PERIODICALS AND ONLINE RESOURCES
Major American newspapers and magazines do cover some international fiction, but they generally review very little fiction in translation. British periodicals are somewhat better in both regards. Among publications primarily available in print (almost all now also have an online presence, though not all material is fully and/or freely accessible), the best coverage of foreign titles and authors can be found at:
• Review of Contemporary Fiction
Several websites also offer extensive reviews of foreign works, notably:
In addition, a steadily increasing number of blogs offer news about and reviews of international literature.
Other websites with a focus on international literature with both original content and essays and reviews include:
Many countries have national book offices and organizations that promote domestic literature abroad, and most of these now have an online presence that also provides at least some information in English. These sites vary greatly in quality but are often very useful; a good example is
Dutch Foundation for Literature (
www.letterenfonds.nl/en/).
Various organizations that are dedicated to cross-cultural exchange, such as
Literature Across Frontiers (
www.lit-across-frontiers.org), also provide information and material of interest.
Foreign publishers’ websites often provide information (almost always in English) about titles they would like to sell or for which they have sold the foreign rights. This can be a useful way of learning about new titles that are not yet available in the United States or Great Britain or that have not yet been translated into English.
The major publishing houses in the United States and Great Britain do publish some foreign literature, including most of the biggest blockbusters, but the smaller independents publish the bulk of foreign fiction, especially in translation.
Many independents have carved out niches for themselves:
| AmazonCrossing |
Popular contemporary fiction in translation |
| American University in Cairo Press |
Contemporary Arabic fiction |
| And Other Stories |
Contemporary international fiction |
| Archipelago Books |
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century international fiction |
| Ariadne Press |
Austrian fiction |
| Dalkey Archive |
Press Mainly twentieth- and twenty-first-century international fiction |
| Dedalus |
Mainly twentieth- and twenty-firstcentury international fiction |
| Deep Vellum |
Contemporary international fiction in translation |
| Europa Editions |
Mainly contemporary international (largely European) fiction |
| Frisch & Co. |
Contemporary fiction (solely in e-book format) |
| Gallic Books |
Popular contemporary French fiction |
| Glas |
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century Soviet and Russian fiction |
| Green Integer |
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century international fiction and poetry |
| Hispabooks |
Contemporary Spanish fiction in translation |
| Host Publications |
Contemporary international fiction |
| Interlink |
Contemporary international fiction, especially from the Middle East |
| New Vessel Press |
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century international fiction |
| New York Review Books |
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century international fiction |
| Open Letter Books |
Contemporary fiction in translation |
| Peepal Tree Press |
Mainly Caribbean fiction |
| Peirene Press |
Contemporary European fiction |
| Pushkin Press |
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century European fiction |
| Seagull |
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century international fiction |
| Telegram |
Contemporary international fiction |
| Twisted Spoon Press |
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century |
|
Central and Eastern Europe fiction |
Other noteworthy commercial publishers that publish significant amounts of fiction in translation are New Directions, Marion Boyars, and Peter Owen.
Several publishers specialize in genre fiction:
| Bitter Lemon Press |
Mainly contemporary crime fiction in translation |
| Haikasoru |
Contemporary Japanese science fiction and fantasy |
| Soho Press |
Contemporary English-language crime fiction with foreign locales |
| Vertical |
Contemporary popular Japanese fiction |
Many American university presses have series devoted to contemporary as well as classical fiction in translation, covering specific regions, languages, and genres. These often are small series, with, at best, a few titles added annually, but many are very strong, such as Northwestern University Press’s Writings from an Unbound Europe.
Relatively few books published abroad are widely distributed in the United Stated and Great Britain—your local bookstore is unlikely to carry many—but Internet booksellers and lower postal rates have made obtaining them easier and cheaper. Publishers in countries such as Australia, India, and South Africa bring out many worthwhile titles that do not find American or British publishers but can be ordered directly from them or local booksellers. Among the most impressive outlets of titles published abroad is the African Books Collective (
www.africanbookscollective.com), which has made available an incredible variety of contemporary African writing at reasonable prices.
LITERARY PRIZES
International literary prizes may help identify authors and books that are not yet well known in the United States and Great Britain. Foreign literary prizes can also help bring works and authors to the attention of publishers as well as American and British readers, and winning works are much more likely to be published here and, when necessary, translated into English.
Prizes Awarded to Authors
Nobel Prize in Literature
Awarded annually since 1901, “to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.” The winner is selected by the Swedish Academy. Sometimes controversial, the Nobel Prize is the world’s highest international literary honor. Some winners are primarily poets or dramatists (and several have produced only nonfiction), but writers of fiction dominate, and the prize continues to be a good guide to the leading authors of the times.
Neustadt International Prize for Literature
Awarded biennially since 1970 “in recognition of outstanding achievement in poetry, fiction, or drama,” the winner is selected by an international jury of leading writers. Four Neustadt laureates have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, and it has consistently high standards.
