My Translations from the First Half of 2020
A very complicated semester for the publishing world just ended. There was no Sant Jordi and no Barcelona Comic Fair, and new books published in February and March suffered particularly, since almost nobody was in time to buy them. All in all, I have published six translations: a graphic novel by Giorgia Marras on Empress Elisabeth of Austria for Sapristi and another one by Alessio Surian, Diego di Masi and Silvio Boselli on Maria Montessori for DeBolsillo; two novels, one by Andrea Camilleri for Salamandra and another one by ...
Confined Interviews
I have really negleted this section, when so many things have passed! Just the month on May was extremely eventful. On the 31st, Xavi Ayén interviewed Valentina Alferj, Andrea Camilleri's right-hand woman, for La Vanguardia. He also spoke to Pau Vidal and to me as representatives of his many translators. The interview, which you can read here, came with this wonderful recreation of inspector Montalbano by Marc Pallarès: A few days before that, on the 27th, I spoke with Vasos Comunicantes, the magazine published by ACE Traductores. They have started ...
My Translations from the Second Half of 2019
I'm extremely happy at the end of 2019 because the last six months have been once again full of great books. I've published the following translations: a novel by Jesse Ball and a memoir by Andrea Camilleri for :Rata_ and Salamandra; an exhibition catalogue devoted to Takis for MACBA, together with Irene Oliva; three comics by Marjane Satrapi, by Kris and Vincent Bailly adapting Joseph Joffo and by Odyr illustrating George Orwell for Reservoir Books and DeBolsillo, and four illustrated books by Beatrix Potter and Helen Oxenbury, by Marianna Coppo ...
My Translations from the First Half of 2019
Here are the translations I have published during the first half of the year: two novels by Andrea Camilleri and Joan-Lluís-Lluís for Salamandra and Navona; two exhibition catalogues about Berenice Abbott and Sergio Prego and Itziar Okariz for Fundación Mapfre and the Venice Biennale-Koenig Books, and five comics by John Carlin and Oriol Malet, by Ray Bradbury and Tim Hamilton, by Zerocalcare, by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius and by Nick Drnaso for DeBolsillo, Reservoir Books and Salamandra ...
A Brief Reflection / on Translation Awards
Turkish-into-Spanish translator Rafael Carpintero has recently received the Best Translation Award 2018 at the Estado Crítico Awards for his translation of Sabahattin Ali's Madona con abrigo de piel (Salamandra). And he has written a very insightful (and very funny) article on translation awards, which you can read here (in ...
Translation from Within
A couple of weeks ago, Álvaro Macías Rondán published this article about literary translation in the Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos: 'La traducción desde dentro: un oficio invisible que habla alto y claro' (Translation from Within: An Invisible Trade That Speaks Loud and Clear). He interviewed José Luis López Muñoz, Daniel Sancosmed, María Teresa Gallego, Carmen Montes, Ana María Bejarano, Eugenia Vázquez-Nacarino and myself to discuss no less than our profession, the legendary visibility and our favourite books out of all the ones we've worked ...
Concha Cardeñoso Wins the Esther Benítez Award 2018
On the 1st of December, at 7 pm, ACE Traductores will present the Esther Benítez Award 2018 to Concha Cardeñoso for her Spanish translation of Daphne de Maurier's My Cousin Rachel, published by Alba. The ceremony will be held in Madrid, at Casa del Lector, the headquarters of ACE Traductores. ...
So Why Does One Translate?
I have just read an article called ‘¿Que por qué traduzco?’ (So Why Do I Translate?), posted several months ago by renowned Turkish-into-Spanish translator Rafael Carpintero in his blog, El Carpintero Traductor. And I like it, like every thing of his that I have read. And it makes me think of another article, ‘Por qué traduzco’ (Why Do I Translate?), published by renowned English-into-Spanish translator Ismael Attrache in El Trujamán. And I also like it, like every thing of his that I have read. And that’s ...
I pini di Roma
My second residency this year, after the fellowship at the Bogliasco Foundation in January, is in Rome. I’m spending the month of April at the Casa delle Traduzioni, working on a terribly difficult and terribly entertaining book by Gianni Rodari to be published by Editorial Juventud. I’m enjoying my time here tremendously, translating a lot and in good company. And of course the highlight of it all was attending the big tribute to Andrea Camilleri at the Casa del Cinema in Villa Borghese, a few days ago. The Centro Sperimentale ...
