November 20, 2020

Catch up on SELTA live event with literary agents

SELTA hosted a live virtual event with three guest speakers.

On 18 November, SELTA was delighted to be joined for a live event by three distinguished literary agents working in the Nordic region to find out about their pandemic year, and to gain a better understanding of what their work involves. Our invited speakers were Urpu Strellman (Helsinki Literary Agency), Judith Toth (Nordin Agency) and Sofie Voller (Politiken Literary Agency), all of whom represent Swedish-language authors and titles, as well as other Nordic writers. The panel was chaired by Alex Fleming (Editor, Swedish Book Review). The event was recorded and you can now catch up here.

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October 31, 2020

SELTA in Lockdown

SELTA has been continuing to hold events despite being unable to meet in person.

In March 2020, when many of us had been looking forward to the London Book Fair and the associated professional and social events that surround it, the fair was cancelled and the UK was plunged into lockdown. As translators, we are used to working in isolation but that doesn’t mean we aren’t in need of some human contact. SELTA has been continuing to hold events and provide a forum for conversation through the pandemic.

We held our Spring Meeting online on 1 May 2020. The formal part of the meeting was followed by a CPD event on “The Path Less Trodden: Different routes into translating Swedish literature” with guest speakers SELTA member Deborah Bragen-Turner, and Paul Norlen and Rachel Willson-Broyles in the US talking about how they got into their Swedish translation careers.

In July we held a virtual fikastund with talks by SELTA members Ruth Urbom and Alex Fleming on their other (not Swedish) translation languages and the impact this has on their work from Swedish.

In August we held our second virtual fikastund on Zoom with talks on the world of subtitling and translating for screen by SELTA members Kajsa von Hofsten and Alexander Keiller.

In November we held our AGM again via Zoom and on 18 November this was followed by a live event with Nordic literary agents. Watch the video here.

Besides being informative, educational and entertaining in their own right, these online events have provided a welcome opportunity to see our colleagues, to discuss how the pandemic is affecting us personally and professionally, and have offered an opportunity for members in more far-flung locations to attend who would not normally have been able to do so. With many translation events similarly being transferred online, 2020 has also given us the chance to attend virtual seminars and talks in a range of geographical locations and the SELTA google group is keeping everyone informed of everything going on online.

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October 7, 2020

Alice Menzies shortlisted for National Book Award for Translated Literature

SELTA member Alice Menzies shortlisted for the American National Book Foundation’s 2020 award for translated literature for her translation of Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s ‘The Family Clause’.

We are delighted by the news that SELTA member Alice Menzies has been shortlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature in the USA for her translation of Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s ‘The Family Clause’.

This was a good year for Swedish, with colleague Rachel Willson-Broyles (a member of our sister association in the US, STiNA), also making the longlist for her translation of Linda Boström Knausgård’s ‘The Helios Disaster’.

The 71st National Book Awards Ceremony will be streamed live on Wednesday 18 November via YouTube. The $10,000 prize for the winner is split evenly between the author and translator, while all shortlisted finalists share $1,000. We’ll be holding our thumbs for Alice and Jonas on the night!

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September 12, 2020

2019 Review by SELTA Chair Ian Giles

SELTA Chair Ian Giles sums up 2019 and looks ahead to 2020.

Our membership figures remain strong – there are currently 74 members of SELTA, an increase of 2 over last year. It’s gratifying to see that we continue to attract new members who recognise the benefits that SELTA offers, even in these changing times.

2019 was a relatively busy year for SELTA. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person to find London Book Fair exhausting, not least on the grounds of the considerable number of Swedish-related events that took place. As ever, we were grateful to Pia Lundberg (Cultural Counsellor at the Swedish Embassy in London) for hosting many of us for dinner, and to the Swedish Literature Exchange for covering the cost of admission to Olympia. It was also exciting that the Embassy pursued a new idea in the shape of its reception at the ambassadorial residence for publishers, agents, translators and others involved in the dissemination of Swedish literature to the UK. We have heard that this is likely to be repeated in 2020. I was glad to see so many familiar faces at our spring meeting which took place the day after LBF. There was plenty to discuss, but I think the element that caught the imagination of members was our discussion with invited guests Magdalena Hedlund (Hedlund Literary Agency) and Lena Stjernström (Grand Agency) who told us about their work as literary agents, with a focus on how books come to market abroad and the involvement of translators like us.

