My Translations from the First Half of 2022
This year’s first semester was jam-packed with fascinating titles once again. I published translations of books in different languages, genres, sizes and colours. From the theatrical adaptations of Albert Camus to another short novel by Somerset Maugham, from some children’s books to the exciting work of Mercè Ibarz, from the catalogue of the new Lee Friedlander exhibition to comics by big names such as Matt Madden, Charles Burns, Tardi, Marjane Satrapi, Roberto Saviano and Asaf Hanuka, variety was king. And on we ...
Thrilled and honored to be the recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Prize
Every three years, the Federación Internacional de Traductores (FIT) holds a World Congress during which awards and prizes are presented to distinguish professionals from all over the world for their work in very many fields, from translation of fiction and non-fiction to solidarity within the community of translators and interpreters. And this year I have had the great fortune to receive one: the Astrid Lindgren Prize for the translation of literature for children and young adults! The ceremony was held in Cuba of all places at the beginning of June. ...
Farewell to Montalbano
It’s over. I’m turning a leaf. I recently finished my work on Riccardino, the last inspector Montalbano novel, the last novel by Andrea Camilleri. I translated it into Spanish for Editorial Salamandra. Four years ago, when I had already translated a few of his works, I wrote this article for Bianco e Nero magazine. At the time, I was about to start translating El carrusel de las confusiones and I wanted to tell a little about what it was like to come face to face with a book by ...
My Translations from the Second Half of 2021
Another semester is over. And it has brought me a lot of rewarding jobs and a rollercoaster of emotions. I have once again translated books for some of my favourite publishers: Reservoir Books, entreDos, Libros del Zorro Rojo, Salamandra and Literatura Random House. I have also worked once more for the Reina Sofía and have started a new collaboration with a publishing house that I love, Ediciones Invisibles. Bring on ...
400 Translations!
I’ve been doing this since 1989 and I have translated very many books: bad or good, long or short or also very short, with or without pictures, with gusto or reluctantly, alone or often with other colleagues... Well, it turns out that with this little gem, which came out a few weeks ago, I have reached a new mark: four hundred tiles. And I couldn’t be happier! It’s Up at the Villa, by my admired Somerset Maugham. Titled Una villa en Florencia in the Spanish edition. And it's one of the ...
My Translations from the First Half of 2021
I’m very happy with the translations I have published this first half of the year, several of them for publishers for whom I had never worked before. They include two graphic novels for Reservoir Books: my favourite comic by Marjane Satrapi and the expanded edition of Kobane Calling by Zerocalcare, plus another comic by Ken Krimstein for Salamandra Graphic. There are also two novels, one by my venerated Andrea Camilleri for Salamandra and another one by Petina Gappah, on which I worked at Looren, for Literatura Random House. Then ...
A Residency (or Two) at Chalet Mauriac
One of the great joys awarded by my profession is to be able to work anywhere you choose. And every once in a while you get to do residencies in places where you can translate intensively, isolated from the world but in contact with other colleagues. Last year I was lucky enough to receive one of the six-week scholarships offered annually by the Chalet Mauriac. The Chalet is the former summer home of François Mauriac, the Bordeaux author who wrote Thérèse Desqueyroux and Viper's Tangle and who won the ...
My Translations from the Second Half of 2020
This very long year has been the most prolific since I started translating and now that it ends I really need to rest and take things easy for a while. But I am also very happy with all the translations I have published in the last six months: a novel by Philip Kerr and a memoir by Andrea Camilleri for Salamandra, Carlota Gurt's first book of short stories for Navona and the novel than won David Nel·lo the Sant Jordi Award for Catedral; wonderful picture books by Farren Phillips and ...
