February 25, 2026
Congratulations Kira!
Congratulations to SELTA member Kira Josefsson, whose translation of Small Comfort by Ia Genberg has been longlisted for the International Booker Prize.
From the prize:
“Intricately built and wickedly humorous, these five interconnected short stories are all about one thing: money.”
Read more about this year’s longlist here.
February 12, 2026
The 2025 Bernard Shaw Prize has been awarded to Agnes Broomé for her translation from Swedish of Lydia Sandgren’s ‘Collected Works: A Novel’ published by Pushkin Press.
The winner of the 2025 Bernard Shaw Prize is SELTA member Agnes Broomé for her translation of Collected Works: A Novel by Lydia Sandgren published by Pushkin Press. The award of the prize was announced as part of the Society of Authors’ annual Translation Prizes celebratory event held at the British Library on 10th February.
This year’s judges included the now retired SELTA founder member Tom Geddes, current SELTA member Kate Lambert, and the writer and journalist Dea Birkett, who said of the winner:
‘As a first time judge, I was in awe of the role of the translator in this incredible work. Translating is the strangest of jobs, as the more the reader notices you, the less good your work is. Invisibility is your aim. I quickly forgot this was a translated work, and skipped through different voices, eras and perspectives all conveyed with ease and authenticity. I hope this award makes the translator visible again.’
This was the first time that Agnes has been shortlisted for the Bernard Shaw prize, while also being the first time Pushkin Press has featured on the shortlist for the prize. SELTA offers its wholehearted congratulations to Agnes on her achievement. SELTA even received a name check. While accepting her prize, Agnes said:
‘I also want to extend my literally forever gratitude to SELTA […] for welcoming and supporting me when I was a brand new and slightly overwhelmed translator.’
The runner up on the evening was Saskia Vogel for her translation of Hanna Nordenhök’s Caesaria.
The prize is awarded for the best translation into English of a full length Swedish language work of literary merit and general interest, with the winner receiving £3000 and the runner up £1000. Named after the author and dramatist George Bernard Shaw, whose Nobel Prize went towards a foundation for ‘the promotion and diffusion of knowledge and appreciation of the literature and art of Sweden in the British Islands’, the prize was established in 1991 and is now awarded biennially. The next award will be for 2027 (awarded in 2028).
You can watch the full prize ceremony here (and the announcement of the Bernard Shaw Prize here). And finally well done to all the translators who were featured on the shortlist for the 2025 prize as announced last December.
December 17, 2025
Congratulations to these five SELTA members.
Congratulations to SELTA members Agnes Broomé, Elizabeth Clark Wessel, Fiona Graham, Nichola Smalley and Saskia Vogel for their places on the 2025 Bernard Shaw Shortlist.
A biennial award, the Bernard Shaw Prize is awarded for translations into English of full length Swedish language works of literary merit and general interest. The winning prize is £3,000, whilst a runner-up receives £1,000.
October 24, 2025
Read more about SELTA’s recent workshop with authors Hanna Johansson and Agnes Lidbeck.
On Tuesday 7th October, SELTA held a workshop at the Embassy of Sweden in Marylebone, London, in collaboration with Modern Culture’s Stories from Sweden project. In attendance were Swedish authors Hanna Johansson and Agnes Lidbeck, Martin Colthorpe of Modern Culture, and over twenty translators from Swedish, most, but not all of them, SELTA members. The group was split into two, with each sub-group working with one of the authors, going through participants’ pre-prepared translations of a short excerpt from the relevant author’s texts. We asked two of the participating translators to write a short report from the event for us. Read on to find out more about the proceedings, and, more importantly, the snacks…
———————————
The SELTA literary translation workshop at the Embassy of Sweden in London on Tuesday 7 October was a real treat. The room was nicely set up and there was good coffee and even some Swedish fikabröd on offer (one of my main reasons for showing up…).
People had translated short texts from upcoming novels by Agnes Lidbeck and Hanna Johansson, and we sat with the authors to chat and share ideas and insights about their Swedish texts and the various English translations.
There were two tables, one for each of the authors, and there was a pretty even split between the tables. I was at Agnes’s table and the discussion was well mediated by fellow SELTA member Alex Fleming.
One thing that soon became clear was how helpful it would have been to have read the whole book before embarking on the translation of the excerpt. Agnes provided a lot of background to the various characters, social classes, moods and timelines involved, which shed a whole new light and quickly revealed how our translations could be improved. It was also useful to get an insight into the sheer depth of meaning in certain Swedish words (such as ‘…va?’), and to realise that no translator can reasonably be expected to delve into all the various echelons of meaning and implication in each and every word, and then try to convey exactly the same nuances in a single English word, every time. So all we can do is our best, of course!
