Where I'll be going this summer

For some time, I‘ve been following a website “Words without Borders,” which focuses on literature in translation. Last fall, the site announced a Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference to be held in Vermont in June, sponsored by (organized by?) Middlebury College. I went to the conference site, it seemed interesting, focuses on literary translation, and I applied.

Which was more than filling out a form and sending a $15 check. Applicants also had send along 4,000 words of a translation plus the original. I sent the first half of one of the Japanese stories I’ve been working on. 

A week ago the conference staff wrote to tell me I’d been admitted. So I will be in Vermont for a week at the beginning of June.

What, you ask, do you do at a translation conference?

I'm not sure. I suspect that we will discuss the craft of translation—general questions, not specific about any one language—and the business of translation. Craft questions like: At what point is fidelity to the original a disservice to the English? What do you do when a foreign word is not in any dictionary because it’s a neologism? Or dialect, a word many native speakers don’t understand?

Concerning the business of translation, I expect the conference leaders will talk about rights, the market for translation, publishers, and everything that has to do with getting a translation published and sold. 

Stay tuned.