A mere 3% of books published in the U.S. each year are translations. An even smaller number of these books are written by women. What are the obstacles facing women writers around the world? What are their successes? Given the different barriers surrounding literary production and distribution, how can U.S. readers find excellent fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and plays by women writing and publishing outside of the U.S.?
Read about the experience of Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur in the new column Jean Casella (former editorial director and publisher of the Feminist Press) and I are co-editing over at She Writes. Jean’s debut post introduces readers to Shahrnush Parsipur’s story and her books, which include the novels Touba and the Meaning of Night and Women Without Men, recently made into a film by Shirin Neshat.
Comments 4
Deborah Siegel — January 27, 2011
LOVE your Women in Translation column, I do I do I do!!!
Anna Clark — January 27, 2011
Glad to see this column! Just to note, I've written before about the relative dearth of women authors who get translated, even in that meager 3% statistic (of which fiction/poetry is a small proportion; 3% includes technical publications, like computer manuals).
The nominees for Best Translated Book came out the other day, and only 5 of 25 authors on the longlist are women:
http://isak.typepad.com/isak/2011/01/best-translated-book-awards-the-2011-longlist-.html
Of the 20 NEA translation grants given out in 2010, only 3 went towards work by women authors (the ratio the year before was 3:13. And the year before that? 1:12.)
http://isak.typepad.com/isak/2010/09/next-in-translation-and-whats-missing.html
"Women's Writing Often Gets Lost in Translation"
http://www.womensenews.org/story/commentary/070628/womens-writing-often-gets-lost-translation
Of course, this stuff MATTERS. I'm looking forward to following your coverage on it here at SheWrites!
Tweets that mention Quick hit: Women in Translation | Girl with Pen -- Topsy.com — January 27, 2011
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Elena Lappin, Jenny McPhee. Jenny McPhee said: Girl w/Pen quick hit: women in translation http://girlwpen.com/?p=2026 [...]
Elline — January 28, 2011
Heather, Thanks for bringing attention to this important topic! Years ago, I was a grad student at Columbia in a year-long literary translation class, and I can't remember ever seeing the work of a female translator. With all the recent talk of numbers disparity within publishing, so glad to have attention brought here too. Great work.