Not a post about brodernism
suggestions for works in translation
My comical stance on Federico Perelmuter’s review is this tweet:
My professional stance is that if you like the books discussed in the article you will love everything written by Mark Haber, Lesser Ruins being the most recent and best.
My serious stance is everyone’s missing the forest for the trees, here, and the forest we need to see is full of books that could be translated into English. English readers only get such a small sliver of what’s available. We’re getting the most famous of the famous literary writers of each language. Think of all the interesting under-the-radar books you’ve read in English; there could be so many of those in so many languages that English readers don’t have access to yet.
The conversation around translated works should be more universal but I am also aware that there is an anti-intellectualism around reading discourse recently and it would do a disservice to these fantastic works of art to pitch them like candy. But people can enjoy bitter chocolate cake and gummy bears.
Also all translators’ names should be put on the covers of books, in my opinion.
Here are some cool publishers that publish works in translation. I’m operating under the assumption here that you’ve heard of places like New Directions already. How is New Directions always publishing the viral translation of the moment (which I think is currently On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle trans. Barbara Haveland because that’s what I’m reading)? I took this picture haphazardly because I was sending to a friend, asking if she wanted me to buy her a copy of Volume II, but you can see Open Letter (Can Xue Mother River trans. Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping) to the left of three New Directions titles in the front row here.
Feel free to recommend more & suggest other books in the comments:
Open Letter Press: I really like Open Letter’s aesthetic personally and immediately regretted not buying the Can Xue so I ordered it online from their website. I think Fox by Dubravka Ugresic trans. Ellen Elias-Bursać & David Williams and On Time and Water by Andri Snær Magnason trans. Lytton Smith (which I read last year) are their other big sellers.
Deep Vellum: Solenoid, mentioned in the brodernism essay, is on sale right now! They have a cool history as a translation publisher & there’s a store in Dallas. I have Sphinx by Anne Garréta trans. Emma Ramadan, really good, and Fem by Magda Carneci trans. Sean Cotter though I haven’t read it yet.
Chad Post is doing a cool Substack on the Dalkey Archive… archives, here.
I feel like people also do know Dalkey, but I’m sharing Katherine Packert Burke’s recommendation of Scar by Sara Mesa trans. Adriana Nodal-Tarafa, anyway.
Two Lines Press: all translation, and they all have cats on them. Wormwood by Layla Martínez trans. Sophie Hughes & Annie McDermott is the book of theirs I see most often; I really like Jazmina Barrera so I’ve read her Cross-Stitch and On Lighthouses both translated by Christina MacSweeney.
Titled Axis Press: until recently they didn’t distribute into the US, a great feature on them in this weekend’s New York Times.
This list isn’t meant to be exhaustive and obviously there are imprints within the Big 5 that publish works in translation and independents (like Coffee House, Graywolf, Feminist Press) that publish translation alongside innovative English fiction.
And for those of you who want more Substack content, I really like Martha’s Monthly, and her map of reading around the world!
Ok back to November 18th —
Yes! Also, Transit Books, of course! 📚
I also agree translators names should always be on the front!! I think its insane that they're not (because they are authors in their own right) but I also think it quite rightfully signals it is translated. I must assume (bc I don't know) that their exclusion might come out of some sort of expectation that some might be intimidated if they know a book is translated??
Thank you for sharing my Map!