As is often the case, things were a little quieter during the summer season. I was fortunate enough to represent SELTA in a roundtable session in Vancouver with Ellen Kythor (Chair of DELT ) and Paul Norlen (President of STiNA) in which we discussed the role of translator networks in promoting Scandinavian books abroad. You can read my blog about the event here. This was (we think) the first time that SELTA and STiNA have appeared together in an official capacity. There was a significant degree of conversation around why we retain two separate organisations, and this was an issue we raised at the AGM in October and subsequently via the Google Group. It seems that as the translation market internationalises, we should continue to discuss and contemplate how we might bring the two bodies closer together.

The highlight of SELTA’s year – if I say so – was in late October when we gathered in Edinburgh for our AGM and a literary translation workshop. We had been fortunate enough to receive grants from both the Swedish Arts Council and the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation to support this initiative. In particular, I’m delighted at the positive feedback from both funders about not only the type of event we proposed, but also the location and general enthusiasm for translator-led initiatives. We were very pleased to welcome four Swedish-language authors to Edinburgh: Balsam Karam, Kayo Mpoyi, Joel Mauricio Isabel Ortiz, and Adrian Perara. Not only did we have an enjoyable public event – our speed bookclub gathering, but I think we had a very fruitful day-long workshop. It was especially good to see so many new faces in attendance. I appreciated the positive feedback from those who attended – and hopefully we will be able to do something again soon (although perhaps in 2021 to give your Chair some breathing space!).

There was also some exciting news during November when Peirene Press announced that the Peirene-Stevns Prize for 2020 would be in Swedish. At the time of writing, entries are still being accepted from translators of Swedish who have not yet had a full-length literary translation published. The winner will receive a paid commission to translate Andrea Lundgren’s Nordisk fauna as well as a retreat in the French Pyrenees. The winner will be mentored by SELTA member Sarah Death.

SELTA members always tend to do well on the awards circuit and this year was no different. We were thrilled to hear just a week ago that one of SELTA’s founder members, Tom Geddes, has been awarded the Swedish Academy’s ‘pris för introduktion av svensk kultur utomlands’.

This year also saw the award of the 2018 Bernard Shaw Prize, the triennial prize handed to the best Swedish translation. The prize went to Frank Perry for his translation of Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs by Lina Wolff (And Other Stories), while Deborah Bragan-Turner was runner up for her translation of The Parable Book by Per Olov Enquist (MacLehose Press). Indeed, the other two names on the shortlist also came from SELTA’s ranks on this occasion. It has long been the feeling of successive SELTA committees that the prize requires an overhaul. Following in-depth correspondence with Nicola Solomon, the CEO of the Society of Authors (responsible for managing the prize), we engaged in dialogue with various stakeholders about this. While we are already in the cycle for the next prize (to be awarded in 2022), the hope is that the subsequent award of the Bernard Shaw will take place just two years later, and will feature a larger prize fund. Naturally, this is all funding-contingent!

We were all overjoyed for SELTA member Deborah Bragan-Turner, whose translation of Sara Stridsberg’s The Faculty of Dreams was longlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize. This was the first time a Swedish title had made the longlist, and it drew attention to a very worthy book.

This year the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger (formerly known as the International Dagger) very thoughtlessly didn’t award the prize to a Swedish title, but we were still pleased to see Sarah Death shortlisted for her translation of Håkan Nesser’s The Root of Evil, and Annie Prime longlisted for her translation of Martin Holmén’s Slugger.