After the workshop, a few of us went round the corner to buy a few bits at the Totally Swedish shop, and many of also had lunch together at a nearby Franco Manca. As a relatively new SELTA member myself, it was great to meet and chat to fellow translators – mainly new ones, but some more experienced ones too.
Thanks to SELTA for organising this and to everyone involved, and I look forward to joining other SELTA events in the future.
Matt Bibby
As a new member of SELTA, I came along to the translation workshop excited to get involved but a little anxious about my own contributions since I hadn’t had the chance to submit my own translation in advance. I needn’t have worried! The setting and company were relaxed and welcoming and I felt at ease from the start. After a coffee, chat and round of introductions, we chose whether a group to join – one working on Agnes Lidbeck’s forthcoming novel and the other working with Hanna Johansson.
Those of us working with Hanna quickly became embroiled in the challenge of how to translate gymnasiet – everything from secondary school to 6th form was considered though I’m not actually sure we settled on a choice in the end! Other challenges included names of plants – rubber plant or ficus – and the classic Swedish Har man… construction. The discussion flowed freely with ideas coming from all round the table. As a newcomer, I really enjoyed the opportunity to work collaboratively with other translators and hear their thoughts highlighting just how our backgrounds, interests and preferences influence our translation. Especially interesting were Hanna’s own thoughts and contributions to the discussion. This was the first time I’d been in a translation workshop with an author and it was fascinating to see how our discussion and questions were shaping her own thoughts around where her manuscript would go from here.
All in all, an enjoyable and thought-provoking morning with like-minded colleagues and excellent fika. I am looking forward to the next one already!
Joanne Haslett
October 18, 2025
Congratulations Kira!
Congratulations to Kira Josefsson, whose translation of Judith Kiro’s O was shortlisted this year for the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize.
The prize is awarded by the National Book Critic’s Circle, with books of any genre translated into English and published in the United States being eligible.
“All translation is alchemy of course, though to my mind, this is especially true of poetic texts, and Josefsson’s collaboration with Kiros—along with an excellent translator’s note—is exceptional. Kiros’s sure and powerful vision makes O a literary creature of ambition, risk, and wonder, a polyphonic layering of voices that enjoins multiple rereadings, yielding insight, wonder, and sighs.” – Mandana Chaffa on Words Without Borders.
You can read a review of O by Leonora Simonovis here at the Poestry Foundation.
September 22, 2025
SELTA members Neil Smith and Rachel Willson-Broyles have been shortlisted for the 2025 Petrona Award. Congratulations to both!
SELTA members Neil Smith and Rachel Willson-Broyles have been shortlisted for the 2025 Petrona Award.
The Petrona Award recognises outstanding translated crime fiction from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, with this year’s winner being announced on 16th October 2025. There were a total of 31 entries to the annual prize, so congratulations Neil and Rachel!
The judges on Neil’s translation of Pascal Engman’s The Widows:
“A previous winner of the Petrona Award with FEMICIDE, Pascal Engman once again produces a high-octane thriller which impressed the judges with its complex plotting, nerve wracking tension and strong characterisation throughout.”
And on Rachel’s translation of Deliver Me by Malin Persson Giolito:
“DELIVER ME is a powerful, yet unsettling, examination of the dark underbelly of suburban Stockholm and the real victims of gang violence and social inequality.”
May 24, 2025
SELTA’s former Chair Ruth Urbom shares her tried-and-tested formula for organising a successful translation workshop.
Translation workshops are a joy to participate in, as indicated not only by SELTA’s autumn event in 2024, but by its many predecessors over the years. The opportunity for members of an often-solitary profession to come together and both inspire and be inspired is priceless: but how best to go about planning a translation workshop yourself?
Former chair Ruth Urbom has put together a fantastic guide for those of you looking to do just that.
———
It’s gratifying to see that the format for practical translator workshops I developed back in 2011 has proven robust enough to continue with new organisers.
By my count, SELTA has now hosted a total of nine workshops using my format. I have been pleased to see favourable feedback from participants over the years, most recently following SELTA’s event at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh.
Unlike translation slams, where two or three people are placed in the spotlight with other attendees relegated to onlooker status, this workshop format allows everyone – beginners and old hands alike – to take part on an equal footing.
