Translationista being “busy.” ©Richard Gehr
Happy new year, everyone! 2020 marks the tenth anniversary of Translationista, which I started back in November 2010. Since then, I’ve written 830 posts. For a while I was regularly writing report-backs on lectures, conferences, and the like, as well as how-to guides, political reports from the field, and more personal essays. Over the last few years I’ve gotten busier and have kept up with the blog less; these days I often have trouble finding time even to write up and promptly post the most important announcements, such as submission and application deadlines and the winners of prizes (not to mention all the longlists and shortlists).
Back in 2010, Translationista was filling an important need in the translation community, as there was no other website regularly collecting and publishing national and international translation news. Now the ALTA blog (from the American Literary Translators Association) has been much expanded and is an excellent source of more news than I was ever able to publish here. You’ll also find news and helpful features on the PEN Translation Committee page of PEN America. And for New York-based translation aficionados, there will soon be a monthly events feature appearing on the website of the Columbia University School of the Arts to take the place of Translation on Tap; more on that soon! This doesn’t mean I’ll be deactivating Translationista, just that the blog will no longer aspire to be as much of a regular news source as it was in the past. Keep an eye out for more – and more occasional – content of other sorts, maybe even reviews of translated books (including by other hands).
Meanwhile, thank you to everyone who’s been reading Translationista all these years, sending in their news, queries, and comments, and generally helping to create a sense of community around literary translation. Translationland has become a much richer and more vibrant place in the course of the decade I’ve documented here, and it’s been a joy to be part of it.