Those of you who have attended recent meetings or read the minutes, as well as the emails from Deborah Bragan-Turner, will be aware that times are changing for our journal, Swedish Book Review. You will have received a double issue in the form of 2019:1-2 back in the summer, which was the result of the very hard work put in by Deborah, the team at Norvik Press and all the contributors. Regrettably, this is likely to be the last time a regular print issue is published in this form. A working group was formed in the spring to develop proposals for SBR’s future. We are pleased to have received a one-off grant from the Swedish Arts Council to enable us to overhaul the SBR website with the intention of going fully digital and open access. We are currently in the process of seeking additional funding to support a first issue in the new iteration covering the themes we addressed in our Edinburgh workshop.

In 2020, the London Book Fair remains in its earlier slot of March, and will take place on 10-12 March. Hopefully I will see many of you there for the usual, fruitful networking opportunities the event provides. Cut the Cord are organising a Nordic Theatre Festival in London during March. Similarly, the Stanza poetry festival in St Andrews has a Nordic focus for 2020. Pardaad Chamsaz at the British Library is also organising an event about Nordic comics on Friday 13 March.

We expect to hold our SELTA spring meeting in London in late April or early May (date tbc). More details on this will follow with plenty of notice.

Best wishes for the new year ahead!

Dr Ian Giles

Chair of SELTA

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November 12, 2019

Diversity and the Power Balance of Language

Sophie Ruthven looks at diversity through Adrian Perera’s book Mamma at our Edinburgh workshop.

Sophie Ruthven is an emerging literary translator of Swedish living in Innsbruck. She joined us for our translation workshop in Edinburgh.

A certain playfulness is required to sling possible Anglophone versions of kärring around a table with enthusiasm, and the group of often-solitary translators were certainly not left laughter- free at SELTA’s literary translation workshop in Edinburgh. Yet the duty of giving a text to a new linguistic audience is anything but light, and when the author has allowed their debut novel to be dissected (however lovingly) by a team of both experienced literary translators and those of us who are curious starters to the literary side of things, a lot of weight rests on picking the correct language. Even if the workshop is exploratory, even if the notion of completing the translation is purely hypothetical. Translators have a certain power which can be misused, and when the source text presents problems of power balance inherent in the use of different languages, we have to solve puzzles to the best of our ability.

Cover of Mama by Adrian Perera depicting Jesus with a broken heart

Then again, can we always realistically carry out our task? This question arose during a workshop with the Finland-Swedish author Adrian Perera and his novel Mamma, one of whose characters is a multilingual mother living in Swedish-speaking Finland, viewed through the eyes of her son, Tony. We translators fell into what we do best: we zoomed in on the micro details of a text, sometimes losing sight of the text as a whole in the process. Though in the case of the extract from Mamma, we weren’t necessarily tying ourselves in knots over a curious adjective which didn’t sing in the English translation, rather the challenge of rendering a Swedish work in English, when the broken English of the protagonist Tony’s immigrant mother (spoken alongside Sinhala and Finnish), is, both in itself and its quality, a crucial part of the text, an indicator of both class and cultural difference, in a Swedish-speaking area of Finland. That’s a lot of layers of linguistic minority/majority interplay. There are footnotes which give clarity to grammatically problematic utterances, also serving to keep the narrative along the lines of Tony’s understanding. We considered adding some in to explain linguistic nuance, but then again, it would seem a shame to turn the book into a ‘Primer for Swedish Finland’, which would be both incorrect and potentially unreadable.

In his presentation of Mamma, Perera had floated the idea that no interpreter exists who doesn’t draw on something else with their interpretations, as all reality is inherently subjective. With the reader as the interpreter of the text after the translator has presented it to them in the reader’s own language: if the whole text is rendered in English, will the resultant invisibility of the English and foreign-ification of the Swedish parts disrupt the power-balance of the novel? Would an English reader judge the mother’s broken language in the same way as they would judge the doctor’s with whom she speaks’? Such a scene could be clearly read by a Finland Swede, but may become just a tangle of many Othernesses to an English language reader. The diversity which we wish to present to the new audience may end up simply invisible to that audience. Any good workshop often throws up more questions than answers, though it’s curious to be stumped over whether something can be translated at all.

