2010 Conference Planning Committee

From WESSWeb

Agenda & Minutes WESS & LES 2010 Program Committee Sunday, July 12, 2009

Present at WESS meeting Heidi Madden (WESS) Tim Hackman, Sarah How, Deb Raftus, Brian Vetruba, Sarah Wenzel, Brigitte Doellgast

Working Tools for the group

>>Communicate via group email: wess-2010@duke.edu

PROGRAM We have been approved for:

Time Slot: Saturday June: 6/26/2010 from 1:30 to 3:30 PM

Our timeframe is to identify a pool of speaker by the end of August – so that we can have September and October to contact them: the deadline for submitting speaker list to ACRL: November 13, 2009

Title: Contemporary European Fiction in Translation Note that the wording will be revised after we have decided on speakers in November. Final deadline for changes is January.

“Globalization and migration across linguistic borders creates cross-cultural awareness and increases the need and demand for reading translated fiction. Less European fiction in translation is published in North America than the reverse, but European fiction in translation is gaining in popularity. What are the key elements of this system? What do librarians need to know to build collections and advise readers? Panelists will explore several aspects of this system, including translation theory and cultural studies, publishing translations in North America, and translation poetics and pragmatics.”

•Cosponsors with funding = ACRL Western European Studies Section (WESS) and ACRL Literatures in English Section (LES)

•Cosponsors in name only = ACRL Slavic and East European Section (SEES)

•We need a letter of sponsorship from each section to Megan Griffin mgriffin@ala.org by September 2

NOTES ON THE THREE PARTS OF THE PROGRAM: •Dick Hacken will serve as moderator

Speaker 1. TRANLSATION IN/AND THE MARKET

•Publisher Perspective: we would like a speaker who can provide an overview and a sense of the difference between the European markets in fiction; give a sense for how few authors reach the US market. Presentation includes considerations of how works are picked for translation, etc.… Questions to consider: What do librarians need to know about the process (i.e., the business) of finding European literature to translate, publishing it in English, and promoting it in the U.S.? Notes on Publishers

Blog Three Percent (affiliated with the University of Rochester) might be a good source for ideas here (or even a good speaker?) http://www.rochester.edu/college/translation/threepercent/

Other Presses/possible speakers?

•Northwestern University Press

•Three Percent (Rochester) http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/

•University of Minnesota

•University of Washington – translations of Slovenian fiction

•Catalan translations into both British and American English

•Europa Editions

•European Book Club: http://europeanbookclub.org/

•ANAGRAMA

•Possibly Speaker On European Perspective to round out the publisher topic The German Book Office, the French Cultural Service, and their Spanish counterpart all work to promote their countries’ literatures abroad.

Speaker 2. WHAT IS A GOOD TRANSLATION

•What are good review sources? Find a speaker who can talk about qualitative aspects of translation or assessment – with a view of education librarians on concepts and resources. Notes on possible speakers •Look for current reviewers

Speaker 3. TRANSLATION AND CULTURE

•LES works more closely with English departments (which often contain Comparative Literature programs), so LES committee members should explore this area and come up with some speaker suggestions.

WEBSITE AND BIBLIOGRAPHY Brian Vetruba will set up a page in WESS WEB and ask Dick Hacken to give access to Deb Raftus and to Tim Hackman. A LES member will produce a short bibliography of resources based on this website for the 2010 program HM had summarized all program/resources ideas so far– see below – there are several pages of resources – some of this could be included in the WESS page – Brian, Deb and Tim will monitor the email listserv and add ideas that come through the list serv from time to time

BUDGET AND FUNDING We put in a $2,000 budget, a revision would need to be in by August 13, 2009

Note from Megan Griffin: Note: If your program requested funds from a Section Basic Services Budget(s), we will need an e-mail confirmation from the 2009-10 Section chair(s) in order to do this. If your program will request funds from outside vendors, fundraising plans are due to me no later than September 30. I just need the potential donor(s) name and the amount you will ask for. I will pass this information onto Mary Ellen Davis, and get back to you asap.

