On Translation

Or when you realize that writing sometimes is not just writing... 

By Mina Witteman

Translation

Last week, I wrote about writing in another language than your native tongue. The challenges of doing so can be daunting, but, for me, the joys of playing with new words, of exploring new grammar and spelling rules, of finding a new voice make an exciting novel world. 

Translation is a whole different tale. Since few acquiring editors in the US, where I settled more than eight years ago, read Dutch, I started helping my Dutch publisher by translating excerpts of my middle grade novels into English for them to offer at international book fairs. The relative ease with which I wrote in English completely disappeared when I tried to translate my own work. It seemed impossible to nail my protagonist's Dutch voice in English. I quickly realized translation was a whole different form of art. How is that, you ask yourself? I have just the right person for us to shed some light on this. 

Let's Hop Over to Amsterdam

And hear what a professional translator has to say! Laura Watkinson translates from Dutch, German and Italian into English. Her translations have won many, many awards and honors. Laura was born in Britain and has lived and worked in the Netherlands for over twenty years. Laura was the founder of SCBWI The Netherlands (now SCBWI Benelux). Hi Laura, good to have you here! 

LW: Hi, Mina! Good to be here.

 

MW: My first question: How did you become a translator? And what is it that pulls you to the art of translation and to languages in general?

LW: I’ve always been fascinated by languages, ever since I discovered as a little girl that there were other languages out there, not just English. My mom had a dictionary with a list of foreign expressions in the back, and I remember trying to pronounce them when I was about seven years old. I focused on languages at school and university, so translation was a natural step for me. It helps that I also love reading books and experiencing different countries. Translation is the perfect portable career.

 

MW: Perhaps a silly question, but how important is reading across borders? 

LW: What better way to find out about how other people and cultures tick? Reading about others’ lives helps us to develop empathy and understanding. Reading stories that originated in other cultures reminds us that there’s more going on in the world than what’s happening in our own little corner. Translation also gives us more stories and different voices. Reading across borders is of vital importance today, just as it has always been. What I’m saying here might sound like clichéd, but that’s because it’s so true.

 

MW: A study of the Index Translationum, the Unesco-managed database of translations from a diverse array of literary, academic and popular genres, shows us that over the period 1979-2007 more than half of the translations had English as source language. Next were French, German and Russian with, respectively, 10%, 9% and 5%, followed by Italian, Spanish and Swedish, each with 1 to 3%. All other source languages, including world languages like Chinese, Arabic, Japanese and Portuguese, represented less than 1% of the international world of translations. It shows that translations from the English are dominant. It also shows that it’s probably hard to get books translated from the more peripheral source languages. Can you shed light on how books get chosen for translation? Is there anything a writer can do to advance their chances?

LW: My experience of the process of choosing books for translation has largely involved publishers and book fairs. The most important book fair for children’s book is held in Bologna, Italy, every year. Publishers from all over the world attend, with the aim of buying and selling rights. A publisher who’s selling rights for a book that’s not in English will typically take along some publicity material and an excerpt of the book translated into English, as English is the closest thing to a common language for most publishers. That package will be presented to potential buyers from all kinds of different countries during meetings at the fair, and with luck the book will make its way from there into various other language territories.

It can help if you’re writing in a language that has funding available for translation costs. As an author, it’s worth checking that your publisher is aware of any such grants and subsidies, so that they can use that information as part of their sales pitch.

            The books that have had a lot of buzz in their home countries are often the ones that are most likely to sell to foreign publishers. The publishers keep a record of positive reviews and pull positive quotes for translation, so that potential buyers can see that the book has already had a good reception at home.

            Writers and translators sometimes attend book fairs too, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll get a meeting with publishers. For me, it’s more about the atmosphere and the chance conversations (and gelato) that you have with fellow publishing professionals.

The Art of Translation

MW: Let's explore some of the nitty-gritty of the art of translation and, specifically, the matter of my initial inability to nail the voice of my protagonist Boreas in English. What are your thoughts about finding the voices of the characters whose words, thoughts, and actions you translate? And how does the voice of the author relate to the voice of the translator?

LW: I think if the voice of the original character is strong, that will come through in the translation. When you’re reading, you enter into that world for a while and develop a feeling for the characters. It’s that feeling that you’re aiming to convey, so that the character has the same kind of impact in the translation as in the original. Sometimes that might mean shifting away from a closer translation, in order to create the same kind of impact.

 

MW: What is your process when you translate? Do you have a certain work order? Books and/or dictionaries that you can’t do without?

