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One of the TLS' books of the year, Jen Calleja explores Sophie Collins' translation as activism through her recent Test Centre anthology, Currently & Emotion, and discusses contemporary translation, readership and the pleasures and pains of putting together a book. (Portrait of Vahni Capildeo by Richard Phœnix)
We have Deborah Smith to thank for Han Kang – and we are truly grateful. Fresh from winning an Arts Foundation Award, next month sees Smith launch a publishing house that will transform a literary landscape choked with diversity issues. (Portrait of Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay by Richard Phœnix)
Having come across one another’s work on The Quietus, British-Maltese writers Jen Calleja and James Vella worked together to create versions of two poems by celebrated Maltese poet Adrian Grima using literal translations. But should ‘versioning’ be considered translating? And can Maltese poets do without English translators altogether? (Portrait of Adrian Grima by Richard Phœnix)
Part-way through completing a translation of Gregor Hens’ Nicotine, our resident translation columnist Jen Calleja finds herself asking questions about authenticity and exactitude and whether or not translation is creation. (Illustration by Richard Phœnix)
The latest instalment of Jen Calleja's Verfreundungseffekt column puts into play a game of Chinese Whispers on a poem by Sam Riviere — with help from Chrissy Williams, Laura Tenschert, Livia Franchini and Jack Underwood — considering the value and the possibilities of translating a translation, flipping Walter Benjamin the bird in the process. (Illustration by Richard Phœnix)
This month’s column introduces tQ readers to Berlin-based Taiwanese writer and artist Tsou Yung-shan and her novel of ‘inbetweenness’,The Waiting Room. (Portrait of Tsou Yung-shan by Richard Phœnix)
This month’s column swings the focus to the unsung hero – the literary translator – but just as much on contemporary Swedish literature and inventive ways of publishing literature in translation. (Portrait of Saskia Vogel by Richard Phœnix)
As a first offering for her new column on literature in translation — Verfreundungseffekt — Jen Calleja looks at Kalevi Helvetti, a collection of poems by Pertti Kurikka. (Portrait of Pertti Kurikka by Richard Phœnix)