In The Guardian Joanna Walsh reported that Small presses growing translated fiction's readership, and now at the Three Percent weblog Chad Post reports on the Updated 2013 Translation Database: The First Year to Break 500 ! (download the database here).
Specifically, Chad reports:
Much as I (would) like to see a lot more published in translation, I don't think the picture is as clear as the 'numbers' (which, much like that infamous three-percent figure, are missing some foundations ...) suggest.
So, for example, Chad writes:
Distribution in the US is the threshold for database inclusion, and so we find the 2013 totals padded by quite a few publishers who have been churning out translations for a few years at least, and only got US distribution in 2013 -- notably, besides Lontar, Gallic Books, Quercus, and And Other Stories. So at least some of the supposed increase isn't much more than a bookkeeping-trick (again: while technically their titles might not have been previously available in the US, in most cases they were as easy (or hard) to get as they are now).
Indeed, it surely already says a lot that three of the top seven publishers of translations of works of fiction are not even US-based (Seagull, Pushkin Press, and Lontar).
Technical/theoretical availability -- as Chad notes re. Lontar (but it applies to many of the others, too): "I doubt these are available anywhere outside of Amazon" -- has certainly improved (though I note it reaches much further, to many titles not included on the database, beginning with the many Indian publishers of English translations), but real availability, in the sense of some of these titles getting into any sort of circulation, seems to lag far, far behind. (I note that as a judge for the Best Translated Book Award I should and would like to consider all the fiction titles (well, except for the ineligible anthologies also included here, and a few stray other ineligible titles -- how often do I have to repeat that The Time Regulation Institute is a re-translation ?) -- yet I have probably only seen about half of these (and we've made a decent effort to solicit and seek out as many as we could); indeed, to me 2013 felt like a step backward, translation-wise, because I've received considerably fewer books to consider than when judging the 2012 batch.)
There definitely has been a growth in publishers publishing works in translation in the last year or two -- many foreign-based (Hispabooks and ebook-only Frisch & Co. are among the impressive stand-outs) as well as some in the US (New Vessel Press and Two Lines Press, for example) -- but here too some of the numbers are potentially worrying. While I have little faith in the 'big' publishers, there's definitely something wrong when the best-ranked 'major' (Penguin) ranks behind four much smaller independents (well, three and the bizarre entity that is AmazonCrossing). And it's no great sign that leading publisher of translations Dalkey Archive Press dominates the field as it does, with almost one out of every ten fiction translations (as defined by the database ...) published by them.
Smaller, more nimble publishers have definitely brought new blood and new life to publishing-in-translation, in both the US and UK, and there certainly seems more activity and discussion. Whether that translates into actual interest among the larger reading-public, and sales, and a truly expanded literary horizon ... I still have my doubts. Among the early ones to jump on the bandwagon was the wonderful publisher Aflame (see their titles under review at the complete review) -- which quickly flamed out. Now Quercus, who have bet heavily on translation, seem to be wobbling and have put themselves for sale.
More does seem to be vaguely -- though not necessarily really -- available, but as to its impact ..... No, I don't quite see a renaissance yet.
Specifically, Chad reports:
And now, we're up to 517 (427 fiction, 90 poetry). That's a 50% increase from 2010, or, in actual terms, 173 more translations came out in 2013 than in 2010. Seems unbelievable .Yeah, well .....
Much as I (would) like to see a lot more published in translation, I don't think the picture is as clear as the 'numbers' (which, much like that infamous three-percent figure, are missing some foundations ...) suggest.
So, for example, Chad writes:
For example, how many of you have heard of Lontar Foundation ? Anyone ? Well, as part of their programs to support Indonesian literature, they published 8 titles last year. Granted, I doubt these are available anywhere outside of Amazon, but still.Of course, readers of the Literary Saloon are familiar with the Lontar Foundation because I've mentioned them quite frequently -- and have reviewed several of their books (Telegram, The Pilgrim, and Never the Twain). And while it's great that eight Lontar titles make the 2013 database (good for a tie for the seventh most prolific publisher of fiction-translations, according to the database) it should be noted that no Lontar publications were included in previous years' databases -- yet as you can see, they've been publishing five or six English translations a year since 2010. Yes, now they're technically sort of distributed in the US and previously they weren't, but the difference is barely even academic (much less administrative: it was as easy or difficult to get one of these books in the US last year as it was three years ago ...). (In addition, lots of this stuff isn't new: picking just one to check up on at random I find Iwan Simatupang's Drought came out in English from Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) in 1978 (the Lontar edition is merely a revised one) -- not easy to get (and technically presumably never really US-available) but at least vaguely available for quite a while now.)
Distribution in the US is the threshold for database inclusion, and so we find the 2013 totals padded by quite a few publishers who have been churning out translations for a few years at least, and only got US distribution in 2013 -- notably, besides Lontar, Gallic Books, Quercus, and And Other Stories. So at least some of the supposed increase isn't much more than a bookkeeping-trick (again: while technically their titles might not have been previously available in the US, in most cases they were as easy (or hard) to get as they are now).
Indeed, it surely already says a lot that three of the top seven publishers of translations of works of fiction are not even US-based (Seagull, Pushkin Press, and Lontar).
Technical/theoretical availability -- as Chad notes re. Lontar (but it applies to many of the others, too): "I doubt these are available anywhere outside of Amazon" -- has certainly improved (though I note it reaches much further, to many titles not included on the database, beginning with the many Indian publishers of English translations), but real availability, in the sense of some of these titles getting into any sort of circulation, seems to lag far, far behind. (I note that as a judge for the Best Translated Book Award I should and would like to consider all the fiction titles (well, except for the ineligible anthologies also included here, and a few stray other ineligible titles -- how often do I have to repeat that The Time Regulation Institute is a re-translation ?) -- yet I have probably only seen about half of these (and we've made a decent effort to solicit and seek out as many as we could); indeed, to me 2013 felt like a step backward, translation-wise, because I've received considerably fewer books to consider than when judging the 2012 batch.)
There definitely has been a growth in publishers publishing works in translation in the last year or two -- many foreign-based (Hispabooks and ebook-only Frisch & Co. are among the impressive stand-outs) as well as some in the US (New Vessel Press and Two Lines Press, for example) -- but here too some of the numbers are potentially worrying. While I have little faith in the 'big' publishers, there's definitely something wrong when the best-ranked 'major' (Penguin) ranks behind four much smaller independents (well, three and the bizarre entity that is AmazonCrossing). And it's no great sign that leading publisher of translations Dalkey Archive Press dominates the field as it does, with almost one out of every ten fiction translations (as defined by the database ...) published by them.
Smaller, more nimble publishers have definitely brought new blood and new life to publishing-in-translation, in both the US and UK, and there certainly seems more activity and discussion. Whether that translates into actual interest among the larger reading-public, and sales, and a truly expanded literary horizon ... I still have my doubts. Among the early ones to jump on the bandwagon was the wonderful publisher Aflame (see their titles under review at the complete review) -- which quickly flamed out. Now Quercus, who have bet heavily on translation, seem to be wobbling and have put themselves for sale.
More does seem to be vaguely -- though not necessarily really -- available, but as to its impact ..... No, I don't quite see a renaissance yet.