LW: My first draft is a ‘quick and dirty’ one, so that I know what’s in store for me. The second draft is where most of the work is done. If I spot certain challenges in the first draft, I already start turning them over and over inside my head and looking for solutions, which often arrive when I’m in the shower or when I can’t sleep in the middle of the night. After the second draft, the text is fairly tidy, but then I go through the book again and again, tweaking and polishing and sorting out the details. Sometimes publishers want an early peek at the first few pages of a translation, and that’s something that I find tricky to do, as my translations aren’t usually finished until the deadline, and there might be a few patches early on in the book that still need work even at a fairly late stage.

 

MW: As you know, I translated my novel from my native Dutch into English. As I described above, that was not the easiest task I set myself. Do you ever translate into other languages than your native English? If a writer wanted to do this, do you have any advice? 

LW: I’m full of admiration for people who can translate in both directions, but that’s not me. I only ever translate into English. It would feel like a different task to me if I had to translate in the other direction – and it wouldn’t be a fun one! I’m very envious of children who grow up in bilingual – and trilingual – families. What a blessing to have a sense of ease and proficiency with more than one language! 

I wouldn’t give advice to writers on this subject, though. I think it’s something you have to decide for yourself. Literary translators are writers, but it’s fair to say that not all writers can be – or want to be – translators.

I Want to Become a Translator. Where Do I Go?

MW: My final question is for all SCBWI-members out there who aspire to be a translator. Where and how can they best start? What is, in your view, absolutely necessary to become a good translator?

LW: I’d say that it’s important to explore the business first and to find a place for yourself there. Contact publishers and other professionals. Publishers may be looking for people to translate excerpts and publicity material. Some publishers have trusted readers who write reports on foreign-language books, and that can be a way to make contacts at publishing houses. Get in touch with funding organizations for your language combination and find out if they have any opportunities for emerging translators. Explore the world of literary magazines. Always make sure that you’re getting paid a fair rate for your work. Never translate an entire book unsolicited, in the hope that you might be lucky and find a publisher. That’s really unlikely. Organizations like the UK Society of Authors and the SCBWI can help with advice. Read books of the kind that you want to translate, in your source and your target languages, so that you keep up to date with what’s being published and the sort of language that you might want to use. Talk to other translators. They’re a good source of advice and opportunities, and you might be able to steer them in the right direction, too. Find kids’ books that you love – and you’ll always have fun!

MW: Thank you, Laura! That was a wonderful and very insightful conversation. I am tremendously looking forward to reading many more of your translations. All photos in this post are covers of some books Laura translated. Go check out them out! You want to know more about Laura and her life as a translator in Amsterdam? Follow her on Instagram. 

Some Very Cool Things a Book Trailer Can Do

With my third picture book coming out, it's been really interesting to see the things all three book trailers do:

They're each 60 seconds or less.

They all intrigue folks about the story.

Every one hints at the art.

They have music that speaks to the emotional tone of the book.

Fascinatingly, each one does some things the others don't.

My first picture book was illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, who created the amazing trailer for our picture book RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE (Levine Querido.)

This one made a thematic promise, visually hitting story beats of difference (one house lit up blue and white for Chanukah and all the rest red and green for Christmas), of challenge (the sound of breaking glass), and the hope of a community coming together (hundreds of houses lit up red and green AND blue and white.)

My second picture book, just out, was illustrated by Jieting Chen, who creating this gorgeous trailer for our picture book LOVE OF THE HALF-EATEN PEACH (Reycraft.)

This trailer vets the book with blurbs from trade reviews and a well-known and best-selling picture book author, building interest by up-front pitching the story's value from respected third parties.

My third picture book comes out April 2025, and the trailer just released! Illustrated by Kelly Mangan, the trailer for LIKE THAT ELEANOR (Cardinal Rule Press) takes this curiosity-building approach:

What's fascinating here is that this one is all about setting up the characters and the problem, and it teases readers to want to read the book to find out the solution. It becomes all about "what happens?"

I admit that these are a decidedly not random assortment of book trailers, but I hope you also found it fascinating. Three different picture books. Three different approaches to book trailers.

There's so much book trailers can do!

What are some of your favorite book trailers for picture books, and what do they do?

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

On Exophony

Or What Possesses a Writer to Write In a New Language?

By Mina Witteman

The Start of a Writing Career

My writing career started, in a way, before I could even write. Or read. My father was an architect, and he would often work on his designs at the kitchen table. I would join him at the table (on the table!) with my very own notebook. While he made his drawings and puzzled over windows and doors, rooms and walls, roofs and chimneys, and everything else an architect puzzles over, I would dream up stories of the people who were going to live in the home he was designing. I dream up what the inside of that home had to look like, what color the walls were, where the table and chairs had to go, what they needed in the kitchen, in the bedrooms, in the bathroom, and, most importantly, who these people were that were going to spend their lives in this new building. I would not only dream it all up, but I would also scribble it down in my notebook, the specs. It was my first foray in writing in a "new" language.