Anthea Bell, Grande Dame of Translation
If you only read one interview with a translator this year, let it be this one by Claire Armitstead, who speaks to the charming Anthea Bell. It was published in The Guardian in 2013. Thoroughly ...
An Interview in Orlandiana about the Esther Benítez Award
There’s a great blog called Orlandiana that talks about the ceremony at which I received the 12th Esther Benítez Award, bestowed by ACE Traductores on the 15th of December at Casa del Lector. They also interview me. Thank you so much! You can read it ...
Irene de la Torre Talks about Her Experience at CELA
It raises the spirits to see Irene de la Torre’s excitement in this article on the Escuela de Escritores website. She talks about her experience in Pisa with CELA, a European Union project for young translators recently set up which will continue for two years. What a superb ...
Off to Madrid to Receive the Esther Benítez Award on the 15th of December
I’m off to Madrid in a few weeks to receive the Esther Benítez Award, bestowed by ACE Traductores to honour the best translation published in Spain last year! I am on cloud nine, it’s really wonderful to have won this award, voted by literary translators from all over Spain! Furthermore, it’s for my translation of La noche de los niños (God Help the Child), a book by Toni Morrison that took me to BILTC at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and has brought me joy on ...
My Translation of God Help the Child Has Been Shortlisted for the Esther Benítez Award!
I’m over the moon! I made the shortlist for the Esther Benítez Award, bestowed by ACE Traductores, for my translation of La noche de los niños by Toni Morrison (Lumen), a book that has given me so much! Even better, I’m in great company with Rita da Costa, shortlisted for El camino estrecho al norte profundo by Richard Flanagan (Literatura Random House), María Enguix for Cuando el diablo salió del baño by Sophie Divry (Malpaso), Julia Osuna for Hasta arriba by W. E. Bowman (Blackie Books) and Eugenia Vázquez-Nacarino ...
My Next Translations
I have several wonderful titles lined-up. My third translation of a Gianni Rodari book, Escuela de fantasía, will be published by Blackie Books in September, and the fourth, which will probably be called Inventem els números in Catalan, will be published by Kalandraka with beautiful illustrations by Alessandro Sanna, just like the previous one, Un conte embolicat. Then there’s the third graphic novel by Zerocalcare that I’m lucky enough to translate into Spanish for Reservoir Books, like the two previous ones, La profecía del armadillo and Kobane Calling. And ...
So, Can I Be Happy?
I’ve been reading books in Anagrama’s Narrativas Hispánicas collection all my life. And now suddenly I’ve translated a novel by Tina Vallès for them. It’s called La memoria del árbol and it won the II Premio Llibres Anagrama earlier this year. And it’s simple and complex and wonderful. Toda la vida leyendo libros de Narrativas Hispánicas de Anagrama y ahora, puf, he traducido uno ¡de @tinavalles_! «¿Puedo ponerme contento?» pic.twitter.com/2qn3gW45Gf — Carlos Mayor (@CarlosMayor) June 12, ...
Writers and Translators Honoured by the Premio Strega Europeo
And here’s the shortlist for Italy's Premio Strega Europeo 2017, which gives € 3,000 to the winning author and, starting this year, also € 1,500 to their translator: Mathias Enard, Bussola (e/o), translated by Yasmina Melaouah; Jenny Erpenbeck, Voci del verbo andare (Sellerio), translated by Ada Vigliani; Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Tutto quello che non ricordo (Iperborea), translated by Alessandro Bassini; László Krasznahorkai, Satantango (Bompiani), translated by Dora Várnai, and Ali Smith, L’una e l’altra (Sur), translated by Federica Aceto. Congratulations to all ten! Los finalistas del Premio Strega Europeo 2017. ...
300 Translations
On this new website, which I’m redesigning from scratch, I would like to include the covers of all the books I’ve translated over the years, either on my own or with other colleagues. I already had them on the old site, but they were too little, the animation was made with Flash—so lots of new devices didn’t support it—and I had also stopped updating them a while ago. While I set it all up, blisfully happy, I’m celebrating an important landmark. With the last novel by my revered author Andrea ...
Bisogna cambiare tutto
I have finally found the time to start the long-delayed renovation of my website—it was vital, mostly for technical reasons. The original site dated back to the year 2000 and the design had stood the test of time quite well, but there were search-engine problems and size issues when using portable devices. Also, I hadn’t updated the information for quite a while, always thinking that I should just redo the whole thing from scratch. Which I am doing now. From now on, it will be much faster, more straightforward and ...