Clik here to view.
Writing about reading
Why is reading so hard? It should be fun, right? Maybe in industrial quantities it just becomes a little too much like work. Since my last post about everything I planned to read in 2013, I’ve done...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New books from Québec well worth a read
Continuing with the reading theme (because I’ve been doing a lot of it recently and mostly with the aim of unearthing fiction that’s worth translating or comparing translated and translatable Québec...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Translators reviewing their own work
3 BOOKS FROM QUÉBEC I HAVE TRANSLATED AND CAN 100% RECOMMEND It’s a tricky one, this category. You spend ages reading until you have a book that really stands out from the rest. You pitch it to a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No accounting for taste
Personal preferences have been weighing on my mind a lot lately. Over at my other blog (9 Months with the Chicago Manual of Style), this is a familiar preoccupation of mine, something I’m pretty sure...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Being organized
I’ve been off work on paternity leave for the past three weeks. It’s been a quiet three weeks. Alex has been sleeping like an angel and I’ve had plenty of time to read books I’ve been thinking might be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Translate in Québec City
I seldom go to conferences. In fact, I think the last conference I went to was Translate in the Catskills, four or so years ago. There was a follow-up event, Translate in the Townships, very close to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Exciting times
A few things have got me really excited about what I do and how I work recently. First, the buzz from the excellent Translate in Québec City conference for premium-market translators still hasn’t worn...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two articles on the craft of literary translation
I’ve been reading a lot about the art of literary translation recently. What it means to translate a text faithfully, how to come up with a text in English that people will want to read, and all the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
ambos, new names in Québec literature
Quick! Name the best piece of Québec fiction you ever read! (The Tin Flute or anything else you were forced to read in high school doesn’t count.) How about… 1. Chaque automne j’ai envie de mourir 2....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Intralingo interview
The lovely Lisa Carter over at intralingo interviewed me last week about what it’s like translating Québec fiction, how I got started, and that kind of thing. At the moment, the interview with me and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
3 things I learned about literary translation this year
Each of these has been running around in my head all week. And each of them came out of the mouth of the same person. I thought I would share… “The wheels of publishing turn ve-ry slowly.” “That’s not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The opposite of Schadenfreude
It would seem that I’m badly in need of a new word. We all know that Schadenfreude is the act of rejoicing in other people’s miseries, but how to describe that feeling we get when we discover a great...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Process and Product
Recently I set up Québec Reads, which features what I and our contributors consider to be the very best of contemporary Québec literature, both originally written in English and (more often than not)...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My daily routine
So, let’s start with the big picture. More than a year ago, I blogged about a new routine. A copy of it sits as a post-it note on my desktop, and I have stuck to it not one single time. There is much I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Being a more productive translator
I’m tempted to say it’s because I have two children and now that both are sleeping better I’ve moved out of survival mode and into a state where I can reasonably hope to squeeze more out of my day, but...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My new routine: How to be a more productive translator
And so, after all this build-up, here at last is my brand-new routine. It probably won’t all work for you, but maybe you’ll at least find a detail or two to steal and use yourself. 6 am – 6.30 am :...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Progress report
So less than a week into my new routine and it’s already taken a bit of a hammering. It’s the World Cup, so my heart has ruled my head and I’ve been working hard to fit three (or four) soccer games a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inside Baseball
You might have noticed I’m trying to be as specific as I can when describing what I’m up to these days. It’s not exactly page-turning stuff, but I’ve noticed a real lack of facts and figures out there:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What am I working on?
So what am I working on right now? Yes, I’m translating a novel called Radisson and a long extract from another novel called La Fiancée américaine, but what type of books are they? What are they like...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Les portes closes
I’ll resist the temptation to squeeze in a reference to doors opening and closing here. No sooner did I send off my translation of The Adventures of Radisson II to Baraka Books, than I signed a...
View Article