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November 6, 2019

SELTA’s Speed Bookclub and Workshop in Edinburgh

Catherine Venner reports back on SELTA’s literary translation events in Edinburgh in the autumn of 2019.

Catherine Venner is a translator of German based in Durham. However, she has a sideline in Swedish and became an Associate Member of SELTA in 2018. SELTA’s Edinburgh workshop offered her the chance to get her feet wet with colleagues working in Swedish-English.

At the end of October, I travelled north to Edinburgh for a very special event: I was going to the SELTA Emerging Voices literary translation workshop and Swedish Speed Bookclub. It was to be my first time attending any SELTA event, so I had been looking forward to it with a mixture of curiosity and a little nervousness, not to mention the fact that I had no idea what a Speed Bookclub was!

As it turns out Speed Bookclub is a fantastic way of getting to know books and their authors in a more informal setting. SELTA had invited four authors; Balsam Karam, Adrian Perera, Kayo Mpoyi and Joel Mauricio Isabel Ortiz to attend the Speed Bookclub and workshop. They are all debut novelists whose work has not yet been translated into English, so members of SELTA provided handy translations of excerpts from each novel so that the Speed Bookclub was accessible to everyone whether you read Swedish or not.

As participants, we separated into small groups of four or five and visited each author and translator at their table for about 20 minutes before moving on to the next table. Although I had initially felt slightly daunted by the prospect of such an intimate setting with the authors, they and the translators were happy to fill us in on the synopsis of their books and to talk about the general themes running through their work. The authors, translators and participants enjoyed chatting about these topics so much that there was often a reluctance to stop when it was time to move on to the next table. Having visited many book presentations and panels before, the Speed Bookclub was a refreshing change that offers people like me, who feel very self-conscious asking questions in front of an audience, the chance to have my curiosity about the novels satisfied in a friendly and relaxed setting. The conversations and ideas carried on into the following wine reception sponsored by the Scandinavian Studies Section at the University of Edinburgh.

 

The next morning, we met bright and early at 9 o’clock in the rooms back at the university to start our translation workshops. In attendance were not only members of SELTA, but also students, members of the public and translators from other Scandinavian languages, who were all curious to learn more about the challenges of translating the “emerging voices” of our four authors. After a fascinating presentation about diversity in literature by Anja Tröger, the morning workshops began with Balsam Karam and Adrian Perera presenting their novels. Balsam’s “Event Horizon”, driven by her love of astronomy, illustrates the problems facing social outcasts whatever the place and time, while Adrian’s “Mama” set in 90s Swedish speaking Finland is designed as a horror story about what happens when there is no common language. We then split into two groups, each with one of the authors, to discuss the novels and translation excerpts in more detail.

After a lovely lunch and some good chats among the participants, the afternoon session kicked off with Kayo Mpoyi and Joel Mauricio Isabel Ortiz introducing us to their work. Kayo’s “Mai Means Water” is based upon the myths told in her family, while Joel’s “A Story of a Son” is an exploration of how bad things can get and is definitely not autobiographical. The following workshops with the authors provided valuable feedback about how they as authors would like to see their work presented in another language and how, as a translator, you can sometimes set off on the wrong track and only realise it right at the end.

Before we knew it, the workshops were over and we were all heading back to our various homes across the country and beyond. As a first-timer, I absolutely loved attending this event, meeting the friendly and welcoming members of SELTA and taking part in extremely interesting workshops that provided input for translation whatever your working languages (for the sake of full disclosure, I should also add that I am actually a German translator, who reads and loves Scandinavian languages). To conclude, I would like to thank Ian for organising such a wonderful event, the authors for their input on our translations and everyone who helped make this an absolutely wonderful event.

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July 27, 2019

The Symbiotic Relationship between Editor and Translator

In June 2019, SELTA member Tom Ellett attended a workshop run by the Association of Danish-English Literary Translators (DELT).

