The lovely people at Words Without Borders published my recent essay on why “We Need More Speculative Fiction in Translation.” Here’s an excerpt: “After all, speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, etc.) is and has been written around the world since those genres emerged. The rise of Anglo-French science fiction at the turn
Pierre Boulle (1912-1994) was a French author who wrote several science fiction novels, including Planet of the Apes. Trained as an electrical engineer, Boulle spent eight years in Malaysia as a planter and soldier. His experience as a secret agent with the Free French in Singapore during World War II inspired his famous novel
Marlaine Delargy grew up in Manchester, England; studied in Aberystwyth, Wales; worked in Sweden and Finland; and taught in Welshpool in Powys and Bewdley in Worcestershire until 2004. She now lives in rural Shropshire with the obligatory collection of spoiled cats. Rachel Cordasco: You have translated many Swedish texts, the majority
Over on Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations, Joachim Boaz reviews Jean-Louis Curtis’s 1956 collection The Neon Halo (tr. Humphrey Hare, 1958). Here’s a brief excerpt from the review: The French novelist Jean-Louis Curtis (1917-1995), best known for his Prix Goncourt-winning The Forests of the Night (1947), crafts a linked series of short stories in The
The GLLI graciously gave over their blog to me for the month of April so I could highlight SF in translation. Here’s the wrap-up post with all of the links: enjoy!
This page just scratches the surface of all the Romanian speculative fiction that needs to be translated into English. If you have a story/novel/collection/anthology to suggest, include it in the comments. In the Year 4000 or A Voyage to Venus (1898) by Victor Anestin “Set in the 4th millennium when two scientists build a
Award-winning Italian author Clelia Farris’s collection, Creative Surgery (translated from the Italian by myself and Jennifer Delare) came out a few months ago from Rosarium Publishing and is getting some much-deserved attention (I know, I’m biased! But really, her work is fantastic). Here are links to four reviews: Publishers Weekly starred
Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) Eliade was a historian of (comparative) religion and the author of some of the most important works in the field. He studied at the University of Calcutta from 1928-1931, and from 1956-1986, Eliade was Professor of the History of Religion at the University of Chicago. Considered a “mainstream” writer who wrote science
Legends from Vamland by Vladimir Colin, translated/edited by Luiza Carol (Center for Romanian Studies, 2001). “Legends from Vamland is a beautiful story about the human struggle with fear. In telling his tale, the author blends together Romanian legends and myths with those of cultures from around the world. …The work is intended as one
Nostalgia by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Julian Semilian (New Directions, 2005). read an excerpt here “Mircea Cărtărescu, born in 1956, is one of Romania’s leading novelists and poets. This translation of his 1989 novel Nostalgia, writes Andrei Codrescu, ‘introduces to English a writer who has always had a place reserved for him in a
