As part of the Reading the World Conversation Series, this “Translators’ Roundtable” brought together four literary translatorsÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”who work in a variety of languages and genresÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”to discuss their experiences. The conversation explored a number of different topics, from how they got started as translators, to the obstacles of retranslating classic works, to translating film scripts during the writersÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ strike, etc.

In attendance were Michael Emmerich, Edward Gauvin, Marian Schwartz, and Martha Tennent. There’s a lot of brilliant discussion here—one of my favorite points coming from Michael who makes a case to those who lean on the phrase “Lost in Translation” that it is, instead, and “100% gain.”

from on .

This is a pretty loaded post, but this morning the new issue of UR’s was released (which explains the above picture) and includes a long overview on Open Letter, including descriptions of our inaugural list of titles.

The books don’t come out until Fall 2008 (the first will have a September 26th pub date), but here they are:

• Nobody’s Home by Dubravka Ugresic
• The Taker and Other Stories by Rubem Fonseca
• The Pets by Bragi Olafsson
• Vilnius Poker by Ricardas Gavelis
• The Conqueror by Jan Kjaerstad
• The Sailor from Gibraltar by Marguerite Duras

Part of the reason for this article is to promote the upcoming event , which is part of UR’s Humanities Project.

With such a great list of panelist—Lisa Dillman (translator), Daniel Shapiro (Director of Literature at the Americas Society), Jack Kirchhoff (Book Review Editor at the Toronto Globe and Mail), and Jonathan Welch (co-founder and buyer at should be an interesting conversation. And we will be able to record this and post it next week.