To enable even more fellow translators to benefit from this stimulating, rewarding activity, I am sharing the organisational framework for my workshop format in this how-to article.
Preparation
Around 4–6 weeks before the workshop date, the facilitator selects a stretch of text – which may be a standalone piece or part of a longer work – and distributes it to the participants. All workshop participants translate the same set text.
An extract that results in 600–750 words of English (between two and three printed book pages) will provide plenty of material for a whole afternoon’s discussion, without being too onerous for participants to prepare.
Some translators feel more confident if they can read the whole work before tackling the extract. For many of SELTA’s workshops, we have been fortunate to obtain a complete PDF of the book from the rights holder (usually the author’s literary agent), with permission to share the file with workshop participants. Participants are advised not to forward the book PDF to anyone outside the workshop group, so as not to deprive the author of sales.
Participants each email their own translation of the extract to the facilitator in Microsoft Word or .rtf format around 7–10 days before the workshop date. The facilitator then removes any translators’ names or other identifying details from the translations received and assigns a number to each one before emailing the whole set of translations out to all participants. That gives everyone time to look through the different translated versions and identify interesting aspects before the group meets to discuss them.
Some people might be unable to attend the workshop discussion session but still wish to be involved. In those cases, I encourage them to submit a translation anyway. In return, I send them the full bundle of translations so that they can analyse and compare the various versions on their own.
I always standardise the font, line spacing, paragraph indentation and margins in the submitted translations before distributing the bundle of numbered, now-anonymous pieces. Having a uniform layout across all the versions helps to focus everyone’s attention on what’s essential: the content of the translations.
It can also be helpful to add line numbers in the margin to make it quick and easy to refer to particular points during the discussion. That can be done with just a couple of clicks in Word.
Word counts for each translated version are another bit of useful information to include. It’s illuminating to see the extent to which the source text expands through translation. Some translators may use a more concise style, while others employ more explicitation, preferring to ‘unpack’ certain expressions or cultural phenomena for target-language readers.
I concatenate all of the translations received into a single document and save the file as a PDF to send out. That ensures everyone will be on the same page (literally!) in the discussion, whether they use A4 or North American letter-size paper.
If the author is going to be involved in the workshop, I also send everyone’s translations to the author or his/her representative ahead of time.
Participants are asked to bring the translation bundle to the workshop, either as hard copy or on their laptop or tablet, so that they can refer to the translations during the discussion. As facilitator, I take an extra printout to the discussion session to help anyone who’s forgotten to bring theirs along – there’s usually at least one.
On the day
One way to kick off the workshop is by discussing the source text. What sort of work is it? Who is the target audience? How would you describe the writer’s style, the narrator’s voice, the characters, the setting? Are there any passages you found particularly challenging – perhaps due to culturally bound terms, tricky linguistic structure or wordplay? That provides a natural opening for the discussion to turn towards the group’s translations.
It is rare for two translators to translate any sentence (other than very brief, unambiguous expressions) in exactly the same way. Further discussion of the text can elicit even more potential translation solutions beyond what the participants came up with individually.
I take care to maintain the anonymity of participants’ translations – and by the time of the actual workshop, I’ve forgotten who submitted which one anyway. I tell the group they can choose to reveal which one is theirs if they wish to explain the reasoning behind their decisions, e.g. “Version 3 is mine, and I chose that wording because I wanted to emphasise [xyz]…”
SELTA has often had the privilege of having one or more authors attend our workshops in person, thanks to funding from the Swedish Arts Council and the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation. It’s a real luxury to be able to address specific questions about the text directly to the author and so acquire a deeper understanding of the work. If the author is unable to be present with the group, an alternative is to email the bundle of translations to the author and invite him/her to comment on them.
Many benefits
This translation workshop format can help experienced translators freshen up their own practice with new solutions to frequently encountered phrases or grammatical structures. It’s reassuring to know that other translators struggle with the same thorny aspects of a text. Students and emerging translators can gain insights into more experienced colleagues’ thought processes, as well as when and where they might be able to depart from the source sentence structure to create a translation that works better in the target language – for example, by swapping around the order of clauses within a sentence, or by splitting or combining sentences or even paragraphs differently.
Keeping the translations anonymous allows people to look objectively at different versions of the text without being overawed by any senior colleagues’ names attached to particular translations in the bundle.
