The last London Book Fair I attended was in 2019. In 2020 I was all set to fly over and take on the role of “translator of the fair”, with a poster-sized photo of me up outside the Olympia venue and events lined up – when the fair was rightly cancelled. There wasn’t an in-person …
Translators have been concerned about technology since St Jerome stubbed a toe on a newfangled scroll. Actually, though, there are some ways in which it has done us good. Although I still own a barrage of paper dictionaries, I no longer work with a big fat yellow book open on my lap and I enjoy …
There are two big-budget book prizes in Germany: in autumn the German Book Prize, and in spring the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. The season’s nominees – announced today by the Leipzig Book Fair – get a lot of extra attention, special readings, and a sales boost. They can come from any German-speaking country but Germany …
The German-language literary magazine landscape is beset by similar challenges as the Anglophone one: funding is hard to find, energy is finite, so projects tend to peter out after a while. I took a trawl through the German-language litmags listed at Literaturport and noticed that a good few of them have folded since Covid, sadly. …
A review by Katy Derbyshire Dilek Güngör’s latest book launched a fortnight ago at a packed Berlin event, where the love flowing back and forth between the stage and the audience was palpable. Dilek – full disclosure: I think we’re friends, we’ve definitely been for a coffee together and I’ve translated an essay she wrote, …
You know when a character in a comic wears a band T-shirt and you know the musicians personally? Maybe not – I guess it doesn’t come up all that often. But that’s what happened to me when I first read RUDE GIRL, Birgit Weyhe’s graphic novel telling Priscilla Layne’s story. There it is, on page …
The Dublin Literary Award today announced its 70-strong longlist of titles nominated by 80 libraries around the world for the 2024 prize. Honouring excellence in world literature, it is one of very few awards that covers both translated and original English fiction. And we’re delighted that V&Q Books’ very own Identitti, written by Mithu Sanyal …
A review by Katy Derbyshire I’m a major fan of the writer Irina Liebmann, especially her dogged devotion to one particular street in Berlin, about which more in a later post. The very first of her books that I read, however, was Berliner Mietshaus. It has been extremely cold in Berlin lately, the kind of …
Next up in our series of translators’ tips from the wealth of German books in 2023 is the translator and literary scout Alex Roesch. German literature in 2023 has proven to be a year dominated by the distinct voices of talented women. My top picks offer up a trio of perspectives on life, identity and …
Continuing our series of translators’ recommendations from 2023 is Ruth Martin with two top reads. Drifter by Ulrike Sterblich, Rowohlt 2023 Drifter was a surprise inclusion on the shortlist for this year’s Deutscher Buchpreis. It’s a joyous, genre-defying novel in which two ordinary friends have their lives turned upside down by the mysterious and possibly …