Dispatches from the World of Literary Translation

здравствуйте! This month’s Bridge will speak Russian, but for you it will speak English, because The Bridge Series is all about translation, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. And for only the second time in the history of the Bridge, this month’s program will present an author/translator duo in conversation with their American publisher. This Russian Bridge is being organized apropos of this year’s BEA (Book Expo America), which features a special Global Market Forum focus entitled Read Russia. This day (Monday, June 4) of intensive programming centering on the literary life of Russia will feature a large number (40-50) of Russian authors, translators and publishers. And with all this Slavic talent in town, the Bridge was able to snag a special translator/author team to speak at McNally Jackson Books on Thursday, June 7. Marian Schwartz is one of the most respected translators from the Russian working today; she is known for her translations of Nina Berberova, Mikhail Bulgakov, Ivan Goncharov, Mikhail Lermontov and others, and is also a past president of the American Literary Translators Association. And she will be appearing together with Mikhkail Shishkin, author of what she described to me as “possibly the most important modern work I’ve ever translated”: the novel Maidenhair, forthcoming in English from Open Letter Books, which has garnered an impressive list of prizes both in Russia and abroad (e.g. the International Literature Prize given by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin). So this is your chance to see a major Russian author appearing together with his major translator in an intimate setting, and in conversation with their publisher, the charming Chad Post of Open Letter. What more could you ask on a sultry Thursday evening in early June? Surely it will be sultry. McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St., Thursday, June 7, 7:00 p.m.

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