EQUIPMENT

Room and equipment request: Request due on November 13: •Screen •LCD projector •laptop, podium •speaker microphone •tabletop microphones for the other speakers •one-two floor microphones for a question & answer session. •Think about recording? Do we need speaker permission before proceeding?

SCOPE OF THE WEBSITE – WEBSITE WILL BE HOSTED ON THE WESS WIKI Brian Vetrube will start it, and will make sure that Deb Raftus and Tim Hackman have log-ins Title of Program with short description •Image •Link to Resource page on Translation … •Websites (publishers?) •Bibliographies •Data (book trade reports?)

Speakers and titles of presentation –

•Once speakers are chosen: gather presentation detail: short speaker bio, title of presentation, abstract

•Speaker bio

•Link to speaker website

•PPT or Texts of the participants' papers

•Clarify copyright, etc.

PUBLICITY – we will work on this at mid-winter in Boston

•Identify WESS/LES lists and who will post

•Notice in C&RL News and American Libraries?

•contribute to ALA Connect

•Identify other outlets

EVALUATION •Plans for Program Evaluation – we have gathered two sample forms, and will put together a form based on that (HM) Will need about 250 copies.

Literature in Translation/Translation Studies : Resources for Librarians

RESOURCES FOR WEBPAGE Web Resources collected so far…. [needs to split up by categories – associations, vendors, databases…] •Translation resources on the Web: A guide to accurate, free sites C&RL News, June 2009 Vol. 70, No. 6 by Rebecca A. Martin and Sarah McHone-Chase The rapid growth of handheld translation devices—as well as sites such as Babel Fish (Alta Vista) and Google Translate, which translate not only phrases but also e-mail messages, full-text and Web pages into dozens of languages—shows that people want, at minimum, the gist of the content contained in foreign-language communications. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2009/jun/translation.cfm

•Words Without Borders: http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/

•Center for Literary Translation at Columbia University: http://www.centerforliterarytranslation.org

•PEN American Center: http://www.pen.org/

•Circumference: http://www.circumferencemag.com/

•International Federation of Translators http://www.fit-ift.org/en/home.php

•European Society for Translation Studies. The European Society for Translation Studies is an association stimulating research and new ideas in translation and interpreting. www.est-translationstudies.org/

•American Translators Association https://www.atanet.org/

•Machine translation at the European Union http://ec.europa.eu/translation/reading/articles/tools_and_workflow_en.htm

•ANAGRAMA http://www.anagrama-ed.es/ “As the venerable Spanish publishing house Anagrama turns 40 this year, they have many triumphs and achievements to look back on, and currently are central to the regeneration of Latin American fiction, most notably of course with the success of Roberto Bolaño. ..

•Uni Leipzig webportal for Translation http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~xlatio/

•Translation Database Update: The Bolano Effect? 7 May 09 | Chad W. Post

Books and Articles TRANSLATION THEORY (SECOND EDITION 2005) in the Johns Hopkins guide to Literary Theory and Criticism Online. Susan Bassnett

L'Europe littéraire. Dominique Guiou . 30/04/2009 | Mise à jour : 12:03 –www.lefigaro.fr http://www.lefigaro.fr/livres/2009/04/30/03005-20090430ARTFIG00372-l-europe-litteraire-.php

Allen, Barbara F.H. Contemporary German-language literature in English translation: a checklist of the works of the younger generation. Collection Building. 17 April 2009 VO: 28. NO: 2. PG: 75-86(12) PB: Emerald Group Publishing Limited IS: 0160-4953 URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/171/2009/00000028/00000002/art00006

Allen, Esther ‘To be translated or not to be – PEN/IRL report on the international situation of literary translation’.http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/files/dmfile/translated.pdf

Bibliography for Work in Comparative Literature and Culture Bibliography for Work in Comparative Literature and Culture (PDF; 530 KB) By Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, University of Alberta. Global in scope. 44 pages. Related publications here. Source: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (via Purdue ePubs) From: http://www.resourceshelf.com/2009/05/25/bibliography-for-work-in-comparative-literature-and-culture/

“The European Point of View on BEA By Edward Nawotka” http://publishingperspectives.com/?p=914

Translation and Proficiency Language Teaching http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?post=ValentinoEducationBlog2