DELT, the recently formed association for Danish to English literary translators, organised a very successful (and welcome) event in Scotland in late June. Sponsored by the Danish Arts Foundation, the event took place at the University of Edinburgh and was hosted by the Scandinavian Studies section of the Department of European Languages and Cultures.

As professional development opportunities for Scandinavian translators are a rare occurrence north of the Border, I was sorry that a prior engagement prevented me from attending the first part of the event, a hands-on translation and editing workshop. By all accounts, this seems to have been a fascinating and productive experience, even for translators working mainly from Swedish and Norwegian rather than Danish.

I made it to Edinburgh in time for the second part of the event, a panel discussion on the symbiotic relationship between editors and translators. The proceedings were ably chaired by Kari Dickson, a prolific Norwegian to English translator based in Edinburgh, and there were three panel members: James Robertson, a Scots author, translator and publisher; Carolina Orloff, founder and editor of Charco Press, an Edinburgh publisher specialising in translations of Latin American literature; and Daniel Hahn, a writer, editor, translator from Portuguese, Spanish and French, and former chair of the Society of Authors and the Translators Association.

Kari Dickson got the discussion under way by noting that she loves both editing and being edited. The panel members agreed that they had learned from being on both sides of the editing process – both from having a fresh pair of eyes review their own work, and from editing the work of other translators and seeing how they had tackled various challenges.

Editor as beta tester

The consensus was that good editors do not try to impose their own style on the translation, by rewriting every sentence as they would have translated it, but make only those changes that are strictly necessary to eliminate errors and infelicities. Daniel Hahn drew a memorable analogy with the software development business, describing the editor as a ‘beta reader’. One of the best editors he had worked with had once told him (and I paraphrase): ‘All I’m saying is that I noticed this, and this, and this … and if I noticed these things, the chances are that other readers will too.’

A regular collaboration arrangement where two translators working in the same language pair review and edit each other’s work is perhaps the gold standard. James Robertson cited the example of his partnership with Matthew Fitt, his co-founder at Itchy Coo, an imprint publishing books in Scots for children and young adults. James considered himself prone to taking excessive liberties with the source text, which would be reined in by Matthew at the editing stage. Conversely, when Matthew as translator had taken an overly conservative approach, James as editor would encourage him to think outside the box.

#NameTheEditor

Carolina Orloff remarked that editors were the invisible, unsung heroes of the publishing business. While translators as a profession had managed to win greater recognition for their work in recent years, it was still rare for editors to be credited. Daniel Hahn said this was why the TA First Translation Prize, which he had established in 2017, was to be shared between the translator and their editor.

On the perennial question of whether the editor needs to know the source language, the panellists’ opinions and experiences varied. Bilingual editors were naturally more likely to pick up on any misunderstandings of the source text, but might be more inclined to unnecessary rewriting to make the translation more ‘faithful’. Monolingual editors, focused wholly on the reader’s experience in the target language, might be more alert to infelicities resulting from source language interference.

In an amusing digression on the subject of editors’ foreign language skills, James Robertson mentioned that commissioning editors and rights agents from other European countries tended to be more receptive than their English colleagues to the idea of publishing translations into Scots – perhaps because they had encountered other examples of closely related but distinct languages in regions such as Scandinavia and the Iberian peninsula.

Pre-empt questions

Although the panel’s experiences of editing and being edited were generally positive, they also shared a few horror stories. Daniel Hahn said that, when he delivers a translation, he also sends a covering letter or email in which he explains his choice of voice, register and vocabulary, and his approach to any particular challenges the translation has thrown up. This helps to pre-empt some questions and overzealous editing, and may reduce the risk of being paired with an incompatible editor.

After an hour and a half of free-flowing discussion, it was time to vacate the room. The panellists and most of the 35 audience members adjourned to the adjacent hallway for refreshments, networking and more lively conversations about translation and editing.

DELT’s own blog post about the event can be read here.

