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. ...
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 ...
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. ...
Machine Translation and Literature: Two Close Enemies?
Translator, proofreader and post-editor Rocío Serrano has just written a very interesting, thoroughly researched and highly enlightening article on machine translation and literary texts for Vasos Comunicantes, ACE Traductores’ online journal. Is the future here ...
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 ...
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. ...
Happy International Translation Day
Once again, we celebrate International Translation Day on the 30th of September. This year, the International Federation of Translators (FIT) is promoting it with this poster by Italian graphic designer Riccardo d’Urso. And the Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters of Catalonia (APTIC) is also celebrating it on Thursday with a lecture by multi-award-winning translator Dolors Udina, who will talk about the fascinating female authors she has translated, from Jean Rhys to Virginia Woolf. Three cheers for Saint Jerome and many happy returns to translators all ...
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, ...
Many Happy Returns to All Translators
Thanks to the International Federation of Translators (FIT), this is the first year that the United Nations recognize the 30th of September as International Translation Day, thus increasing its impact. The celebration was first held in 1953 on the festivity of Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin and is considered the patron saint of translators. FIT has chosen translation and diversity as the theme for 2017 and has come up with a campaign around this image: In Spain, the Ministry for Culture has launched ...