I'm moderating a panel at Bouchercon 2009
I've just learned that I'll be moderating an exciting panel at Bouchercon 2009 in Indianapolis this October.
"Lost in Translation?: Translators and writers discuss the challenges of translating the crime novel" will feature Steven T. Murray, Tiina Nunnally, Robert Pépin and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir in conversation, with your humble blogkeeper asking the questions and keeping the peace.
This panel will bring together four talented, accomplished individuals, and it will look at translation from every viewpoint: that of translators into English (Nunnally, Murray), that of a translator from English (Pépin), and that of an author who places her creations in a translator's hands, which must feel like giving up a child for adoption or at least like sending her off to summer camp for the first time (Yrsa Sigurðardóttir).
The fun happens Thursday, Oct. 15, 10:30 a.m.-11:25 a.m. I'll see you there.
© Peter Rozovsky 2009
"Lost in Translation?: Translators and writers discuss the challenges of translating the crime novel" will feature Steven T. Murray, Tiina Nunnally, Robert Pépin and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir in conversation, with your humble blogkeeper asking the questions and keeping the peace.
This panel will bring together four talented, accomplished individuals, and it will look at translation from every viewpoint: that of translators into English (Nunnally, Murray), that of a translator from English (Pépin), and that of an author who places her creations in a translator's hands, which must feel like giving up a child for adoption or at least like sending her off to summer camp for the first time (Yrsa Sigurðardóttir).The fun happens Thursday, Oct. 15, 10:30 a.m.-11:25 a.m. I'll see you there.
© Peter Rozovsky 2009
Labels: Bouchercon, Bouchercon 2009, conventions, Robert Pépin, Steven T. Murray, Tiina Nunnally, translation, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 12:01 AM
40 Comments:
Sounds cool. I look forward to it.
Oh, cool. The crowd is beginning to assemble already!
Congrats on your moderation.
Thanks. Better moderation than immoderation, I have always said.
VERY COOL PANEL, I'll be there, do you need any Gin????
;-)
Ali
My practice is to abstain before tea time. Feel free to bring your own Gordon's, though. Just don't feed the panelists until after we're done.
I will indeed see you there, and looking forward to it.
Hope it goes well.
All this, and it begins at a reasonable hour of the morning, too. I'll look forward to meeting you.
sounds like a great panel Peter - hope you enjoy it. I was reading some interviews with authors and translators recently, and they were talking about how the skill of the translator can affect the book so very much.
Also, I recently interviewed Craig Russell (Scottish writer who made his name with the Hamburg-set Jan Fabel series, to such an extent some media thought he was a German with an Anglo pseudonym) - and he was talking about how he works with his translator to ensure humour and things like that make it through too... and how tough that can be.
Interesting stuff - have an awesome time. I'm jealous - hopefully I will make it to a Boucheron one day.
I'd be interested in how Russell and his translator work together. Where can I find that interview? If it's on your site, I missed it.
I've interviewed authors, and I've interviewed translators, but never at the same time. I'll want to get my hands on any interviews that I can to increase my stock of questions.
Bouchercon 2010 will take place in San Francisco, which may be marginally more convenient for you to get to.
Sounds like a good panel, and a topic of more than passing interest. Excellent choice of moderator, as well. Sounds like something worth making time for.
Rats! I probably won't arrive in time. Insert multiple bad words here. Though I suppose my students would forgive me if I canceled two classes instead of one.... hmmm....
Very cool, Peter! Having seen some examples of it on your blog, I trust in your moderating abilities. Though I doubt that any of these people are going to plunge into a debate about German operational helicopters of WWII, so it should be a piece of cake.
I just interviewed Russell for an article in the Weekend Herald (New Zealand's biggest circulation newspaper), that will be coming out (probably) on Sat 5 Sept. After it's out, I'll put a selection of his interesting answers/comments that I couldn't fit in the article, on my blog (which includes his stuff about translations)
I love San Fran as a travel city - one of my faves in the USA. Depending on what's going on, and where I am, that time in 2010, it could be an option... cheapish flights from NZ too...
Dana, the planners of the convention appear to have done a good job assembling this panel from among the registered guests. Translators to English, a translator from English, and an author ought to make for an interesting discussion, with ample time for a nourishing breakfast beforehand.
Barbara, bring your students. I promise not to curse. Or hightail it right from the train station or airport or your car to the convention rooms. You can sleep and eat later.
Seana, I also won't be able to push a "delete comment" button if things get out of hand. But I trust that such a device won't be missed. I've met three of the panelists before, all under pleasant circumstances, and I have had cordial e-mail exchanges with several of the panelists in recent days. My biggest worry will be that I use correct stress and accent when I introduce Yrsa Sigurðardóttir.
Craig, if the newspaper offers the article online (and why wouldn't a newspaper want to commit economic suicide by offering articles free?), be sure to post a link.
I don't remember you having to resort to any delete buttons.
I feel for you, having to introduce Yrsa, as I can't even type her name correctly. But I did enjoy Last Rituals.
I have the consonants down. Yesterday I did a bit of research on Icelandic stress and vowels. I hope all that hard work does not fly out the window when I'm facing a microphone and a roomful of mystery fans. What do I do when I have to type Yrsa's name? I call on my friends copy and paste.
