Please Root for False Friends!

I don’t mean the kind of friends who do you dirty – I mean the linguistic sort, those sneaky little words that pad back and forth between languages, smuggling surprising shades of meaning, setting you up for bloopers. On purpose. And in particular I mean the little book based on a double handful of these alphabetically adventurous little critters that found their way into the poetry of Uljana Wolf, thence to be translated by me. And now they’re up for the 2012 Best Translated Book Award in Poetry, and maybe it’ll help them win if all of you clap your hands and intone, “I believe in fairies.” Or maybe you should profess your belief in multilingual translational goodness. In any case, the book just got a really sweet write-up on the Three Percent website, which has been featuring little appreciations of each of this year’s finalists (a charming procedure). Check out the list of finalists here. And then come out for the awards ceremony, because maybe it really will turn out to be the case that the book with the most supporters in the room will win. Where is this superlative event taking place? you ask. I love easy questions! It’ll be at McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince Street on Friday, May 4, 6:00 p.m. The ceremony will be co-hosted by Chad Post of Three Percent and Tom Roberge (director of publicity at New Directions Publishing), and the winners will be announced by Publishing Perspectives editor Ed Nawotka.

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