The Linguist

22 The Linguist Vol/60 No/5 2021 thelinguist.uberflip.com FEATURES Anam Zafar speaks to fellow mentees to learn how literary translation mentorships can improve access and inclusion Before the mentorship, I had only translated snippets of literary texts at university and had no idea about how to 'be' a literary translator. What experience did you have? JK I'd been translating business documents, marketing copy and promotional materials but had very little knowledge of careers in literary translation. What I did know came mainly from joining the Emerging Translators Network (ETN). It was the mentorship, though, which really enabled me to 'emerge'. RW I was lucky to have a teacher who was a literary translator and introduced me to that world. I'd made friends with the author whose book I was working on. What I lacked was industry knowledge: I knew nothing of pitching, samples or reader's reports. CR I'd spent a year translating literary texts while studying at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, but coming from a psychology background, I had a lot to learn. Meena and I focused on developing an online presence, honing my translation craft and choosing literary journals I could submit short translations to. What was your focus? JK Polly helped me get a firmer grip on what translating a literary text actually meant, which involved lots of wonderfully nitty-gritty discussions that will act as lodestars for the rest of my translation life. We also discussed how to research the literary landscape and interact with publishers. When I was fortunate enough to be approached by a publisher, she was a lifesaver in guiding me through that process. RW Robert was a brilliant teacher of the nitty-gritty side too. We would go through passages with a fine-toothed comb. The rest of our work (besides conversations about the industry, Russian literature, how translation could work as a career) involved pitching my project to publishers. Having someone with so many years of experience and contacts was invaluable, and got me a foot in many doors. CR I had a book translation project that I wanted to pitch and Anton guided me through the process. He helped me contact the author and original publisher to express my interest and query translation rights. He later edited my sample translation and helped me craft a proposal. On his advice, I also translated a short story by the same author, which I submitted to several online journals. The mentorship made me realise that being a literary translator involves a lot of non- translation work, including writing reports on books, speaking on panels and leading translation workshops. How did it affect your view of what a literary translator does? JK I was working as a translator and thought I knew what a day in the life of a translator looked like: essentially producing a decent translation of a source text and then turning it over to the agency or client. One of the fascinating things about literary translation Opening the book For many professional translators, translating literature and getting it published is nothing more than a dream. Many say it's simply not feasible to pursue something with so little financial reward – and whether you've got stacks of published translations or are still waiting for that first short story to be accepted by an online journal, the unpaid work is hard to avoid. For those still willing to take the plunge, it's difficult to know where to start. The lack of structured guidance on how to begin is a problem that makes literary translation seem like an invite-only club – from the outside at least. That's why the National Centre for Writing's Emerging Translators Mentorship scheme is crucial. Available to emerging translators who work into English, applicants need no prior experience, and those selected are mentored by an established literary translator for six months. The annual scheme also includes an Industry Weekend where mentees and mentors meet with other translators and publishers for group workshops. Despite the pandemic, the 2020/21 programme went ahead online, ending in March. I interviewed three of my fellow mentees about how the programme benefited them. I translate from Arabic, Jesse Kirkwood from Japanese, Reuben Woolley from Russian and Clare Richards from Korean. They were mentored by Polly Barton, Robert Chandler and Anton Hur respectively, and my mentor was Meena Kandasamy.

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