Even the disagreements during the helicopter discussion were generally civilized. I never even had to contemplate deletion.
I learned something interesting when researching accents: the Icelandic formal form for "you are" looks and sounds something like "thou art." Don't ask me to spell it, though.
Unfortunately Peter, that part of the newspaper (a little features-filled magazine in the weekend edition) is one of the only things they don't put online... most of their other content (daily news and features etc) does go online.
But I will post some of his comments re: working with translators on my blog when I refer people to the article.
Kia Kaha from Aotearoa,
Craig
Kia manuia. Let me know you put the excerpts up, and I'll post a link.
Peter, a good rule of thumb in Germanic languages is that the main stress is usually on the first syllable. Unfortunately I don't remember enough from my sole Old Norse class to know if this is true in Icelandic too. See you in Naptown and please don't make the questions too hard for me that early in the morning (sez the night guy). I'll still be on Mountain Time.
Reg, I have since learned that the stress in Icelandic is always on the first syllable. My question is whether ""Sigurðardóttir," as a compound, is treated as one word or two in matters of stress. I shall know more when the time comes.
Though I will have the advantage of being on Eastern time, I yield to no one when it comes to nocturnal habits.
I should add that my acquaintance with the Germanic language family takes in none of the North Germanic languages, so I had no idea about stress and such. It has been interesting, and unsurprising, that the bits I have learned about Icelandic in recent days remind me a bit of earlier stages of English.
Peter, I would put the main stress on the first syllable and the secondary on "dót": [see-goorr-tharr-dot-teerr], soft th as in "the". Remember to roll those Rs (something I can't do, so I learned Danish where they swallow them) and say the double T.
The link to the article on Stieg's niece is up on my blog.
And here's that link to Larsson's niece.
Thanks for the pronunciation tip. I had guessed that that's what the pronunciation would be, that one would simply apply the stress rules separately to each component of the compound word. I shall look forward to being able to call her Yrsa once I have dispensed with the introductions.
Hi Peter,
I will, of course, be attending this panel of yours even though it's in the middle of the night. (Yeah, I think 10:30 is early.)
Fortunately, my body will still be on Paris time when I get to Indy, so that will help.
My panel, the one I"m moderating is very much up your alley.
Yrsa, whom we met in Bristol, is on it. So is the Stanley half of Michael Stanley (i'm having drinks with him here in Paris on Wednesday.
Christoper G. Moore is coming in from Bangkok, and Tamar Myers will be up there as well.
What, might you well ask is Tamar doing on a panel entitled "Murder At The Edge Of The Map" and dedicated to (you guessed, right?) international crime fiction.
Answer: her new one, due out on the first of October takes place in the Belgian Congo, where she lived during her teenage years.
It's nice to learn that international crime fiction will have a multipanel presence in Indianapolis. I met Yrsa in Baltimore -- right after Iceland's banking system crashed, so that was our topic of discussion: how the crash might affect crime writing in Iceland. "Stanley" (and his other half should have been named "Livingstone" was a sharp and entertaining panelist in Baltimore, and I was pleased to see that Christopher Moore was coming all that way. Glad to see he'll be on a panel after such a long trip.
When is your panel? I am as nocturnal as any human, but I regard 10:30 as a relief. I was afraid I'd get an 8 a.m. panel.
Hi Mate,
Had a drink today, here in Paris, with Stan (of the Michael Stanley duo) and we had a chat about your panel.
Both of us will be there.
Mine is on the sixteenth at 16:30.
Excellent. Everyone will have had ample chance to get some sleep, and I will look forward to seeing you both.
I just received two books by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza in the mail, so I may have some fresh questions about Brazil.
I've read two or three of Garcia-Roza's, and liked what I've read.
v word=foatersi, which just sounds sort of neat.
I have a certain sympathy for a pensive detective who has massive piles of books in his apartment. I thought one of Garcia-Roza's novels had something approaching a cheat in it, but I also like very much a striking depiction he has of a building just down the hill from one of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro -- out of the worst of the violence and poverty, in other words -- but that is still struck occasionally by bullets. That's a nice touch, I thought.
You may know that the Leighton who commented above sets his own crime novels in Brazil and will moderate a panel at Bouchercon on crime fiction in far-flung locales. I plan to attend.
Foatersi sounds like a reflexive verb in Italian.
I will check out Leighton's.
I am not sure how I feel about Garcia-Roza's mysteries as mysteries. But I love something he captures about the city. And yes, I can certainly relate to his attempts to get his library into some sort of order!
It's probably relatively easy to write about the slums, about the rich areas, and about the contrast between the two -- too easy, which is why I was impressed by the image that Garcia-Roza came up with.
I'd say that on the whole you don't get a diatribe but more a kind of meandering observation of Rio, which is all to the good.
No diatribe at all, just an occasional vivid detail, which I quite like. I flipped through the latest books when they arrived. One focuses on a small residential neighborhood in some detail and not one of the city's better-known neiighborhoods either, I think. There's some good stuff on the neighborhood's physical changes over time, and I think this may figure in the mystery.
http://kiwicrime.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-interview-with-award-winning-crime.html
There's a bit of Craig Russell's comments to me about translators from our interview here Peter...
Thanks, Craig. Here’s that link in neat, clickable form.
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