Jerusalem Prize
Awarded biennially since 1963 “to a writer whose work best expresses and promotes the idea of the ‘freedom of the individual in society.’” Four Jerusalem Prize–winning authors have later won the Nobel Prize.
Austrian State Prize for European Literature
Awarded annually since 1965 to a European writer whose work has received significant international recognition. The prize is restricted to European writers and has consistently high standards.
Premio Cervantes
Awarded annually since 1976, this is the leading Spanish-language literary honor. It is limited to authors writing in Spanish and has a very good track record.
Georg-Büchner Prize
Awarded annually since 1923 and limited to writers since 1951, this is the prize of the German Academy and is the leading German-language literary prize.
Prizes Awarded to Individual Books and Translations
Man Booker International Prize
Awarded annually, beginning in 2016, for a work of fiction in translation published in the United Kingdom. The Man Booker International Prize supplants the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, which was awarded annually from 2002 to 2015 (as well as from 1990 to 1995), and replaces the previous incarnation of the Man Booker International Prize, which was awarded biennially from 2005 to 2015 “to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language.”
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Awarded annually since 1994 to a work either written in or translated into English, the prize winner is selected from nominations by libraries in capitals and major cities throughout the world. The list of nominated books, which generally is more than a hundred titles, tends to be very uneven, but overall the prize is a good indicator of the best internationally popular works available in English.
Best Translated Book Award
Awarded annually since 2008 for the best original work of translated fiction published in the United States over the previous year. Unlike the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the BTBA does not consider works that have previously been translated but are now also available in a new translation. Its annual long list provides a good overview of the best fiction in translation published in the United States that year.
PEN Translation Prize (formerly PEN / Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize)
Awarded annually since 1963, with the award going to the translator, this award has a good track record of rewarding important translations.
Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize
Awarded annually since 1999, for “book-length literary translations into English from any living European language.” Not limited to prose.
National Translation Award
Awarded annually since 1998 by the American Literary Translators Association “for the best book-length translation of a work into English,” this award is not limited to prose.
Several translation prizes also are awarded for works translated from specific languages into English: the Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation (established 2006), the French-American Foundation Translation Prize (established 1986), and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize (for works translated from German, established 1996) are some of the more important ones. The finalists and winners of these prizes, even though they are not as well publicized as the larger prizes, offer readers a good indication of the best, recently translated works from these languages.
Other International English-Language Book Prizes
Caine Prize for African Writing
Awarded annually since 2000 to a short story by an African writer published in English, this prize also includes translations. Despite being given only for short stories, the prize does offer a good overview of current African writing, mainly but not exclusively in English.
DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
Awarded annually since 2011 to any novel or novella with predominantly South Asian themes, this prize includes translations too.
Man Booker Prize for Fiction
Awarded annually since 1969, this prize is for a novel written in English. Before 2014, the prize was open only to citizens of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, the Republic of Ireland, and Zimbabwe.
Several national English-language book prizes are also awarded in countries other than the United Kingdom and the United States. Among the leading ones are the Miles Franklin Literary Award (Australia, established 1957), the Governor General’s Literary Awards (Canada, with prizes for both English- and French-language fiction, as well as translations, established 1936), and the Crossword Book Awards (India, with prizes for English-language fiction as well Indian-language fiction translated into English, established 1998).
Foreign-Language Book Prizes
Some of the many national and international foreign-language literary prizes are highly remunerative: the Spanish-language Premio Planeta (established 1952) awards a staggering €601,000 to the winning book. Although these prizes are influential in domestic literary markets, only a few help propel an author’s work to be translated into English.
The best-known foreign-language literary prize is the French Prix Goncourt (established 1903). The winner receives only a token €10 in prize money, but the Goncourt is by far the most influential French-language literary award, and more than half the winning titles have been translated into English.
No other foreign-language literary prize has anywhere near as much clout with American and British publishers and audiences as does the Prix Goncourt, but other notable ones are the
Akutagawa Prize (Japan, established 1935), the
Nordic Council Literature Prize (Scandinavia, established 1962), and the
German Book Prize (Germany, established 2005)
Several foreign-language literary prizes include as part of the award the guarantee of translating the winning work into English. Among the most notable of these is the American University of Cairo Press’s Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature (established 1996).
BOOKS
General Reference Works
Casser, Vincent, and Nik Kalinowski, eds. The Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to World Fiction. London: Black, 2007. A handy guide to world fiction since 1900, arranged by region and nation.
Classe, Olive, ed. Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000.
This two-volume work with more than six hundred entries covering 1,700 pages in small print, two columns per page, is truly encyclopedic and is the standard reference work covering translation into English. Not limited to contemporary literature or fiction, it is comprehensive and thorough. Besides the topical and national entries are many for individual authors, providing biographical information, bibliographical information about available translations, a concise consideration of those translations, and suggested further reading. Highly recommended, but note that it is a scholarly reference work.