Workshops can serve as a ‘safe space’ for translators to try out bold tactics they might not feel justified employing on paid projects, just to see how they work. For example, I once used the simple past tense in my translation of a Swedish novel extract that was set in the 1980s and written in the historic present. That’s not something I’d ever do on a real job without prior approval from the author and editor, but I wanted to spark discussion on the relative markedness of present versus past in Swedish and English. (The author didn’t like the change at all!)
Authors get a lot out of these workshops too. They find it fascinating to see all the different potential English versions of their writing, and translators’ questions can lead to further reflection on their own writing practice – as the Swedish author Elin Olofsson shared in an essay following SELTA’s 2017 workshop on Nature [in] Writing.
SELTA’s workshops to date have covered novels, children’s fiction and picture books, poetry, non-fiction and even a graphic novel. There’s no reason this format couldn’t be used with a source text from the commercial realm, such as a press release, news article or annual report. Virtually any piece of writing will contain ambiguities and idiomatic expressions that require translators to interpret the source and make their own choices about how to render the text into their target language.
Translation workshops are a great opportunity for translators to geek out about fine nuances of meaning and style. Why not get a group together and try it for yourselves?
Ruth Urbom
SELTA Chair 2012–2018
April 20, 2025
2024 saw SELTA’s commitment to the future development of the Swedish-English literary translation sphere crystalise in the form of the SELTA Mentorship and CPD programme, which ran between March and October and culminated in our autumn event.
Whilst providing a valuable opportunity for translators at different stages of their career – from early to mid-career or in one case, undergraduate – the programme was also intended to be an excellent chance for experienced translators to further develop their mentorship skills.
Our mentee and mentor pairs all met at least five times over the course of the programme to discuss and work on a wonderful variety of literary translation projects, from poetry to graphic novels. Equally important were discussions about the industry itself, from contracts to networking. Against an ever-in-flux translation landscape suddenly jolted in another radical direction by the rise of AI translations, our mentor and mentee pairs had a lot of experiences to share and questions to mull over. We hope that, however uncertain the future, this certainly will not be the last mentorship programme.
Our mentees generously shared their experiences with us– read on to find out the ins and outs of a SELTA mentorship.
Being accepted onto SELTA’s 2024 Mentorship and CPD Programme was an exciting surprise and felt like a great opportunity to receive in-depth advice and direct feedback on my own translations from an established translator. From the start, Annie Prime was an encouraging and insightful mentor. She allowed a lot of scope for me to choose which aspects of translating I would like to work on, while also directing me towards tasks that would benefit me most given my limited experience of translating from Swedish into English.
We worked on three very different texts during the mentorship: an excerpt from the novel Inget ska växa över mig (working title: Nothing will grow over me) by Elin Grelsson, a literature studies paper on Kafka’s The Trial by a member of faculty at University of Gothenburg and several chapters from the non-fiction, self-help book Tvärtom (working title: The opposite) by Stefan Pagréus.
Translating these texts presented a range of challenges and learning experiences. Among many valuable lessons, working with Annie helped me to obtain a far more robust frame of reference for when and how best to diverge from the source text, when a more literal translation doesn’t fit well in English. Besides the mentoring raising my proficiency as a translator, it also deepened my understanding of how the translation
business works. In this regard, our work on Tvärtom was particularly beneficial.
Annie received an inquiry from Bonnier Rights on her availability to translate four chapters of the book, and very generously agreed to share the work with me as a co- translation. I was thus able to follow Annie through this project, see the content and tone of her correspondence with the literary agent, and understand much more about the contractual side of translating. For the translation itself, we took two chapters apiece, checked and edited each other’s work, gave and received feedback and alternative suggestions in the documents themselves, and then also discussed our views over the phone. I feel that this experience of actually working on a commissioned project is invaluable, and will hopefully hold me in good stead as I pursue future work. I wholeheartedly endorse the experience as a mentee, thank SELTA for offering this great opportunity and would encourage any other budding translators to leap at the chance of
being mentored.
I am incredibly grateful to have been a mentee: it was such an enriching experience. I don’t think I realised at the start how much fun I would have during the mentorship, but that is exactly what happened: tackling projects with my mentor felt like engaging in a delightful new hobby! The fact that I was paired up with Nichola (Nicky) Smalley in particular felt like a sheer gift: she was the best mentor I could have asked for. Nicky guided and encouraged me with endless patience and kindness, boosting my professional confidence.
I had a long document with questions about the translation industry, from very vague ones (“how on earth do you get that very first literary translation assignment?”) to highly specific ones (“what should a royalties clause in a contract include?”). Nicky patiently answered all these questions, giving me a much better grasp of the industry.