Translating Comics: The Ins and Outs
The recent online conference ‘Translation in comics’ was just marvellous. It was organized by Blanca Mayor Serrano and Álvaro Pons for the Aula de Cómic at the Cátedra de Estudios del Cómic Fundación SM-Universitat de València. I was lucky enough to take part in it with this talk about the publishing process seen from the point of view of someone who translates comics, which was a dream to prepare: There was also an interesting round table on teaching comic translation with my colleagues André Höchemer, Esther Cruz Santaella, Raúl Gisbert ...
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 ...
Remember, Remember the 5th of November
This is a year of professional anniversaries for me. Fifteen years ago, several colleagues specialising in art translations and I set up Barcelona Kontext, which changed my working life. And we’re still here, translating exhibition catalogues and art books. Twenty years ago, I started sharing an office, which changed my whole life and led me to some of the most important people in my life. And I’m still here, now in el Born, happier than ever. And thirty years ago (it’s been thirty years since so many things happened) I received ...
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 ...
Cartoon Philosophy
I’m very excited, because the comic book on the left, the Spanish edition of A Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy by Michael F. Patton and Kevin Cannon, in now in its fifth edition. I translated it last year for Debolsillo, it's a gem and it smells really good. It's all about Heraclitus, who tells the story of philosophy with a lot of humour and great panache. I recommend it. And it reminds me of the comic book on the right, by William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth, which I translated for Ediciones ...
A New Catalogue: Berenice Abbott
So, it seems that I have been translating exhibition catalogues for 25 years now, for I started out in a very distant 1994, working for Fundación La Caixa. Since then, I have been lucky enough to work on many a project for quite a few museums and art centres. This is the last one: at Barcelona Kontext we have been translating the catalogues for Fundación Mapfre's exhibitions into Catalan for a handful of years and a new exhibition has just opened in Barcelona. «Berenice Abbott. Portraits of Modernity» will be ...
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 ...
Ten Great Comics Lined Up
I'm terribly excited because my next translations are ten great comics and graphic novels, some ready to print and some yet to be started. They are by Alejandro Jodorowsky/Moebius, Nick Drnaso, Roberto Saviano/Asaf Hanuka, Georgia Marras, Marjane Satrapi, Greg Pak/Jonathan Coulton, John Carlin/Oriol Malet, Zerocalcare, Ken Krimstein and Odyr, and will be published by the likes of Salamandra, Reservoir Books and Sapristi. Good stuff coming ...
Two Wonderful Catalogues
I continue to translate for several museums and art centers regularly, and recently two catalogues on which I have worked have been published. The first is Dadá ruso. 1914-1924, from the exhibition that can be visited at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) until the 22nd of October. This exhibition explores Russian avant-garde art through the perspective of the Anti-art canons associated with the international Dada movement. The catalogue, edited by Margarita Tupitsyn and the Department of Publishing Activities at MNCARS, has been designed by Tipos Móviles. The ...
De vegades hi ha llibres…
De vegades hi ha llibres che ti piacciono così tanto que tienes que traducirlos dos ...
An Afternoon with Tom Gauld
It doesn’t happen everyday. Sometimes translators are in touch with their authors, sometimes we get to meet them in person and sometimes we even have the chance to chat with them for a while. But rarely can we spend a whole afternoon with an author we admire, ask them whatever we want and then hear them speak in public in the evening. That’s what happened to me a few days ago when Tom Gauld came to Barcelona to speak at Primera Persona, a literary festival held at CCCB. He also ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
The Fables of Saint Jerome
Last Friday, on the eve of the feast of Saint Jerome of Stridon, El País published an excellent article by Aurelio Major titled 'Fábulas de san Jerónimo'. In it, the writer and translator says: 'Translating is transferring, transporting tradition, interpreting, migrating tirelessly, because the only nation is the very many books, transformed, re-read, renovated with every new version'. And today, Tuesday, that very same newspaper has published a piece by Paula Corroto, titled 'Los personajes invisibles de la literatura', in which (under a somewhat alarming subheading) she interviews Miguel Sáenz, ...
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, ...
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 ...