DALKEY ARCHIVE PRESS TOPS WORLD LITERATURE TODAY’S NOTABLE TRANSLATIONS

 

World Literature Today has picked six Dalkey Archive books for its “75 Notable Translations of 2016” list—a number unsurpassed by any other publisher. The books, selected by WLT’s editors, represent the best of international literature in translation. Dalkey Archive has been featured every year since the list began in 2012, and is proud to have its authors and translators recognized for their extraordinary work again this year.

The six titles are representative of Dalkey’s unique mission to identify excellent works of literature from countries that are often overlooked in the literary marketplace, and are comprised of the following:

  • Gabriela Adameșteanu’s The Encounter, translated by Alistair Ian Blyth (Romania)
  • Zsuzsanna Gahse’s Volatile Texts: Us Two, translated Chenxin Jiang (Switzerland)
  • Jung Young-moon’s A Contrived World, translated Jeffrey Karvonen & Mah Eunji (Korea)
  • Youval Shimoni’s A Room, translated by Michael Sharp (Israel)
  • Suzana Tratnik’s Games with Greta and Other Stories, translated by Michael Biggins (Slovenia)
  • Jovanka Živanović’s Fragile Travelers, translated by Jovanka Kalaba (Serbia)

Two of these six notable translations are the work of two post-graduate students, Chenxin Jiang and Jovanka Kalaba, who were enrolled in the Certificate in Applied Literary Translation Program that is currently offered in collaboration between the University of Houston-Victoria and Dalkey Archive Press. The Program was begun by John O’Brien—the publisher and founder of Dalkey Archive—in 2005 in response to the need for emerging translators to work closely with an editor at a publishing house that will then publish their first book-length translation.

In addition to their translation work, students enrolled in the program are trained and given practical experience in evaluating manuscripts, working with agents and other publishing firms, and devising contracts. To date over forty students have participated in the program, and several translations have already appeared or will be published in the near future. The success of the program continues to depend upon the close working relationship between editor and translator.