Ahead of each session, we settled on an excerpt by a particular author (Malin Lindroth, Linda Segtnan, Tove Alsterdal, Emma Hamberg) that I’d work on until the next meeting. Nicky gave me the freedom to propose texts myself (I really enjoyed working on Lindroth’s Nuckan), but also convinced me to tackle genres I wouldn’t have chosen myself. This led to interesting discussions about the demands of different genres, how to produce a strong translation even when you don’t vibe with the source text, and how to get a feel for the particularities of certain genres. During our next meeting, we then went through my translation together, with Nicky offering constructive criticism and/or sharing existing translations of the same text, so we could compare both translations and discuss differences and similarities.
Main lessons I learnt
– I know much, much more about the translation industry than I did a year ago, both thanks to Nicky and thanks to other SELTA members suggesting workshops and events to attend. Getting to meet other SELTA members added real value to the mentorship, with so many people sharing personal tips. Perhaps the main lesson here is that literary translators are a fantastically generous, supportive and knowledgeable family that I’d love to be a part of!
– My favourite ‘Nicky lesson’ is the importance of rhythm in translation. Nicky has an
incredible and innate affinity with the musicality of language. “How does it sound, Eva?” she would ask me. “Listen to the text. Hear the author’s voice – then make sure your translation sings in that same voice.” Thanks to Nicky, I will never be the same translator again: I now close my eyes and use my ears instead, to feel language’s song rather than its sentences.
As the graduating student selected for the mentorship scheme, I came into it with zero knowledge of the industry, very limited experience in translation, and no connections within the sector. I found that with Saskia as my mentor, I got so much experience of all of these elements and now find myself much better placed to begin my translation career. Saskia has been an incredibly useful resource for any and all
of my questions about translating texts, making industry connections and interactions with clients. I truly would not be placed so well for my future career in translation without the extensive help of both Saskia and SELTA.
I’ve worked on a couple different projects over the course of this mentorship. My first project was translating a short story from Jonas Karlsson’s Den perfekte vännen, which I have submitted to a range of journals with an aim to publication. My mentor helped me along at every stage of the process, demystifying the world of literary journals and building my confidence in the fact that I could even try submitting my work, as well as helping me in the translation itself, especially with maintaining unique voices for each character.
My second project was translating Så funkar havet by Lasse Åberg for the foundation Voice of the Ocean, which is my first ever paid and commissioned work. Saskia recommended me personally for this project and I will never be able to thank her enough. She helped me along not only with the translation, but also with negotiating my fee and making sure that I was getting fairly compensated for my work. Not only would I not have gotten this job without the mentorship programme, I also would not have been able to negotiate fair and timely payment.
My final project was simply trying my hand at translating poetry, which is something that I found incredibly daunting. It’s not necessarily something that I’ll be submitting anywhere, but Saskia’s advice has been invaluable and has given me the confidence to carry on translating poetry in the future.
The simple opportunity of joining in with SELTA activities has also been immensely helpful to me. Being able to connect with professional translators of Swedish has been both inspiring and a valuable resource for getting to grips with the variety of experiences within translation circles. While mentorships are
understandably a very finite resource, I think reaching out to university Scandinavian departments to include a few students in any events that SELTA holds is a great idea – I did speak to the second year Edinburgh student at the translation workshop in October, and it seemed to me that she really benefitted from the opportunity. I could never adequately express just how much SELTA and, in particular, Saskia have helped me in carving out the very beginnings of my career in translation, and I will always be infinitely grateful for this opportunity.
I was a relatively new member of SELTA when I attended the BCLT’s online Advanced Scandinavian Translation Workshop, and one of my key takeaways from the event – as well as the buzz that I always get from a high quality translation event – was how organised, energetic and down-to-earth Ian Giles is.
So when the SELTA mentorship scheme was launched and Ian was listed as one of the mentors, I knew who I wanted to choose! Particularly as his areas of interest included “exploring what our translations are used for in the publishing industry”. Since I’ve been a commercial translator for well over a decade, I know how to do the actual translation bit (though obviously there’s always room for improvement!). But the actual nuts and bolts of how the publishing industry interacts with translation, and indeed how the publishing industry works at all, were (ahem) a closed book to me. The fact that the mentorship began with a trip to London Book Fair was rather daunting. As someone who lives in a very small Swedish rural town – and perhaps above all as a late-diagnosed autistic – such events are extremely daunting for me. But with Ian to call upon and guide me through the melee, everything went swimmingly. I think it helped to have set the goal of merely surviving the fair, rather than feeling that I had to come away from it with tons of new contacts. Though I did make some new contacts too, and even gained the confidence to later approach the Gothenburg Book Fair on my own.