From the Words Without Borders magazine, Michael Emmerich on translation in “Beyond Between: Translation, Ghosts, Metaphors:” In order for “translation” to have any meaning at all, it must be translatable into other languages; but the moment it is translated, it is swept up in a system of differentiations different from the one in which it is enmeshed in English—indeed, it doesn’t even have to be translated, because the word itself implies its own connectedness to these other systems of differentiation. Translation must be viewed as a node within which all the ideas of translation in all the languages there ever have been or could ever be might potentially congregate, intersect, mingle. From : http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?post=WeekendReading090515

Mathieu Dosse - L’acte de traduction à propos de : Antoine Berman, L’Âge de la traduction. « La tâche du traducteur » de Walter Benjamin, un commentaire La Revue Internationale des Livres et des Idées

“Lost in translation: The Spanish-language puzzle By HILLEL ITALIE – 1 day ago NEW YORK (AP) — The long-rumored e-book boom at last has arrived. But publishers still wait, and wait, for another supposed surge: Spanish-language titles. From : http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jQl84-EdQcGmVGm19kNG1CB-OSmQD98HD4E00 http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=7720932

Talking Translation at the London Book Fair -by A.M. Correa-4 May 2009 http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?author=AmCorrea Having only one day free for attending the London Book Fair, the panel discussion involving Chad Post, Mark Thwaite, Bob Stein, Lance Fensterman, and Abby Blachly had been the one I’d been looking forward to the most. “Marketing Translations and Other ‘Difficult’ Books” was aimed at the usual suspects: It’s always been a struggle to publicize works in translation, but over the past few years, with newspaper book sections shrinking and ever increasing demands on our time and attention, the situation has gotten even more difficult. At the same time, these same new technologies offer new possibilities to reach readers. From LibraryThing’s social networking, to the Golden Notebook Project, to the Independent Foreign Fiction prize and BookExpo America, this panel will discuss innovative techniques to reach readers and to cultivate an audience for “difficult” literary works.

Lost in translation. The New Yorker JUNE 2, 2009 http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2009/06/lost-to-translation.html Horace Engdahl, a member of the Swedish Academy who reputedly speaks five languages, made headlines last year when he chided Americans for being “too isolated, too insular” because we don’t translate enough….

“How the Market Influences What Language You Read In,” July 2 Freakonomics post from Daniel Hamermesh, “How the Market Influences What Language You Read In,” in which Hamermesh identified the problem of mediocre translations into languages with a smaller market than English, such as Dutch, and testified, “My [Dutch] friends say they would rather read a good translation into a language they know well, but not perfectly, than a mediocre translation into their native language.” http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/how-the-market-influences-what-language-you-read-in/

Revamped Granta to Focus on International Literature http://publishingperspectives.com/?p=1561 Pilcrows & Palavers is waiting for the paperback of Finnish mystery writer Matti Joensuu’s To Steal Her Love (discussed in our news last month), and in considering the broad English translation market in Europe, is impatient for Joensuu’s other titles. This leads us to reinforce the argument for more English translations in the United States. The key is cultural exchange, and as one of the comments on the Freakonomics piece reminds us, “since English is such a rich language… it allows for more accurate translations.”’ From : http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?post=News20090707

The French Detection “Why do some publishers release some serial mysteries out of order? The unfortunate case of Fred Vargas.” http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-caw-dark-passages5-2009jul05,1,1478734.story

SIMILAR EVENTS THAT MIGHT SERVE AS INSPIRATION

Poesia Ultima: A Symposium on Contemporary Italian Poetry and Translation

Euro Crime: Crime Fest: Translators panel SNIPPETS ABOUT BRITISH AND OTHER EUROPEAN CRIME FICTION, TV AND FILM. http://shar.es/0nn4

Translatable: Creativity and Knowledge Formation Across Cultures An interdisciplinary conference on the poetics and pragmatics of literary translation to be held at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, April 23-25, 2009 Supported by the Arts and Sciences Research Council (Duke), the Institute for the Arts and Humanities (UNC), the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation (Duke), the Program in Comparative Literature (UNC), the Transcultural Humanities Initiative (Duke), and the UNC/King's College, London, Collaboration