Found in Translation

by Charlotte Abbott -- Publishers Weekly, 4/25/2005

In an innovative effort to raise the visibility of literature in translation, two nonprofit literary presses and a small indie house have formed an alliance with two corporate imprints to coordinate a special promotional display called Reading the World, which launches May 1 at about 80 independent bookstores.

Each participating store will display a total of 10 works in translation—two each from Dalkey Archive Press, Archipelago Books, New Directions, FSG and Knopf/Pantheon—and will stock about five copies of each title. Posters with an image donated by children's illustrator Peter Sís and brochures produced and paid for by the publishers also support the effort, which will run for all of May, dubbed World in Translation Month by the writer's organization PEN.

Participating stores—which include 57th Street Books in Chicago, Cody's Books in Berkeley, Calif., Northshire Books in Manchester, Vt., and Reader's Oasis in Tucson, Ariz.—have selected their 10 titles from a pool of 20 recommended by the publishers. Among the options are Voices from Chernobyl, an oral history by Ukrainian author Svetlana Alexievich; the novels Bacacay by the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz and By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño; The Collected Poems of Federico Garcìa Lorca; and a memoir in graphic novel form, Embroideries by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi.

Spearheaded by Chad Post of Dalkey Archive Press, the effort grew out of a series of conversations at BEA in 2004 involving booksellers Karl Pohrt of Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Mich., Paul Yamazaki of City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco and FSG's Jeff Seroy. "Chad is working at a press that specializes in translations, where something like this can make a measurable difference. But it can make a creditable difference for all of us," said Seroy, explaining FSG's participation. "No one is looking for huge numbers here," added Random House sales director Paul Kozlowski. "It's a way to draw attention to the authors, especially in a post–9/11 world, where there's a need to reach out to other cultures."

Yamazaki compared the effort to National Poetry Month, which he described as "a result of an ongoing conversation about how to sell poetry better that has slowly gotten it into the hands of more readers." For all of the publishers involved, the project is "really a long-term commitment to grow the market with booksellers," said Seroy. "Besides, it just feels good."