Looking back now that the mentorship is officially over, I’m still thrilled to have been accepted as a “mid-career translator”, and delighted with what I gained from the experience. Even outside our scheduled sessions, Ian has always been ready to help out with practical insider knowledge. We’ve worked on several texts together, and are about to embark on a full-length non-fiction title. But more than this, I now feel like I do have a place in the literary translation world, and that the trade events so intimidating to the uninitiated are actually a lot of fun.
Read Jane’s translated extract from The Game (Leken) by Jörgen Gassilewski in Swedish Book Review 2025:1.
In applying for the SELTA mentorship as an emerging translator, I looked forward to gaining practical knowledge and skills of the craft of translation, as well as guidance in navigating the translation world. In doing so, I hoped that it would lead me closer to publishing a translated piece of fiction in English. Having focused on these goals together with my mentor BJ Woodstein throughout the mentorship, I feel significantly strengthened in my ability to move forward independently with potential translation projects.
Following the official beginning of the mentorship at the 2024 London Book Fair – in itself an eye-opening experience and a wonderful networking opportunity – BJ Woodstein and I have primarily worked on a translated excerpt of Swedish graphic novel “Fattigt skryt”, by author Cecilia Vårhed. Published in the fall of 2023 by Galago, “Fattigt skryt” is a trippy saga about broken love, class, friendship and the quest to land on one’s feet. From a technical perspective, this work allowed us to dive into the question of translating onomatopoeia, a frequently recurring feature throughout the book. We also identified and discussed specific challenges related to the translation of graphic novels, such as the issue of space constraints within a panel.
Alongside working on these translation aspects, BJ Woodstein guided me through the process of seeking permission to translate from the original publisher as well as finding an appropriate outlet for publication. The work was greatly facilitated by Cecilia Vårhed, who graciously offered to insert the translation proposal into the graphic panels. Ultimately, the translation proposal was published in the Swedish Book Review in September. As such, this project has allowed me to gain insight into all the different steps that allow a translation to come into being, from initial idea to finished publication.
Following this, I have begun working on a translated excerpt of yet another graphic novel; “Portal” by Edith Hammar, a Finland Swedish writer and artist. Set against the backdrop of both contemporary and post-war Helsinki, “Portal” offers a unique exploration of queer Scandinavian history and use of Finland Swedish language. Timewise, this excerpt will be presented to relevant literary magazines for consideration in the coming weeks.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the SELTA committee for this wonderful opportunity and to my mentor BJ Woodstein, in particular, for her generosity and enthusiasm throughout my mentorship.
January 1, 2025
Read more about the author-translator workshop SELTA held at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh.
As 2024 draws to a close, it’s time for reflection- and a chance to look back at a dreich day in autumn, when a group of Swedish authors and translators from the language gathered in Edinburgh for SELTA’s autumn event. This took the form of a full-day translation workshop with visiting authors Hanna Nordenhök, Jörgen Gassilewski, and Lida Starodubtseva at the Scottish Poetry Library. The event was well-attended and well-enjoyed: we look forward to more like it in the future!
One of our participating authors, Lida Starodubtseva, kindly wrote a playful piece in response to the workshop, which we would like to share here.
*
I’ll start with a quote paraphrased from Athena Farrokhzad: isn’t every text a river?
Doesn’t every text have two riverbanks: the translated, and the still not translated? Perhaps even: the translatable and the untranslatable. Do you remember the old riddle about the wolf, the goat and the head of cabbage that have to be carried across a river in a boat – where naturally they cannot all be present at the same time? The wolf wants to eat up the goat, the goat wants to eat up the head of cabbage. Do you remember how sweat-inducing the riddle used to be when it was given out as an extra task in – maybe fifth grade? Surely the same feeling can appear when you’re sitting with a translation, sunken deep into a process where the semantics, the phonetics and the style don’t want to sit together in the same boat? The toilsome puzzling ahead of each crossing: out with this expression and in with this rewriting, and how does that sound? Got no further. Sigh.
