference in Translation and Interpreting

will take place this weekend at the University in Manchester.
The program is available here.
There is one contribution on self-translation:
"Theory and Practice of Self-Translation in the Case of Rosario Ferré"
Aurora Sambolín (University of Manchester, UK)

The Curious Case of Translating One’s Own Literary Work

... was the title of a panel on self-translation at the 33rd Annual Conference of the American Literary Translators Association which took place last week (October 20-23) in Philadelphia.
Speakers were:
Willis Barnstone, “Freedoms and Worries in Translating My Book of French Poems into English”
Wei Shao, “Translating My Memoir Homeland from English to Chinese”
Shouhua Qi, “The Curious Case of Literary Self-Translation”

If anyone reading this blog attended the conference, I would love to hear more about it.

Lecture on self-translation

There will be a series of lectures on translation organized for MA students in literary translation in Utrecht, Netherlands. It is also possible for non-students to come, but you have to register beforehand. One of the lectures will focus on self-translation:

• Self translation
  • Spreker: Fransiska Louwagie
  • Datum & tijd: 12 mei 2011, 15:30-17:30
  • Locatie: Lessius, Antwerpen, (STA.2.11)
  • Aanmelden: uiterlijk 11 april 2011

For more information, please click here.

An Interactive Festival of Literary Translation

... will take place under the title "Translated" in Melbourne, Australia next year at the Monash University. From February 7–12, 2011 there will be workshops, talks and panel discussions in French, German and Spanish.

There will also be an afternoon session on self-translation:
"Lia Hills and Ouyang Yu, both writers, translators and poets, will provide an insight into the advantages and pitfalls of self-translation."

For more information, please click here.

Nobel prize for Thiong'o?

Will it be another Nobel prize for a self-translator?
Soon we will know.
For more information check out the article in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/05/kenyan-nobel-prize-literature

Indication of self-translation

Rarely one finds a discussion in the press about the habit in the publishing industry to present self-translated books as originals with no reference to the other version. So I found it quite interesting that in her review of the new book by Thiong'o in the Guardian, Maya Jaggi recently drew the readers' attention to the fact that Dreams in a Time of War is in fact a self-translation from the Gikuyu although it is not mentioned in the book. She finds this quite disturbing as in the past Thiong'o "has said that the most beautiful line in Wizard of the Crow, his satire on dictatorship, is: "A translation from Gikuyu by the author." (Jaggi 2010). So what has changed since then?

For further reading:
Maya Jaggi (2010): Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. In: Guardian, 03.07.2010. Online available here. In the last paragraph she discusses the issue of self-translation.

Bibliography on self-translation

An updated version of the bibliography is now availabe (43 pages!!)
Please check http://www.autotraduzione.com to download the new version.
Please also make use of the possibility in the comment section on their page to add further literature as the bibliography is a work in progress.

Meet Nancy Huston in Macon (France)

There are many chances to meet Nancy Huston at the moment as she is presenting her new book "Infrarouge". One being a picknick organised by the library Le Cadran lunaire in Macon on Saturday, 17th July at 7.30pm. For more information click here.

New book by Alexakis

"Le premier mot" is the title of the new book by Vassilis Alexakis which will be published in French by Editions Stock in August . I have not found yet any information about a Greek version. But as Alexakis is a regular self-translator, I am expecting to hear about a Greek version soon.

For more information on the new book, please click here.

Update: The Greek version will be published also this year!

Meet Thiong'o in Los Angeles

On Sunday, 25th July, you have the chance to meet the African self-translator Ngugi wa Thiong'o at the Downtown Independent Theater in Los Angeles. He will read from his new book "Dreams in a Time of War". For more information on the event, click here.

André Brink on self-translation

NB publishers have published an interview with Andre Brink, conducted by Andrés publisher Kerneels Breytenbach in 2009. In the second part he speaks about his self-translations, a process which still fascinates him. The part on self-translation is from minute 01:49 till 03:15. To see the youtube video click here.