In Review
Open Letter, the Universityās nonprofit literary translation press, sold its 100,000th book this fall. The publishing house is also a partner in the Universityās program in literary translation studies. Seven years after the pressās founding, and with 78 books in its list, director Chad Post says that he hopes to broaden Open Letterās geographic perspective even more.
Whatās the focus of Open Letter?
We go for a balance of two kinds of authors: classic authors that we know will sell well and new voices. For the well-established authorsālike Marguerite Duras, Elsa Morante, and Juan JosĆ© Saerāwe like to bring some of their books back into print and to publish ones that have never been translated.
And weāre trying to find new voices that have never made it into English before. Thatās what our NEA [National Endowment for the Arts] funding is for. Itās our āEmerging Voicesā series.
Are the emerging voices all contemporary?
Not necessarily. LĆŗcio Cardoso from Brazil, who has never been published in English before, wrote whatās considered to be the greatest Brazilian gay novel. He died in the 1960s. He was a huge influence in Brazilian literature, and weāre publishing his novel Chronicle of the Murdered House. On the other hand, weāre also publishing Josefine Klougartāa young Danish author who was a finalist for the biggest Nordic prize twice by the age of 30.
But theyāre both voices that havenāt been experienced by American readers.
How do you ensure geographic variety?
Itās something we look at. There are certain areas that weāre not good at yet, such as the Middle East and Africa. The systems there are different. For example, there arenāt agents. Itās much more time-intensive than it is when working with someone from France or Germany. So far weāve published one South African author. And the same with Indiaāthere are almost no books that are published in translation in the United States from Indian authors, and thatās another area weād like to find someone from.
We havenāt hit all the regions yet, but itās pretty wide. We have Chinese authors, all the western European countries, a lot from Latin America and South America.
Weāre doing a series of books as part of a Danish women writers series. In tracking what gets published in translation, Iāve found that in the past eight years, only 26 percent of translated books published in the United States are by female authors. Thatās pretty bad. Incredibly low. Weāre publishing five books over the next five years in the Danish women writers series. And it looks like weāll do the same with authors from South Korea.
Thereās only one major country over the past eight years thatās had more female authors translated than males, and thatās Finland. And itās all crime novels.
Are there other presses that do what Open Letter does?
There are a lot of people who publish literature in translation, at least one bookābut presses who publish a significant number, there are probably 10. They donāt all do exclusively translations [as Open Letter does], but they do a number of them. Oddly enough, the press that does the most translations of anyone is Amazon Crossing. They published 128 books over the past eight yearsāand most of that in the past four years.
Has globalization changed things?
Thereās not a lot of coverage of translations, but when there is, it tends to be in a different tone than it used to be. It used to be more dismissiveāāthis isnāt the ārealā book,ā or, āif youāre going to read translations, hereās a good book.ā Now itās more positive and more generally accepting of international literature as a valuable part of book culture as a whole.
All these books that have broken throughāsuch as Elena Ferranteās Neapolitan novels and Stieg Larssonās āMillennium trilogyāāhave shifted the conversation away from āWe donāt want to read books from Finland or Swedenā to āThese are interesting.ā Thatās changed the conversation dramatically.
What are the hallmarks of a good translation?
The main thing I look for is voice, that you can feel the voice and style of the original book in the translation. With a good translation, you can hear and feel the voice and know right away that youāre on sure footing as a reader.
Itās easier to note what can be bad about itāa lot of inverted clauses that are mimicking the original syntax, wooden and flat dialogue. When it feels mechanical, itās just not working. Translations can be completely accurate, but not feel like theyāre āwritten.ā They donāt feel organicāand a good translation feels organic when you read it.
Whatās ahead for Open Letter?
Weāve had a lot of authors weāve worked on who have won big awards recently, and I think one of these years weāre going to have a book that sells 8,000 copies. Weāre in the right position to be able to do that. Itās nothing you can predict. Things just have to lock into place right, and when that happens, it will be really important.
And I think weāll hit more regions of the world. But mostly weāll continue to help train translators through the University, working with students and getting them out into the workforce. A lot of our translators have had success recently, and thatās gratifyingāgetting published, getting grants, awards, and residencies. Theyāre the things you need to do to move from a college graduate who does translations to a career translator whom people automatically go to. A number of them have fallen into that category.
You published Voices from Chernobyl by this yearās Nobel laureate in literature, Svetlana Alexievich, when you were with Dalkey Archive Press. Any lessons for Open Letter in that?
A Nobel Prize isnāt something you can really plan or prepare for. I think if you look for high-quality books from a vast number of voices and areas, youāre just going to stumble upon the right one at the right point in time.ļ»æļ»æ