Annoying a literary translator has never been easier. It requires just two words: artificial intelligence.
Apps like Google Translate and ChatGPT make it simpler than ever to get a rough but immediate approximation of another language. At the same time, though, efforts are building within the literary translation industry — in particular at Rochester’s Open Letter Books — to create appreciation for the way a work of art in one language and culture is carried to another.
Beyond simply converting the words on the page, the translator serves multiple roles simultaneously, including talent scout, tastemaker, sales agent and publicist. After all, how else would a monolingual reader or publisher know what else is out there?
This is part of the daily conversation at Open Letter Books, a nonprofit, independent press based within the University of Rochester that publishes exclusively literature in translation.
“If we get pitched a book from Hungary, I have no context about that author or that book,” said Open Letter Publisher Chad Post. “Good translators do have that context, and so they help steer the ship.”
In 2023, Open Letter began publishing what it calls translator ‘triptychs.’ That word usually refers to three distinct panels of a painting that have meaning individually and collectively; the same is true in this case. Each year, a single translator curates a set of three books from a given language and presents them as one coherent collection. The translators get additional payment for the work involved.
The first was a group of three books by contemporary female Spanish authors put forth by translator Katie Whittemore in 2022. This year, it was a set of books from South Korea organized by the translator Janet Hong. Kaija Straumanis’s Latvian triptych is up next in 2025, followed by Lytton Smith and Icelandic literature in 2026. There are future plans for collections from Brazil and the Arab world. The triptychs are the latest effort by Post and Open Letter to not only publish books in translation, but to elevate the craft itself.
“Without Open Letter you wouldn’t have the contemporary translation scene; it’s been landscape-defining,” said Smith, who has translated several books from Icelandic for the press. “There are presses that deserve a lot of credit for having been working for decades, but what Chad and Open Letter are doing is (asking the question): ‘Why aren’t we reading more in translation?’”
Among those efforts over the last 17 years: a first-of-its-kind database of all literature translated into English; a national award for translated literature; and the Three Percent podcast, named after the percentage of books released in the United States each year that were first published in other languages.
Rochester has twice hosted the American Literary Translators Association conference, most recently in 2019. And Open Letter publishes 10 books each year, many from authors whose work has not yet appeared in English.
“If you (work) in translation, everybody knows Chad,” Hong said. “Even though it’s a smaller press, over the years the passion and the sheer knowledge he has with translated literature – that’s what Open Letter is.”
The books in the triptychs have more in common than their language of origin. The translators select titles that are thematically related or at least share a similar feel.
“You’re thinking not just about books that would be interesting to a North American audience, but also in how those books are going to enter into conversation with one another,” Smith said.
For example, all three of the books that Hong chose — “Wafers” by Ha Seong-nan, “Rina,” by Kang Young-sook and “Years and Years” by Hwang Jungeun — are by female South Korean authors and deal with “the Korean psyche in all its forms,” she said. In particular, they all feature female outcasts as protagonists and explore the theme of intergenerational trauma from the Korean War.
“You can see the similarities and influences,” Hong said, speaking of “Wafers” and “Rina” specifically. “They’re very dark; it’s kind of grotesque and surreal, but they’re also striking and different.”
Some of the authors are celebrities in their respective realms. Sara Mesa, whose book “Bad Handwriting” was featured in the 2022 triptych, is one of the most respected authors in Spain and has had her books translated into many other languages.
Others, though, will be new to even the most well-read monolingual English readers: for example, “Birthday,” a forthcoming short story collection from the Latvian author Jana Egle.
“It’s a spectacular book with a unique vibe to it, (but) who could ever know who this Latvian writer is?” Post said. “This is an author who is very successful and well-respected in her community, but who is not going to show up for us without the intervention of the translator … These people have all this other knowledge. It’s not the same as having a machine put the words in the right order.” openletterbooks.org
Justin Murphy is a contributor to CITY.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
