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 ...
The History of ACE Traductores
ACE Traductores, the Spanish association of literary translators, will be forty years old in November 2023. To pave the way for the celebrations, its journal, Vasos Comunicantes, has recently published a series of three articles that review its entire history and, ultimately, the recent history of Spanish translation. Here are the three instalments: the first, the second and the third. Furthermore, in this same issue, no. 57, a fascinating interview with Catalina Martínez Muñoz has appeared. And it also includes a profile of Esther Benítez, a historical translator and activist ...
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 ...
International (and Virtual) Translation Day
Here we have more talks and interviews, three to be precise, to celebrate September 30th, International Translation Day (ITD), in this virtual year. To begin with, Belén Santana, who won Spain’s National Translation Award last year with Memorias de una osa polar by Yoko Tawada (Anagrama), and who is also a lecturer at the University of Salamanca, spoke in an interview about the profession, the challenges it presents and the satisfactions it gives. Meanwhile, at La Lumbre bookshop in Madrid, Amaya García Gallego and Pablo Moíño Sánchez, moderated by Mateo P. ...
David Bellos’ Sebald Lecture
One of the upsides of this very turbulent year has been the chance to attend—albeit virtually—a whole series of events and lectures that not everyone would have had access to otherwise. And one of the most inspiring moments has been the Sebald Lecture in Literary Translation, organized by the British Center for Literary Translation together with the British Library and the National Center for Writing. In 2020, it was given by award-winning translator and university professor David Bellos, who wrote Is That A Fish in Your Ear? The Amazing ...
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 ...
New Italian Books
Italy has just launched New Italian Books, a great site that promotes Italian literature and culture around the world, in the style of Books from Norway, New Books in German and New Spanish Books. The project has been launched by Treccani with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Centre for Books and Reading, together with the Italian Publishers Association. They publish newssheets, surveys, interviews and analyses on translations of books by Italian authors worldwide. They also offer information on the main book ...
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 ...
Juan de Sola Takes Home the Ángel Crespo Award
Juan de Sola has won the XXI Ángel Crespo Translation Award, given out by ACEC, Cedro and the Gremi d’Editors de Catalunya, for his translation of Correspondencia 1914-1922 by Marcel Proust and Jacques Rivière. The book was published last year by La Uña Rota and De Sola was also in charge of the preface and the notes. ...
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. ...
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 ...
The First Book I’m Reading This Year
Here I am, about to start reading La voce del testo, by Franca Cavagnoli (Feltrinelli). La #primeralecturadelaño, "La voce del testo", de Franca Cavagnoli, habla de traducción. Una antigua recomendación de @Malapartiana. pic.twitter.com/tUOvkaD8yP — Carlos Mayor (@CarlosMayor) January 3, ...
Is David Pearson the Coolest Book Cover Designer in the World?
I have a feeling that David Pearson is the coolest book cover designer in the whole wide world. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and check out his wonderful ...