Dilevko, Juris, Keren Dali, and Glenda Garbutt. Contemporary World Fiction: A Guide to Literature in Translation. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Libraries Unlimited, 2011.
A good, far-ranging overview of translations from 1980 to 2010, with detailed annotations of translated titles and useful bibliographic information. Clearly targeted at librarians and library users, this is a useful reference work.
France, Peter, ed. The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Another encyclopedic survey of literature in translation, this single-volume work is more concise and not quite as comprehensive as the Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English. It also is not limited to contemporary literature or fiction but does provide a good general historical overview and bibliographic information.
Morgan, Ann. The World Between Two Covers: Reading the Globe. New York: Liveright, 2015. (Published in the United Kingdom as Reading the World: Confessions of a Literary Explorer. London: Harvill Secker, 2015)
In 2012, Morgan read one book from each country in the world, chronicling her progress at her blog
A Year of Reading the World (
http://ayearofreadingtheworld.com). This book is an account of her undertaking and also examines many of the issues surrounding international writing and publishing.
Sturrock, John, ed. The Oxford Guide to Contemporary World Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
First published as The Oxford Guide to Contemporary Writing (1996), this guide contains twenty-eight essays by leading critics and scholars, such as Robert Irwin, James Wood, Wendy Lesser, and Michael Wood, who describe contemporary literature in twenty-eight essays about individual regions (examples are “African Countries,” “Spanish America”) and nations (“Brazil,” “France,” “United States”). The volume is particularly useful in giving a sense of domestic literary culture, since it includes extensive discussions of all a given region’s literary output. But because it also discusses works not available in English translation, it is not ideal as a reader’s guide. At fewer than five hundred pages, it is a manageable volume, and each chapter also includes a short “Further Reading.”
National and Regional Reference Works
Columbia University Press publishes the series Columbia Guides to Literature Since 1945, which consists of encyclopedic reference works for specific regions and literatures. These are thorough introductory overviews and recommended for readers interested in more information about specific regional literature. Nine volumes have appeared, including Oyekan Owomoyela, The Columbia Guide to West African Literature in English Since 1945 (2008); Raymond Williams, The Columbia Guide to the Latin American Novel Since 1945 (2007); and Eric Cheyfitz, The Columbia Guide to American Indian Literatures of the United States Since 1945 (2006).
Cambridge University Press publishes the extensive series Cambridge Companions to Literature, which includes many volumes on specific national and regional literatures as well as individual authors. These collections of essays in books of manageable size—generally fewer than three hundred pages—are good surveys of a wide variety of contemporary and classical literature. Representative volumes include John N. Duvall, ed., The Cambridge Companion to American Fiction After 1945 (2012); Graham Bartram, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Modern German Novel (2004); and Philip Swanson, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Gabriel García Márquez (2010).
Numerous books by leading translators contain in-depth discussions of the specific literatures that they translate. Along with offering insight into the translation and publishing process, these also serve as useful guides. Among them are:
Johnson-Davies, Denys. Memories in Translation: A Life Between the Lines of Arabic Literature. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2006.
Levine, Suzanne Jill. The Subversive Scribe: Translating Latin American Fiction. St. Paul, Minn.: Graywolf, 1991.
Rabassa, Gregory. If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents. New York: New Directions, 2005.
Among the best accessible academic works dedicated to defining and analyzing world literature are:
Casanova, Pascale. The World Republic of Letters. Translated by M. B. DeBevoise. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Casanova gives a history of the global literary marketplace and analyzes why some national literatures succeed in establishing themselves abroad while others find it much more difficult to do so.
Damrosch, David. What Is World Literature? Princeton, N.J.: Prince ton University Press, 2003.
Damrosch makes the case for world literature as “a mode of circulation and of reading,” rather than its being based on canon.
Moretti, Franco, ed. The Novel. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006.
The two-volume English-language edition is a condensed version of the collection first published in Italian in five volumes but still has a fascinating global historical and theoretical overview of every aspect of the novel in dozens of essays by noted scholars.
Many works provide additional insight into the history, craft, and business of translation, including:
Allen, Esther, and Susan Bernofsky, eds. In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What It Means. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
Allen, Esther, Sean Cotter, and Russell Scott Valentino, eds. The Man Between: Michael Henry Heim and a Life in Translation. Rochester, N.Y.: Open Letter, 2014.
Bellos, David. Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything. New York: Faber & Faber, 2011.
Eco, Umberto.
Experiences in Translation. Translated by Alastair McEwen. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.
Grossman, Edith. Why Translation Matters. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2010.
Venuti, Lawrence. The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Venuti, Lawrence. Translation Changes Everything: Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge, 2013.