At the SELTA seminar that took place a few weeks ago in Edinburgh, I was for sure not taking part as a translator, rather as an author. But: once a translator, always a translator. The wolf, the goat, the head of cabbage. A) I write in a language that is not my first language and which I began to speak somewhat fluently only in my twenties – a slightly peculiar Swedish that carries traces of both my Russian and a sort of general linguistic abstraction and enstrangement. B) Now a text from my book is to be translated to another language, English, and the translator – the ferryman who carries meaning across from one bank to the other – has enough of their own matters to deal with: can they be bothered to get stuck into a source text that has a peculiar upbringing? C) At the other end of the process, there is an imagined reader who shouldn’t need to know anything in advance, be that about the author’s and the original text’s suppositions or the ferryman’s concerns. The reader has the right to expect… reading, and nothing else. The reader should not need to think about why “the voice fumbles over the neighbouring tones” is not a normal description; the reader should feel a sting of oddness but travel further along in the text, unencumbered. Or: whether wooden staircases resonate “meekly” – how do they sound then, actually? Meekly, with a soft echo, tentatively, modestly? Is it the physically perceptible sound that is being described, or the child’s feeling of being carried, supported, comforted by the staircase that has been tramped along so many times before?
To those dear translators who have sat trying to find a way to solve this: my immense gratitude!
So then: we have all learnt how the riddle is to be solved. A) You carry the head of cabbage across, then you travel back to fetch the goat. B) Once on the other side of the river again, you leave the goat and bring back the head of cabbage to the starting point where the wolf is waiting. C) For the final round, you carry the wolf and the head of cabbage across together. Everyone is happy, no one has come to harm.
You reach, as is so often the case, a solution that seems ok. A text that does not challenge too much, unbothersome formulations, descriptions that feel… normal.
But imagine if the wolf is vegetarian. Imagine if the goat is actually the big billy-goat, Bruse, who can knock the wolf down. Imagine if there are others on the bank that the riddle forgot to mention. Think if all the solutions that look correct are just half-decent compromises – and the one that looks completely crazy is the only one that really creates meaning. Make it queer, as the master translator John Swedenmark once wrote.
Isn’t every text a river – or the possibility of a river. This rhetorical question I will be saving for the wonderful future where I have the time to write flippant essays and need a suitable title for one of them, one that will be about collective translations of linguistically odd and fragile texts. “Possibility of rivers.” Or “Possibility of a river”? Does that sound normal? Or with a touch of oddness? That’s something we can discuss, should someone then wish to translate the essay into another language.
(Translated by Sophie Ruthven)
A number of the participants were also happy to share some reflections from the day. We hope they will bring back fond memories to those who were able to attend, and be inspiring to others!
Translator Alistair Gage:
As an employed commercial translator for the last 20-plus years, it was particularly rewarding to apply my mind to some literary translation again. The texts were suitably challenging and the whole day was very well organised. The Scottish Poetry Library was a perfect venue too.
It was also great to meet some “real” translators, rather than be sat in front of a computer screen on my own most of the working day, as seems to be the life of translators these days.
Nice that this meeting was held closer to (my) home too, and all in all, a most inspiring day.
Final year Edinburgh student Alex Kastel:
I found it interesting to compare and discuss the translations themselves, and to be able to compare the language to the authors’ intentions. As a student I felt less familiar with how professional translation work is conducted but it was interesting to get a sense of the backgrounds and connections of the different attendees’ to translating. I also found it surprising but also exciting that this style of discussion forum was rare and liked that everyone shared a feeling of novelty and enthusiasm towards it from swapping and contrasting ideas and interpretations.
And Elizabeth Lutz of UEA:
I really appreciated the format of the workshop, that it included short introductions by each of the authors and then we discussed their work in small groups around a round table. Everyone used the language they felt most comfortable with, Swedish or English. Breaks in between sessions provided opportunities to speak with the authors directly and to meet other translators. Almost everyone was new to me, since I only recently joined SELTA. I also got to talk with Lars Gassilewski about his writing process for both poetry and prose and the writers who influenced him. It was insightful to hear from other translators about decisions they struggle with in literary texts.
The Scottish Poetry Library was a lovely venue for the day and lunch was very good! I got to try thyme tea, which I’d never had before, and now it’s one of my favourites.
Translator Helen Robinson:
I really enjoyed the SELTA workshop. There was a good balance between the presentations by the authors and the translation break out groups. Thanks to everyone who worked hard to collate the translations and those who led the groups. It was great to meet so many translators.