I never stopped writing. In high school, I'd grow bored quickly, but my school had the perfect antidote against (my!) boredom. If you were sent out of class, you had to report to the vice-principal and he would assign writing a two-page essay as punishment. When, after a few weeks of daily reporting to him, the vice-principal realized that what he thought was a corrective punishment, only delighted me to no end. He changed course and ordered me to write the essays in French, rather than Dutch, my native tongue. It didn't matter. I still loved it more than sitting in class and pretending to be engaged. Weeks later, he changed course again and ordered me to write the essays in German, then weeks after that I had to write them in English. That was my second foray in writing in a new language. I went on to have career at mostly English-speaking businesses. I studied the English language and obtained my proficiency in English at Cambridge University. 

So when, my career as a middle grade writer in The Netherlands, took off, I quickly realized that to break into US Publishing--ever the dreamer!--chances of having my work translated into English were very slim, because, you know, who speaks Dutch in the US publishing world? If I wanted this dream to come true, I had to write in English.

Writing In Not Your Native Tongue? 

Would that be too tall an order? I knew famous examples of exophonic writers. Kader Abdollah (pseudonym of Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani) was born in Iran in 1954, where he graduated in 1977 from the University of Tehran with a degree in physics. Along the way, he had become politically active and in 1985 he had to flee the country. In 1988, Mr. Abdollah settled in The Netherlands as a political refugee. He taught himself the Dutch language by reading children's books and poetry, and he started writing stories in Dutch. His 1993 debut, De adelaars (Eagles), was awarded one of the most prestigious Dutch literary prizes. 

Vladimir Nabokov grew up in Russia and learned French and English from his governesses. He relocated to Europe but with the rise of Hitler, he and his wife realized they had to move further away and in 1940, the family emigrated to the US. Before that move, he had already finished his first English-language novel, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Nabokov does use many Russian and French words in his English prose. he uses many literary devices to make it easier for monolingual readers to understand his stories, often preparing the reader for a foreign word with typography, verbal warnings, semantic explanations, or even translations. Except for the use foreign words in his English novels, Nabokov never wrote in Russian again. 

And then, of course, there was Samuel Beckett, who one day halfway into a story decided that from that moment on he would write in French only. Beckett considered his more limited knowledge of the French language an advantage. It forced him to go straight to the core of a story. It kept him from fluffing up his prose. Beckett too never wrote in his native tongue again. 

Learning the Ropes

Though I know that these writers are decidedly out of my league, it did tell me that it could be done. I immersed myself in the English-speaking world, moving to San Francisco and later to Berkeley, and started writing in English. It's not always easy. I sometimes miss the ease of wordplay that I so like in Dutch. I often compare it to an illustrator who decides to work with a different medium. I have to work harder to find the right words, like an illustrator has to work to find the right strokes. I do not yet have that fingerspitzengefühl for the language that I have in my native Dutch. To build my vocabulary, the thesaurus is my best friend. I read English dictionaries and encyclopedias for pleasure. If I don't know a word, I look it up in an English dictionary rather than an English-Dutch one. And I read and read and read and read: fiction, non-fiction, newspapers, magazines. Everything in English that I can get my hands on. I love the challenge. I love studying texts, dissect sentences, pore over grammar and syntax. I love seeing the progress I make. I love every time I realize that, slowly but surely, I am mastering the language, that I play with words again, that I am finally finding that fingerspitzengefühl. 

And You?

SCBWI is an international organization. We, its members, come from all corners of the world. We love writing in our native languages, but quite a few of us from outside the English-speaking world, dream of being published in the US too. No one can stop that dream but you. If you want to write in English, or in any other language that is not your native one, go for it. Kader Abdolah, Vladimir Nabokov and Samuel Beckett could do it. So can you! 

 

Mina Witteman is a Dutch published author, who writes in English and Dutch. She lives in Berkeley, California. In The Netherlands, she has seven middle grade novels out, a Little Golden Book, and some forty short stories in children's magazines and read-aloud anthologies. Her novel Boreas en de zeven zeeën (Boreas and the Seven Seas) was a focus title of the 2019 Dutch National Children's Book Week. An educational edition aimed at reluctant readers of the same book came out in 2022. 

Registration Is Now Open for the SCBWI Winter Virtual Conference: Feb 21-22, 2025!

If you can't attend the in-person SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City Jan 31 - Feb 2, 2025 (info here), here's a great option*:

The SCBWI Winter 2025 Virtual Conference!

It may be virtual (meaning online) but it's packed with real goodness, including:

The Golden Kite Awards Ceremony and Afterparty

A panel on How to Make Your Manuscript or Portfolio Stand Out

Another panel on the Outlook for Children's Publishing for 2025

First Pages Panel

Creative Labs  (Picture Book Physicality; Unlocking Your Authentic Creative Voice; Illustrator Lab: Picture and Words - A Perfect Match) -- you can watch one live and watch the recordings of the others later!