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July 20, 2019

Meet the Publisher – Finding out how Hachette publish books

In early July, the publishing group Hachette ran an afternoon session about how books are published. SELTA Chair Ian Giles was there and has written this report.

In early July, the publishing group Hachette hosted members of the Society of Authors who had previously been published by the group and its imprints (whether as authors, illustrators or translators) for an afternoon event on how books are published at its beautiful headquarters on the Thames, just round the corner from Blackfriars station.

Billed as ‘Meet the Publisher’, the session promised attendees that they would find out about all aspects of a typical book cycle and have the chance to ask plenty of questions, as well as networking with Hachette’s great and good afterwards. The participants included Hachette CEO David Shelley, Ruth Alltines (MD of Hachette Children’s), Jamie Hodder-Williams (CEO of Hodder, Headline, Quercus and JMP & Director of Trade Publishing), Nick Davies (MD of John Murray Press) and Diane Spivey, the group contracts director. Chairing proceedings was the SoA’s Chief Executive Nicola Solomon.

The panelists first discussed how a book is chosen. It was noted by several that although Hachette acquire a lot of titles (around 6,000 per annum), the vast majority of titles they consider are ultimately not acquired. However, there was an emphasis on the fact that acquiring titles was a dedicated, detailed group effort that involved multiple members of staff from a range of specialisms being consulted before a decision was made. In particular, the speakers were keen to emphasise that acquisitions were not solely sales-led, and that costing on projects was actually something that took place much later in the process. Instead, the greatest importance was on finding titles that fitted the list.

There was a focus on how rights were negotiated on contracts, with Diane Spivey stressing that contracts should always seek to cover all elements of payment and which rights were and were not being granted. One interesting nugget to come out of the discussions about contracting books was the discovery that the contracts team, at least at Hachette, are responsible for creating the metadata relating to a title. The resolve to include a translator in a book’s metadata consequently resides with the contracts team. More generally, the contracts team provide advice to acquiring editors who are unfamiliar with the process. In this regard, it would seem that no matter how virgin a buyer an editor is – even of translations – they should have suitable advice available to them in-house. There was also an explicit acknowledgement that an initial contract is always considered to be a draft and that there is room for negotiation over most issues, although Hachette has firm lines in the sand on certain matters and rights.

Discussion moved on to other elements of the Hachette operations, including details about its new distribution centre in Didcot, which cost a ‘high eight-figure sum’ to construct and is capable of distributing one million books every day. There was also an explanation of what Hachette does for older books in its lists, with a focus on enhancing searchability of titles and improving metadata so that customers can still find them and buy them.

There were a couple of questions from the audience relating to how the process works when applied specifically to translated titles. In general, dealing with foreign literary agents was deemed a rarity (and it was noted that many countries simply don’t have any), with publishers often choosing to look and see what their ‘partner’ publishers abroad were acquiring. None of the panelists had experience with translations, but they had consulted Katharina Bielenberg of MacLehose Press beforehand. The reported response was that many acquisitions were done on the basis of trust and long-term relationships with foreign publishers and authors.

MacLehose Press publishes about 30 books per year, and takes a cautious approach to acquisitions. Apparently, they frequently commission two or three reader’s reports on a title before buying rights, and will often commission a paid sample from a translator before finalising that decision too. Once again, the element of trust-based relationships was emphasised in the process of finding translators.

Other questions from the audience were interesting and diverse, including queries on whether existing children’s writers could make the jump to adult fiction (or vice versa) within the Hachette umbrella, promotional strategies for educational titles, and how to keep track of royalties on old titles where digitalisation of records might be wanting.

Soon time was up, however, and there was an opportunity for networking over a glass of wine in the lovely roof garden on top of Hachette’s offices. While the event was largely not translation-focused, it still offered a lot of insights into the workings of the industry that were helpful. Perhaps the most useful element was the discussion of contracts (both during the session and afterwards). Most pleasant was the humanising element of making the creators and the commissioners seem like normal people to each other. If Hachette (or another publisher) runs a similar event with the Society of Authors in future, I would strongly recommend that SELTA members consider attending.

