Katy Derbyshire talks to Karosh Taha about her writing, the novel In the Belly of the Queen, and hopes for the future. Katy: Hello Karosh – where are you answering these questions right now? Karosh: I’m in Zaxo, where I’m researching my third novel. Katy: Do you have a special writing place? Karosh: I don’t …
Translator Mima Simić Book cover and author Ivana Sajko There’s a game I sometimes play in Berlin with my friends, expats from the country formerly known as Yugoslavia; we call it the Poverty Pentathlon. We rummage through our childhoods to come up with the most ridiculous – yet always true! – episodes of growing up …
IDENTITTY A blog by Pay-no-attention-to-that-person-behind-the-curtain! About me: After finishing this novel, I drank a cup of tulsi sweet rose tea – a herbal infusion, actually, since it didn’t include real tea leaves (Camellia sinensis). The front of the box told me it’s ‘Stress Relieving & Magical*,’ the left side said, ‘the fragrant essence of Rose …
Gemma Craig-Sharples talks with Alta L. Price about her recent translation of Identitti (by Mithu Sanyal), joy in writing, and walking the fine line. Gemma: How did you come to Identitti? Alta: I had read part of it in German and heard buzz about in Germany, and then Jeffrey Zuckerman, a fellow translator who works …
Sometimes books come with translators attached, and that was the case with The Bureau of Past Management. Before we even considered publishing it, Abigail Wender had already been brave enough to take on the daunting task of rendering this linguistically complex book into beautiful and intricate English – with great dedication and success. Here, she …
The Blacksmith’s Daughter was our first co-translation, and proved to us not only that it can be done, but that it should be done! But how could two translators write one note for the back of the book? In dialogue, of course… The Co-Translators in Conversation Katy Derbyshire: This book has been with me a …
Our third translator’s note is by publisher-translator-blogmistress Katy Derbyshire, who enjoys referring to herself in the third person – another from our very first batch of books. Here, she asks the question: is anything really untranslatable? The story of Paula’s translation is a long one. I first came across Sandra Hoffmann’s book when it won …
Next up in our series of translators’ notes is Sinéad Crowe, who translated Lucy Fricke’s great European road novel Daughters for our very first season. The joys and challenges of rendering humour are something many literary translators can relate to – along with anyone who’s ever tried to re-tell a joke to a new audience… …
At V&Q Books, we’re proud of our translators and believe they should be seen and heard. So we’re sharing the notes they write for us, also published at the back of each book – as a resource for other translators, from aspiring to established, and to help non-translators understand the nature of their work. First …
Translator Annie Rutherford tackled the impressive challenge of rendering Isabel Bogdan’s The Peacock – set in the Scottish Highlands but written in German – into English. Here, she talks to Gemma Craig-Sharples about how she went about it. How did you come to The Peacock? I was very lucky – V&Q’s publisher Katy Derbyshire actually …