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How I Became an American
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From: jomalley at caruspub.com <jomalley>
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 10:57:56 -0600
Ginny asked that some of us at Cricket Books comment on the whole process that goes into publishing a book in translation, such as How I Became an Americanby Karin Gundisch, especially the tricky and delicate matter of maintaining literary style and voice in another language and with many stages of work--the initial reshaping for an American audience, if necessary; translation that preserves both the story and the author's style; editing that is true to the heart of the book and the voices of the characters; and copyediting that retains that distinctive voice while standardizing usage to house style. So, though I was mostly cheerleader on this project, the good work of several others here shows in the final book, and some of them have some comments that I will forward to the list. Marc Aronson, the publisher of Cricket Books, first became interested in the book in its German edition and was the main editor; Jim Skofield, the translator, suggested ways of making the novel a better fit for American readers and translated it skillfully and sensitively; Joelle DuJardin, assistant editor, and Carol Saller, editor, guided the book through the editorial process, resolving problems of inconsistency or tone, and Heather Delabre copyedited the text, treadign that slippery line between accuracy and inner truth. For me, the orchestration of this process, more involved than with publishing other novels, demonstrated the compexity and the great rewards of successfully bridging the gaps of language and culture through a literary work.
Judy O'Malley Editor, Cricket Books
Received on Tue 26 Mar 2002 10:57:56 AM CST
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 10:57:56 -0600
Ginny asked that some of us at Cricket Books comment on the whole process that goes into publishing a book in translation, such as How I Became an Americanby Karin Gundisch, especially the tricky and delicate matter of maintaining literary style and voice in another language and with many stages of work--the initial reshaping for an American audience, if necessary; translation that preserves both the story and the author's style; editing that is true to the heart of the book and the voices of the characters; and copyediting that retains that distinctive voice while standardizing usage to house style. So, though I was mostly cheerleader on this project, the good work of several others here shows in the final book, and some of them have some comments that I will forward to the list. Marc Aronson, the publisher of Cricket Books, first became interested in the book in its German edition and was the main editor; Jim Skofield, the translator, suggested ways of making the novel a better fit for American readers and translated it skillfully and sensitively; Joelle DuJardin, assistant editor, and Carol Saller, editor, guided the book through the editorial process, resolving problems of inconsistency or tone, and Heather Delabre copyedited the text, treadign that slippery line between accuracy and inner truth. For me, the orchestration of this process, more involved than with publishing other novels, demonstrated the compexity and the great rewards of successfully bridging the gaps of language and culture through a literary work.
Judy O'Malley Editor, Cricket Books
Received on Tue 26 Mar 2002 10:57:56 AM CST
