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thelinguist.uberflip.com AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 The Linguist 11 FICTION IN TRANSLATION problem lie at the source – that is, were there simply fewer women than men writing in other languages? The article motivated Lucy Grieves, Translator in Residence at the Free Word Centre that year, to make it her 2014 resolution to translate female (rather than male) authors whenever possible. Her position was that, as the role of the literary translator is also a kind of unpaid literary agent who finds books they love in the languages they work with and waves them under the noses of publishers, reading more women writers might lead to translating more women writers. Dedicated publishers The session at International Translation Day proved to have far-reaching consequences, at least for me. At the time, I was considering setting up what was to become Calisi Press to publish my own translation of Donatella Di Pietrantonio's first book, My Mother is a River. I became persuaded that Calisi should publish only Italian women writers. If I was going to be a niche player, I figured I might just as well focus on women. It was partly a pragmatic decision, but once I looked into the facts and figures I became committed to the idea. Cécile Menon was at the same seminar and went on to launch Les Fugitives, focusing on women writing in French. So it came about that Calisi Press and Les Fugitives were launched last year, at about the same time as Tilted Axis, another press committed to publishing mainly women (founded by Deborah Smith, co-winner of this year's Man Booker International Prize). These announcements coincided with Women In Translation Month, an initiative launched by Meytal Radzinski, a book blogger writing under the name Bibliobio, in a personal campaign to get more people to read women in translation. By fortuitous accident, this was also during the height of 'Ferrante fever' (following the publication in English of Elena Ferrante's series of novels set in Naples). So 'women in translation' became an issue discussed much more widely than it had been before, with articles appearing in The Bookseller and in the national press. Bibliobio's hashtags, #WITmonth and #womenintranslation, ensured the topic received well-deserved attention in social media. Franca Simpson men RECOGNITION Acclaimed US author Toni Morrison (right), one of only 14 female Nobel Prize for Literature laureates in the award's 114-year history There have been more articles in the national press since then, and at the end of this year's London International Book Fair Radzinski called an informal meeting to discuss what could be done to promote the issue further.There was an enthusiastic response, as some 30 translators from both sides of the Atlantic came together with other interested parties, and I was delighted to see more than a sprinkling of men among us. We discussed plans for setting up a literary prize dedicated to translations of women writers, and other initiatives to promote more women writers being translated into English. A Facebook group was set up to facilitate communication between all the people involved, with plans for a website to help promote the group's work. A series of articles, '10 Women Writers who Should be Translated', was launched on the Literary Hub website (lithub.com), including lists for Algerian, Balkan, Chinese, German, Italian and Spanish writers. Of course, the Man Booker International Prize going to Han Kang and Deborah Smith has given literary translation generally, and women in translation more specifically, a huge boost in terms of visibility. The under- representation of women in translation is but a reflection of the status of women writers IMAGES: © SHUTTERSTOCK