Getting Started as a Literary Translator by Mansell, Richard; Vassallo, Helen;

Short description:

Getting Started as a Literary Translator is an essential guide for aspiring translators navigating the professional field. Focusing on UK publishing with practical skills, industry insights, and interviews, it helps readers develop translation pitches and overcome barriers in the field.

Long description:

Getting Started as a Literary Translator: Translated Literature and Publishing is an essential textbook for aspiring literary translators, offering a comprehensive guide to navigating the professional and entrepreneurial aspects of the field. Recognizing that translation can often be an isolated practice, this book provides emerging translators with the industry knowledge and connections needed to establish themselves, with a particular focus on the translated literature sector of the UK publishing industry, while also referencing other Anglophone contexts.

Rather than teaching translation techniques, this textbook focuses on the practical skills required to operate as a professional translator. It brings together detailed information on key organizations, funding bodies and industry practices, alongside exclusive interviews with translators at various career stages and representatives from organizations that support literature in translation. These real-world insights and examples offer invaluable advice for breaking into the field.

The book also highlights barriers to accessing and advancing in the translated literature sector and provides strategies to address them. Practical exercises and assessments throughout the chapters guide readers in developing their first translation pitch, culminating in the creation of a translation sample and a complete pitch pack. Designed for students, educators and emerging professionals, this textbook is an indispensable resource for anyone looking to build a career in literary translation.

'This is a new kind of book which addresses a whole host of practical questions, making it required reading for anyone entering the literary translation profession today.  Getting Started as a Literary Translator is as accessible as it is timely: reading it feels like having two personal mentors who give their sage advice at every turn, drawing on the experience of a substantial cast of expert translators and their own decades-long familiarity with the industry'

Duncan Large, Professor of European Literature and Translation, University of East Anglia, Norwich. Executive Director, British Centre for Literary Translation

'A rigorous and timely handbook that redefines what it means to be a literary translator. Drawing on expert voices across the translation and publishing industry, Getting Started as a Literary Translator is an indispensable resource for aspiring translators, educators and researchers interested in how the world of literary translation actually works in practice.'

Olga Castro, Associate Professor in Translation Studies, University of Warwick; Beatriz Galindo distinguished professor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Table of Contents:

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Panel of experts

Introduction: Getting started as a literary translator

Chapter 1: Preparing for a career in literary translation: Motivation, training and academic courses

Chapter 2: Networks and the importance of community in freelance translation work

Chapter 3: Applying for funding and approaching publishers: Pitching and promoting literature in translation

Chapter 4: Ethics, diversity and the “bigger picture” of literature in translation

Chapter 5: Editing and being edited as a translator

Chapter 6: Beyond the manuscript: The translated literature ecosystem, the human translator and the rise of artificial intelligence 

Conclusion: The next steps