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Batchelder Awards
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From: Morishima , Janna <JMorishima>
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:20:31 -0500
It is interesting that the participants at your presentation noticed that a large number of translations are from German. I wonder if part of the reason for this is the fact that German publishers are very active in courting U.S. publishers, and the German government partially subsidizes an office in New York, the German Book Office
(www.gbo.org), whose sole purpose is to promote German literature and translations from German. There are numerous other German organizations, both private and non-profit, dedicated to promoting German literature abroad; the GBO and these other organizations often provide partial translations to U.S. publishers free of charge, which is a huge help for editors making decisions on manuscripts they can't read in the original.
Germany is a relatively rich country that can afford to subsidize organizations like the GBO. On the other hand, when I visited some publishers in the Czech Republic a year ago, I found a very different situation. Many Czech publishers cannot afford to print foreign rights catalogs to send to U.S. or other foreign publishers, or even send representatives to the major book fairs -- like the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Bologna Children's Book Fair -- where translation rights are bought and sold. I imagine the same may be true for many Latin American publishers. (And even now, in this digital age, that face-to?ce contact between foreign rights director and editor is still very important in "selling" the strength/beauty/importance of a particular book!)
As for Asian publishers.... I have also wondered why I see so few translations of Asian children's books. Japanese and Korean publishers are very well-represented at the book fairs, but they buy many more rights from U.S. publishers than they sell. Although that is not the case with manga, of course! The U.S. is a major consumer of Asian comics, and that market seems to keep on growing.
The bottom line seems to be that translations are difficult propositions in the U.S.
-- it requires a lot of effort for editors to seek out and evaluate manuscripts
(especially in languages they can't read themselves). But as this discussion shows, translations often bring rich rewards to readers.
-Janna Morishima
................. Scholastic 557 Broadway New York, NY 10012
Message----From: caroll webster [mailto:carollwebster at earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 3:06 PM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: [ccbc-net] Batchelder Awards
In preparation for a presentation at the Reading the World VII Conference in San Francisco, I read many of the Batchelder award winners as well as the honor books including the current winners. The majority of the titles I would never have picked up if I hadn't been preparing for my talk. As I read, I was reminded time and time again of Mildred Batchelder's words.
"Children who come to know the . . . stories of many countries have made a beginning toward national understanding." I am part-way between Kathy Isaacs and Ginny Kruse on Shadows of Ghadames. I was truly reading about a different world, a different culture - but the prose was so "spicy" and sensual (to use Shawn's words), the characters so well-drawn, I was completely drawn in. I was especially taken by the rich and complete society in which the women moved. In the discussion following my presentation, the participants questioned why the majority of translations were from Germany, so few from Asian countries and none from Spanish-speaking countries. I appreciate the discussion on this subject and look forward to more ideas.
Caroll Webster Children's Librarian Redwood City CA
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Received on Tue 22 Mar 2005 03:20:31 PM CST
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:20:31 -0500
It is interesting that the participants at your presentation noticed that a large number of translations are from German. I wonder if part of the reason for this is the fact that German publishers are very active in courting U.S. publishers, and the German government partially subsidizes an office in New York, the German Book Office
(www.gbo.org), whose sole purpose is to promote German literature and translations from German. There are numerous other German organizations, both private and non-profit, dedicated to promoting German literature abroad; the GBO and these other organizations often provide partial translations to U.S. publishers free of charge, which is a huge help for editors making decisions on manuscripts they can't read in the original.
Germany is a relatively rich country that can afford to subsidize organizations like the GBO. On the other hand, when I visited some publishers in the Czech Republic a year ago, I found a very different situation. Many Czech publishers cannot afford to print foreign rights catalogs to send to U.S. or other foreign publishers, or even send representatives to the major book fairs -- like the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Bologna Children's Book Fair -- where translation rights are bought and sold. I imagine the same may be true for many Latin American publishers. (And even now, in this digital age, that face-to?ce contact between foreign rights director and editor is still very important in "selling" the strength/beauty/importance of a particular book!)
As for Asian publishers.... I have also wondered why I see so few translations of Asian children's books. Japanese and Korean publishers are very well-represented at the book fairs, but they buy many more rights from U.S. publishers than they sell. Although that is not the case with manga, of course! The U.S. is a major consumer of Asian comics, and that market seems to keep on growing.
The bottom line seems to be that translations are difficult propositions in the U.S.
-- it requires a lot of effort for editors to seek out and evaluate manuscripts
(especially in languages they can't read themselves). But as this discussion shows, translations often bring rich rewards to readers.
-Janna Morishima
................. Scholastic 557 Broadway New York, NY 10012
Message----From: caroll webster [mailto:carollwebster at earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 3:06 PM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: [ccbc-net] Batchelder Awards
In preparation for a presentation at the Reading the World VII Conference in San Francisco, I read many of the Batchelder award winners as well as the honor books including the current winners. The majority of the titles I would never have picked up if I hadn't been preparing for my talk. As I read, I was reminded time and time again of Mildred Batchelder's words.
"Children who come to know the . . . stories of many countries have made a beginning toward national understanding." I am part-way between Kathy Isaacs and Ginny Kruse on Shadows of Ghadames. I was truly reading about a different world, a different culture - but the prose was so "spicy" and sensual (to use Shawn's words), the characters so well-drawn, I was completely drawn in. I was especially taken by the rich and complete society in which the women moved. In the discussion following my presentation, the participants questioned why the majority of translations were from Germany, so few from Asian countries and none from Spanish-speaking countries. I appreciate the discussion on this subject and look forward to more ideas.
Caroll Webster Children's Librarian Redwood City CA
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To leave the list, send the message...
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Body: signoff ccbc-net
Received on Tue 22 Mar 2005 03:20:31 PM CST