Inspirational Talk from Illustrator Vanessa Brantley Newton

Another Inspirational Talke from Author Torrey Maldonado

Peer Critiques

Networking

and much more!

Check out the full schedule and register to join here.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

*The in-person and virtual conferences feature different keynotes, panels, and creative labs, so you could even consider doing both!

On Book Festivals

At the Bay Area Book Festival

My name is Mina Witteman and I am a children's author from The Netherlands, living in Berkeley, California. In The Netherlands, I have seven middle grade novels out, a Little Golden Book, and some forty short stories in magazines and anthologies. I'm honored to join the SCBWI blog for this month and to share some of my little corner of the children's book world. In this week's blog post I look forward to lifting a corner of the veil that covers book festivals for you. 

Because we are book people and we love everything books, from writing and illustrating to browsing bookstores to find old and new books, to celebrate visiting authors and illustrators, admire covers, feel the paper, and lose ourselves in words and pictures on the page. One of my absolute favorite pastimes is roaming book festivals, from small and delightfully intimate local gatherings where you can meet and greet, to elaborate multi-day festivals with thought-provoking panels and exciting interviews, with hundreds of our compadre authors and illustrators. Nothing beats the buzz of being surrounded by book people cheering each other on. And authors and illustrators love it when you are there to listen to their stories and to join in to celebrate their newest books.

For the longest time, I was just a visitor of these festivals. I’d listen to authors and illustrators, always getting inspired by their stories, and I would wait excitedly in sometimes sheer endless lines to get my personal copy of their newest book autographed. But ever since I debuted back in The Netherlands in 2015, I wondered: How do you get into these festivals? How do you get on stage? The answer to that question came when I joined the Bay Area Book Festival as their Youth Programmer. 

Founded in 2013 by Cherilyn Parsons, who learned the ropes at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the Bay Area Book Festival features both adult andchildren’s authors and illustrators. It was one of the most joyful and fulfilling jobs I’ve had. I mean, spending your days reading all these wonderful book offerings by all my peers from here and there and everywhere! Fabulous, just fabulous!

I quickly learned the ropes from all my colleagues at the festival and am delighted to share some pointers on how you can become a featured author or illustrator:

1. Read the festival’s nomination guidelines to check if your genre and your target age group is featured. Does your book fit the festival? The Bay Area Book Festival, for instance, looks for work that offers broad audience appeal, shows a connection to conversations larger than ourselves, contributes to their objective of representing numerous themes and topics, connects with other speakers’ works as they consider the makeup of particular panels, and work that dares to push boundaries.
2. Your book has been published within 12 months of the festival’s opening date and, usually, it needs to be available for a festival’s bookseller partners to order via their customary distribution channels or directly via the publisher. Most festivals open for proposals six to nine months before the festival’s opening date. 
3. If the festival is not local, check if with your publisher if they have a travel budget (or count your own beans!). 

Author/Illustrator Mylo Freeman

And most of all: never despair! The Bay Area Book Festival says it most encouragingly: “Your work has merit and we are honored to be considered. Please remember that if your work is not selected, it may not have been selected for any number of reasons and we encourage you to submit nominations again next year.”

A first step toward being considered for a festival is to investigate the festivals around you. During my time as Youth Programmer for the Bay Area Book Festival, I connected with programmers of book festivals all over the world. We love putting the limelight on authors and illustrators, and are always delighted to hear from you, authors and illustrators. I have gathered some of the most esteemed festivals from across the world for you to check out:

USA

• Montclair Literary Festival – Montclair, NJ
• Bay Area Book Festival – Berkeley, CA
• LitQuake and KidQuake – San Francisco, CA
• Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Los Angeles, CA

ASIA

• Hong Kong International Literary Festival – Hong Kong, China
• Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival – Nami Island, South Korea

EUROPE

• Flic Festival – Tantagora, Catalunya, Spain
• Norsk Litteraturfestival – Lillehammer, Norway
• Festivaletteratura – Mantova, Italy
• Children’s Book Island – Vilnius, Lithuania

SOUTH AMERICA

• Filbita – Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

That was all for this week! Stay tuned for next week's post about exophonic writers (like myself). Meanwhile, if you like to know more about me, find me on minawitteman.com or follow me on Instagram. 

The Authors Guild Puts Out a Statement on AI Training That You Can Sign

Our friends at the Authors Guild have kept the statement short and sweet:

“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted.”

More than 30,000 authors and creators have signed on so far (for transparency, I've signed it too.)

As I see it, saying "no, this isn't cool" is better than just letting it happen. If you're moved to sign it as well, you can do so here.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee