Starting a new job in the middle of a global pandemic is not something many people would find enviable, though I was obviously delighted for the opportunity as so many others were being furloughed. When I began working for BookBlast in West London, it was in the context of not knowing what the weeks and months ahead had in store. I was meant to be starting an internship at Bloomsbury in April, which was postponed indefinitely due to Covid-19. With the prospect of an endless stretch of time ahead with no work, and any notions of career progression firmly on hold, I had a sinking sense of dread about the rest of 2020. Continue reading Guest Feature | Rachel Goldblatt | Dispatches from the Intern’s Desk
Category: Spotlight on Publishing
the insider
Guest Feature | Victor Meadowcroft | A Literary Eruption: The Triumph of Ecuadorian Fiction
Victor Meadowcroft is a translator from Portuguese and Spanish and a graduate of the MA in Literary Translation programme at the University of East Anglia. With Margaret Jull Costa, he has produced co-translations of stories by Agustina Bessa-Luís, a pillar of twentieth century Portuguese literature, which appeared in the anthology Take Six: Six Portuguese Women Writers (Dedalus Books). He has also translated works by authors such as María Fernanda Ampuero, Itamar Vieira Junior and Murilo Rubião, and is currently working on co-translations of two novels by Evelio Rosero, with Anne McLean.
In his collection of dispatches from “the new Latin America” entitled How to Travel Without Seeing (trs. Jeffrey Lawrence), celebrated Spanish-Argentine author Andrés Neuman makes this curious statement: “It occurs to me that Ecuadorian literature is a literature of dragons. That it has waited for years, decades, centuries, holding its breath. A breath fiery with waiting. Capable of setting fire to anything. Tired of remaining contained within itself. A literature turned volcano.” Continue reading Guest Feature | Victor Meadowcroft | A Literary Eruption: The Triumph of Ecuadorian Fiction
Interview | Sam Taylor, translator
Tell us a little bit about yourself
I grew up in England, worked as a journalist on The Observer for eight years, moved to France and wrote four novels, then translated my first novel (Laurent Binet’s HHhH) in 2010. Two years later, I moved to the US, where I now divide my time between writing and translating.
When you were growing up, what books had an impact on you?
The Lord of the Rings is the first book I remember loving. I was a big Italo Calvino (tr. William Weaver) fan as a teenager, Baron in the Trees in particular. I’ve always been attracted to fairytale-like stories that have aspects of the real world but also some magical difference.
How did your career as a translator come about?
Around 2009, I realized I could no longer make a living as a novelist, so I tried to think what else I could do to support my family. I was living in remote rural France, so journalism was out, but by then I could speak French fluently. So I asked my agent how I could become a literary translator. She put me in touch with editor Rebecca Carter (then at Harvill Secker), who advised me to write reader reports on French novels for UK publishers. The first one I wrote, luckily, was about HHhH. Continue reading Interview | Sam Taylor, translator
News | The BookBlast® Podcast 2020 series | Bridging the Divide, full listing
The BookBlast® Podcast 2020 | Bridging the Divide: Translation & the Art of Empathy | 30 July to 05 November
Thursday 30 July, 5 pm: A ground-breaking weekly podcast series kicks off, championing independent publishers committed to publishing writing in translation; their authors and translators; including a guest interview with the publisher behind Nordic Noir.
The podcast line-up features award-winning, bestselling authors from across Europe, including Lars Mytting, J.S. Margot, Tommy Wieringa and Tahar Ben Jelloun, as well as interviews with their publishers Christopher MacLehose, Adam Freudenheim and Philip Gwyn Jones. Continue reading News | The BookBlast® Podcast 2020 series | Bridging the Divide, full listing
Spotlight | John-Paul Pryor & Graham Fink in conversation | Mortimer House, Fitzrovia W1
The multimedia artist, Graham Fink, is one of the world’s most awarded creatives. Formerly at Ogilvy China, his decades-long career has included senior creative posts at CDP, GGT and M&C Saatchi. Some of his most well-known work includes British Airways’ Face, PlayStation’s Blood and Mental Wealth poster campaigns, and Coke hands, Coca-Cola’s most-awarded ad.
He has developed software which enables him to draw with his eyes, and is agent to the AI robot, Sophia, at Hanson Robotics. His latest exhibition In Transition at VVA VirginiaVisualArts, a new contemporary gallery space in Central London, is on until 10 April.
Continue reading Spotlight | John-Paul Pryor & Graham Fink in conversation | Mortimer House, Fitzrovia W1