PS from SELTA member Anna Paterson, who also attended:

Because I’m translating a book for one of the Hachette imprints, I was there on the day or, rather, afternoon/early evening. I thoroughly agree with Ian’s account; as he says, ‘the humanising element’ was important. The event seems to have been an initiative organised by the young and driven CEO. It is a pity that not many more of ‘The Creatives’ had taken the opportunity to meet ‘The Publishers’ on a slightly business-oriented terms than usual.

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June 25, 2019

A Meeting of Scandinavian Literary Translators’ Networks: Chairs on Chairs

SELTA Chair Ian Giles reports from an event in Vancouver featuring three Scandinavian literary translators’ networks.

In early June, something very exciting happened on the lush 420 acre University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver. Three Scandinavian literary translators’ networks met in one place to consider the vital role they play in the field, to discuss the trajectory of the literary translation field, and to network with fellow translators, academics and other interested stakeholders. Playing host to this was the annual Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada conference, which has long been a draw for translators and scholars in North America and further afield.

The Swedish-Eglish Literary Translators’ Association (SELTA) was founded in the UK in 1982 and has since served the interests of its members – practicing, professional literary translators – as well as promoting Swedish-language literature to the English-speaking world through its house journal Swedish Book Review. Swedish Translators in North America (STiNA) was established in 2004 to represent the interests of literary translators of Swedish working in the USA and Canada. The Association of Danish-English Literary Translators (DELT) is very much the new kid on the (Scandinavian literary translation) block, having been first established as a network in 2014 before forming a full association in 2018. The three organisations come from different backgrounds, but all fulfil important roles in representing Scandinavian literary culture abroad.

The three organisations were represented in Vancouver by Ian Giles (SELTA), Ellen Kythor (DELT), and Paul Norlen (STiNA), while Natalie van Deusen (Associate Professor in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Alberta), very kindly chaired the session, initially guiding conversation before managing questions from the audience.

Initially, the assembled panellists discussed the origins of their own organisations. While SELTA emerged through the initiative of a cultural attaché at the Swedish Embassy in London in the early 1980s working in partnership with a number of UK-based translators, it was noted that over the subsequent years it was frequently the journal Swedish Book Review that had acted as the glue of the association, while regular meetings in person and workshops also ensured regular contact and professional development. STiNA was founded in 2004 by a group of North American translators looking to replicate elements of the SELTA model and build their own network. In contrast to SELTA, STiNA does not have a house journal (although its members are also frequent contributors to SBR) and members rarely meet in person due to the large distances involved. Paul Norlen described how informal STiNA gatherings would typically take place on the fringes of bigger meetings such as ALTA (the American Literary Translators Association). DELT, meanwhile, so far sits somewhere between the two in practice, by seeking to represent translators globally, although its activities have focused primarily on the UK, Denmark and North America. In its early outings, DELT has been particularly keen to enable networking between translators and to offer hands-on workshops.

Unsurprisingly, it was clear from the discussion that the way in which members used their respective networks differed in some regards. SELTA has been making effective use of its private Google Group for members for a decade, while STiNA operates with a mailing list. Both organisations also pass on occasional work-related inquiries to the membership. DELT members communicate via its own Facebook group, encouraging most dissemination of information to take place there. All three panellists agreed that two of the most common things the networks were used for – and shared in common – were that members turned to them for assistance with particularly thorny terminological issues, and to pass on work to other members when busy. Another area where the emergence of online networks seemed to be helpful for all three organisations was in supporting emerging translators. The ability to offer advice to new members of the profession online was something all three agreed was a huge plus.

