Translations

  Chad W. Post, translation guru and the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Open Letter Press at the University of Rochester, has written this editorial (which is circulating today on various publishing blogs) on the dwindling number of new works of translation published by both mainstream and independent publishing houses.

Fans of University of Nebraska Press translation titles, don’t fear. We have two translation titles coming out this fall: My Men, a memoir by Algerian author Malika Mokeddem, and Dream of Reason, an epic, fantastical novel by famous Spanish author Rosa Chacel. And next year, we’ll publish another short story collection by French author and Nobel Prize winner J.M.G. Le Clezio.

So translation is alive and well at the University of Nebraska Press. And while I’m at it, I’m going to mention my very favorite UNP translation title: Microfictions, by Ana Maria Shua. This is a collection of short, short stories (often just a sentence or two), populated by ghosts, spiders, dreaming narrators, and very clever writing. It’s the type of book you could read in 15 minutes – it’s that short – or you could spend hours reading and rereading the authors carefully chosen words.