Rick Simonson

A Language We Know/2
November 19, 2007

The afternoon sessions of the daylong "Translation Market" symposium, co-presented by the Miami Book Fair and Book Expo America on Thursday, November 8, broke the group into smaller panels, essentially packing a second day of programs in. How could one attend two simultaneously and still take needed sun breaks - or, for those off by a few hours in time, naps?

The first round, coming right after lunch, had Michael Moore of PEN, with Helene Atwan of Beacon, Chad Post of the a-borning Open Letter, and Jill Schoolman of Archipelago on the "State of Translation: Boycotts, Bestsellers, and Banned Books." Simultaneously, there was a group on Latin American literature in translation that included Aida Bardales of Criticas, Johanna V. Castillo of Atria, Valerie Miles from Grupo Santillana in Spain, agent Andrea Montejo, FSG editor Lorin Stein, and author/Guadalajara Book Fair Ambassador to the U.S. David Unger.

Following that in quick order was a panel on reviewing works in translation, that had newspaper book editor-turned-agent Steve Wasserman, Marie Arana of The Washington Post, Eric Banks of Bookforum, novelist and NPR book commentator Alan Cheuse, and Carlin Romano of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Simultaneous with that was a session on writing and publishing in the Portuguese-speaking world. Dedi Feldman, doing double-duty on the moderating front, played that role again, with Sergio Machado of Record Publishing in Brazil, translator Clifford E. Landers, and Portuguese author Goncalo Tavares. Tavares was a pleasure - earlier in the day, we had met. He, Paul Yamazaki and I shared a ride over, making our acquaintance that way. It was his first trip ever to the U.S., and he was already trying to gauge how Miami might be reflective of the rest of the U.S. (This is pretty funny, given that the two trying to explain Miami were from the far side of the continent themselves, but we arrived at something akin to saying that Miami, like New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and a few other places, represented certain tendencies of the U.S. in a more pronounced way than you might find elsewhere). Tavares is a young writer with a considerable body of work already out, among his honors the Saramago Prize, given to writers under 35. As of yet, nothing of his is published over here. I'd like to be able to read what he's done.

Then it was time for the last panels of the day. I had a burning desire to go attend the one where editors were talking, "An Editor's Take: When Translation Makes Perfect Sense." There would be (and were) Amy Hundley of Grove, Yvon Girard of Editions Gallimard, Tom Mayer of Norton, Martin Riker of Dalkey Archive, and the just rolled-in Johnny Temple of Akashic. Instead, I had to earn my plane ticket, though in the very esteemed company of bookselling colleagues Karl Pohrt (doing our moderating, as well), Sarah McNally of McNally Robinson, and the previously mentioned Mr. Yamazaki of City Lights. Performance anxiety, bright lights, the presence of a microphone in front of you - whatever combination, the afternoon's drowsiness was chased away, for me, at least. 

Each of us managed to talk about something fairly different even as we first said a few basic things about our respective stores. Karl gave most attention to the Reading the World initiative that has been jointly undertaken each spring by participating publishers (small and large) and bookstores. Sarah talked most about how international literature was organized in her store, the response when it was altered, and how they're trying to re-do it in such a way that people can find less well-known writers' work more readily. (As with most of what we said, it was real nuts-and-bolts, in-the-trenches talk). It fell to me to be next; of the four of us, I was the one most involved with presenting live authors, and so gave background on how much translated work we've presented, including writers reading in other languages, translators giving their own readings, and some 'cases,' which included Haruki Murakami, Orhan Pamuk (pre-Nobel), a group of six Arab women writers from a few years ago (how many organizations were involved, and the sequence of their readings in public), and the Seattle Public Library's Seattle Reads program the year it featured Marjane Satrapi - and the various related programs with Iranian authors that soon enveloped. Then Paul came in with some his venerable store's history and context for having international work so central and vital, which he brought to the very present by citing hard statistical numbers for sales of international work.

Our part said, the session then moved into this relaxed, round-the-room discussion, very much a conversation of the all. It had a relaxed, almost unwinding feel to it - had Paul's wished-for martinis been present - it really could have gone on. It was fun, with who was in the room - you could mention Elias Khoury - and there was Jill Schoolman of Archipelago Books, which published his amazing Gate of the Sun (now in paper from Picador), with another novel, Yano, coming in January. Talk about W.G. Sebald or Roberto Bolano - and there was Barbara Epler of New Directions. As it was, the talk had to be 'ended' as there was a reception to attend. But before - the day's various talkings were brought to this, the mix of what was presented in panels and the informal banter all engaged in, the talk going from the highest planes to the most seeming mundane - what reps do, what part galleys can play. In a way, it was about how we all get, find, cherish, pass along the word on any good writing. In this case, the sometimes extra twists and turns it takes for works from other languages to reach our hands.

It's no longer eighty degrees where I am, and where I am, the sun's not doing much shining, but those conversations do continue ...

*A special thanks here, if it wasn't done earlier, to Mitchell Kaplan, to Lance Fensterman, to James Connolly, to Danette Wolpert who did all the work to make this possible, and for their graciousness and hospitality. Many of us have long known and cherished Mitchell the bookseller, but eyes were opened watching Mitchell the restaurant host, making sure a visiting group was even more looked-after than a fine service staff was already doing a job of ... he somehow almost managed to seem calm through it all, too.

Posted by Rick Simonson on November 19, 2007 | Comments (0)