Translator Kathy Saranpa:
For translators, who have must have one of the most solitary occupations on the planet, meeting up with our peers is always a treat. But attending a workshop together to work on texts with their authors present is an absolute goldmine. We can see each others’ thought processes in real time, decide whether our crazy ideas were way off base or a stroke of genius, and ask authors what they meant by phrases that may have made us scratch our heads. Not to mention the reactions authors have to hearing their works in English in several different versions, something that I find very gratifying. Who else but a translator can have almost as intimate a relationship with their creations as they do?
In October, several SELTA members gathered to work on texts by three Swedish authors who were present — Jörgen Gassilewski, Hanna Nordenhök and Lida Starodubtseva — and by one who wasn’t able to be present, Quynh Tran. It was hard to decide which two authors NOT to work with, as there were parallel sessions both morning and afternoon. I ended up in the group with Lida Starodubtseva in the morning, and it was an epiphany. Her native language is Russian, and I wasn’t aware of this when working on her texts. Some of the phrases I struggled most with were traces of Russian idioms in Swedish. There was also a missing comma that caused many of us trouble, and which she promptly replaced in her text. But since then I’ve been almost obsessed with the idea of language that ‘misbehaves’ and creates an additional layer of meaning and an enhanced richness.
The authorless afternoon session featured an interesting twist: there was a new first page. We discussed such issues as whether having the new information would change our translations in any way and what questions we would ask Tran if he had been able to be present. The issue of how Finland-Swedish the author was came up, as Tran was not born in Finland and no longer lives there, but debuted as a Finland-Swedish writer from Jakobstad.
The conversations outside the workshops were also incredibly rewarding, Not only the shop talk and the gossip, but also talking to students and younger translators and getting their perspectives on our career path, especially in light of technological developments such as AI. The Scottish Poetry Society was an outstanding venue for our workshop with its volumes of poetry to look at during breaks, the thought-provoking quotes on the walls, and the intriguing gift shop.
Many thanks and kudos are due to Ian Giles, who worked hard to organize this event, and the team that helped him. It was such a worthwhile experience for SELTA members and guests.
Translator and incoming SELTA Chair Nichola Smalley:
It’s always fascinating and terrifying to take part in these workshops. Fascinating because you get to engage so deeply with the texts concerned and you learn so much about your colleagues’ varied approaches and the choices they lead to, and terrifying because you’re forced to look closely at your own methods and confront your own mistakes and assumptions. Luckily, the supportive and collegiate spirit in which the workshop takes place renders moot any embarrassment at wonky choices. I took part in sessions with Lida Starodubtseva and Hanna Nordenhök, both translators themselves, and was charmed by the grace, insight and openness of both of them and impressed by my colleagues’ thoughtful responses to their texts, which each presented distinct yet head-scratching challenges. All in all a really valuable experience. Here’s to the next SELTA translation workshop!
We are grateful for the Scottish Poetry Library who permitted us to run the workshop in their wonderful venue, as well as of course to the authors and all the participants who contributed to a fantastic atmosphere.
November 13, 2024
Nichola Smalley replaces Ian Giles following the 2024 AGM.
We are excited to announce that translator Nichola Smalley has been elected as Chair of SELTA after the retirement from office of Ian Giles.
A translator of both Swedish and Norwegian literature, Smalley’s professional background also includes time in the publishing industry as Publicity Director at And Other Stories. She is known for her particularly sensitive approach to the musicality of language (as well as any other music found in the text) and holds a PhD from UCL covering contemporary urban vernaculars in Swedish and UK rap, literature, and translation.
Smalley’s translations are regularly award-nominated, with recent accolades including winning a PEN Translates award in February 2024 to translate Andrzej Tichý’s Purity. Smalley’s admired translation of Tichý’s novel Wretchedness also won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. She also served on the jury that awarded the 2023 Bernard Shaw Prize.
Outside the act of translation itself, she is also heavily involved in ensuring a bright future of Swedish to English literary translation. Smalley has mentored a number of junior literary translators, most recently on SELTA’s CPD programme, which ran from early this year and concluded at the end of October.
Smalley said: “I’m honoured to be tasked with chairing SELTA and am looking forward to working with the membership to ensure we are all able to further our creative practice and push for better working conditions. I’m extremely grateful to my predecessors, Ian Giles and Ruth Urbom for all the ideas and energy they brought to the role and hope to live up to the precedent they’ve set!”
Retiring Chair Ian Giles said: “Nicky has been a long-term member of SELTA who has added so much to the organisation over the years. I’ve every confidence that we will go from strength to strength under her direction.”
We are excited for the future of SELTA under Nichola’s tenure…
