This week, we're thrilled to be launching our latest online adventure - Talking Translation.
At Parthian, we’ve long been aware of the heroics of the translator – a bridge between cultures, the average translator does far more than simply convert a book from one language to another. In fact, it's often the translators who guide us towards new voices, exciting work, and really drive the process of getting diverse stories into the hands of entirely fresh readerships. Translators are the key to widening our horizons, and that’s why we want to talk to them.
So we’ve commissioned writers, editors and organisers to sit down with a translator and delve into every aspect of what they do, looking at old and new releases along the way. Throughout 2021, we’ll be sharing their interviews and essays online at talkingtranslation.org – where they will be freely available for anyone to read, thanks to our friends and supporters. We hope that these conversations help to spark some interest in the important work of translating good stories into new languages – as well as celebrate some of the brilliant books we’ve seen translated over the years.
Among the many poets, editors and authors we have lined up as interviewers are Niall Griffiths, Glen James Brown, Elaine Canning, Alexandra Büchler, John Sam Jones, Susie Wild, to name just a few.
The first interview will be landing at 12 noon this Thursday 4th February - a conversation between award-winning poet Natalie Ann Holborow, and the brilliant translator Arunava Sinha, who recently compiled and translated Desire for Fire: Modern Bengali Poetry (Parthian, 2020). Head over to talkingtranslation.org to read the piece, and keep an eye on our social media for more content coming soon!