As conversation turned to the state of the industry more generally, it was noted that it is unusual to find networks like SELTA, STiNA or DELT in non-Scandinavian language combinations. This seems to be partly because of the generous support that is provided by the Nordic countries for the dissemination of their literature abroad and to assist translators from their languages, but also because there is (reputedly) a more collegial, less competitive atmosphere amongst translators of the Scandinavian languages. There was a sense as the subject was discussed that the situation for literary translation of Scandinavian languages to English remains strong, and all were hopeful it would continue to be so. It was observed that all three organisations have experienced an influx of younger and newer members of the profession in recent years and that this is promising sign that the industry is doing well.

The audience had a number of eager questions, including why books appear in British or American English (or sometimes something in between!) and who makes that decision, whether literary translators tended to solely work on literary texts or whether they also work on other ‘commercial’ texts, as well as what reading tips the panellists had. As so often happens, time had run out and the assembled audience moved on to a networking reception in the adjacent auditorium where they got the chance to discuss translation-related matters slightly more informally.

All in all, it was a very fruitful panel. Bridges were built between not only translators of Danish and Swedish, their readers, and scholars of Scandinavian Studies, but also between translators of Swedish across the Atlantic – this was the first time that SELTA and STiNA have ever met in an official capacity. There was a strong sense amongst all three participants that further collaboration in future can only be helpful to the aims of those working in the field of Scandinavian-English literary translation. Watch this space…

Many thanks to AASSC for hosting us, and to Natalie van Deusen and Christine Ekholst for their hard work in facilitating the roundtable as part of the conference programme. Further thanks go to Statens Kunstfond and Swedish Literature Exchange for their generous support of the event, as well as to the engaged and enthusiastic audience of conference delegates and guests.

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January 4, 2019

2018 in Review

SELTA’s new Chair Ian Giles looks back at 2018.

As you settle down to watch Dinner for One, I would like to thank you for another year of gott samarbete in SELTA.

Our membership figures remain strong – there are currently 72 members of SELTA. As I noted at the AGM in November, it’s especially reassuring that so many of our active members are at the beginning of their careers as literary translators.

2018 was a little quieter than 2017. It was great to see many familiar faces throughout the week during the London Book Fair at networking events, at the dinner and at our spring meeting. The panel of speakers at our spring meeting (Anna Blasiak, Ted Hodgkinson and Crystal Mahey-Morgan) provided plenty of food for thought about programming literary events. For the first time in several years, we held a SELTA event without the crutch of a nearby meeting in September with our back-to-basics workshop looking at non-fiction. Turnout was good and participants enthusiastic – this is hopefully something we will do again in future. I was thrilled to see such a high turn out for our AGM in November, with lively discussion ensuing as a result. We were also pleased to rekindle our relationship with the Scandinavian collection at the British Library as we welcomed Pardaad Chamsaz, curator of the Germanic Collections, to our meeting to tell us about the library’s resources.

SELTA members always tend to do well on the awards circuit and this year was no different. This year the Crime Writers’ Association awarded their International Dagger prize to Marlaine Delargy’s translation of After the Fire by Henning Mankell. Michael Gallagher’s translation of Mattias Boström’s From Holmes to Sherlock won the 2018 Agatha Award for nonfiction. Meanwhile, Peter Graves’ translation of Jakob Wegelius’ The Murderer’s Ape won the Mildred L. Batchelder Award.

SELTA members and Swedish literature did well on shortlists and longlists too. Annie Prime and Neil Smith both featured on the International Dublin Literary Award list of nominees for 2019. Peter Graves and Fiona Graham both had translations included on the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation longlist. In the world of crime, Sarah Death, Marlaine Delargy and Saskia Vogel were all shortlisted for the 2018 Petrona Award (pipped at the post by our STiNA colleague Rachel Willson-Broyles).

In 2019, the London Book Fair takes place a little earlier than usual on 12-14 March. Hopefully I will see many of you there for the usual, fruitful networking opportunities the event provides. We will hold our SELTA spring meeting in London (date tbc) while we hope to hold our AGM in combination with a workshop event in Edinburgh in the autumn. More details on this will follow with plenty of notice

Best wishes for the new year ahead!

Ian Giles
Chair of SELTA

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