Northwest Literary Translators Takami Nieda and Shelley Fairweather-Vega will join celebrity visiting translator Sawad Hussain to discuss the intricacies of translating literature for children and young adults in this event organized by the University of Washington Translation Studies Hub.
This even is pay-what-you-can. More information and registration is available here.
About the Event
Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum is pleased to welcome three distinguished translators—Sawad Hussain (Arabic), Shelley Fairweather-Vega (Russian and Uzbek), and Takami Nieda (Japanese)—for an engaging discussion on Translating Young Adult Literature as Resistance and Entertainment.
There is a common misconception in literary publishing that books for children and young adults are “simple” and are, therefore, easy to translate. But translating literature for younger people is not simple at all. How does the process of “curating” young people’s literature involve translators’ negotiation with the expectations of English-language editors and publishers? How might translation of young people’s literature into English function as a form of decolonization and resistance? What are the sensitivity issues that are particular to publishing young adult literature? Should young adult literature in translation be handled like highbrow adult literature in translation, like “ordinary” YA literature, or something in between? And, finally, does the original language of the book or its country of origin affect these calculations?
The translated titles will be available for sale by our partner bookstore Third Place Books.
Sawad Hussain is a translator from Arabic whose work has been recognised by, among others, The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation and the National Book Award for Translated Literature. Recent releases include a co-translated sci-fi YA title (I Want Golden Eyes by Maria Dadouch) and a murder mystery YA novel (The Djinn’s Apple by Djamila Morani). A former Co-Chair of the Translator's Association (UK), she is committed to mentoring literary translators and developing the industry in general.
Shelley Fairweather-Vega is a professional translator focusing on new prose and poetry from Central Asia. She is a founder of the Northwest Literary Translators and the administrator of the American Translator Association’s Literary Division; she is also a member of the University of Washington’s Translation Studies Hub. Her recent translations include a middle-grade adventure novel from Kazakhstan, Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup by Zira Nauryzbai and Lilya Kalaus, and a dark teen romance, Stigmalion, by Kristina Stark, a Ukrainian author living in Ireland.
Takami Nieda is a translator from Japanese, whose work includes the YA novels, GO by Kazuki Kaneshiro and The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart by Chesil, both of which have won the Freeman Book Award for YA Literature. She serves as the Japanese mentor for the American Literary Translators Association’s Emerging Translator Mentorship Program and is a member on the advisory board of the University of Washington’s Translation Studies Hub.
Don't miss Sawad's other Seattle events!
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May 6, 4:30-6:30 pm, University of Washington: A Delicate Symphony: Courtship, Guardianship, and (self-)Censorship in Translating from Arabic More info
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May 7, 2:00-4:20 pm, Seattle Central College: Literary Translation Master Class Register
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May 8, 11:30 am, University of Washington, lunchtime colloquium: Selling Literature: What's a translator got to do with it? More info
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May 8, 5:30-8:00 pm, Seattle Central Library: Reception with NOTIS Register
Sawad Hussain's mini-residency in Seattle is sponsored by:
Lee Scheingold
UW Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
UW Jackson School of International Studies
UW Simpson Center for the Humanities
For more information about the Northwest Literary Translators, join our Facebook group or visit our website.
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