Magazines That Publish Translations

stonecutter4I often get asked by younger translators where they should try sending their work. It’s a good question. My answer often winds up sounding a bit schoolmarmish, since I believe that translators – like writers of other sorts – should actually read the journals they want to send their work to. If you have no idea where to send your work, it might mean you never read any journals that publish translations. So a good list of magazines that publish translations ideally serves two functions: first (and most importantly) it lets you know what journals you might enjoy reading if you like reading literature from around the world. Second (if you’re a translator) it lets you know where you might try submitting your work if you’ve just translated something great that you think others would enjoy as well. And the new and improved PEN Translation Committee has just updated the list of “Journals Seeking Work in Translation” on the PEN website, and I recommend you check it out. Mind you, this isn’t a complete list of all the magazines that publish translated work, just the ones that are actively seeking submissions. Every good literary magazine worth its salt publishes translations alongside writing in English. But a work in translation that you cold-submit to Harpers or The New Yorker is pretty likely to wind up on the slush pile in pretty short order, whereas the magazines actively looking for great translations to publish are more likely to greet your submission with little cries of delight. And that, after all, is what you’re after. So do have a look at the list of translation-loving journals on the PEN website, and while you’re there, how about subscribing to one or two of them?

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Comments

  1. Wendy Call says:

    This is all such excellent advice! I advise a new literary & art journal (our first issue launched October 1) at Goddard College (in Vermont) that is actively seeking prose and poetry in translation! We published work by Eduardo Milán (Jorn Oliver Simon, translator) and Blanca Varela (Lisa Ortíz, translator) in our inaugural issue and we would love to publish more! We are accepting submissions for our Spring 2015 issue until November 15. Thank you so much!

    • Renee Watkins says:

      I have just translated a brief essay (about 2000 words) by Rainer Maria Rilke on his life-long spiritual experience, addressing it seems, a public that wondered about his Christianity and his “Angels.”. The essay appears as a preface to a German edition of Selected Poems, published in 1938 and ’48. The essay itself seems to belong to the period 1923-’26. It is quite surprisingly simple and down to earth, compared to Rilke’s best known poetry and prose. It may be inspiring to spiritually questing atheists today. Might you be interested in reading it?

      Renee Neu Watkins

      • Dear Renee,

        I am a Renaissance historian in Toronto and am trying to get in touch with you about obtaining permissions to use some of your translations. On the offchance you will see this, I am preparing an edition of Florentine constitutional writings and would like to include two texts from your Humanism and Liberty (which I have been using in all my upper level seminars for years–a great text!!). I wrote to the press to learn that they no longer have the rights, which have reverted back to you. If you would be willing to give us permission to use Savonarola and Rinuccini, we would be most grateful. My contact details are available on the Glendon College, History Department faculty page.
        Best wishes,
        Mark Jurdjevic

  2. i am a French-english translator of english mother tongue and have translated one novel, published as “The Abductor” by Leila Marouane by Quartet Books in London in 2000, also “True Piety” by Jean Calvin published by New Generation Publishing in London in 2013 and would like to contribute a short extract from a recent French novel. would like to hear if you are interested in my proposition.
    thank you
    felicity McNab
    member of the translators association of the society of authors

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