Is this the big moment for Indian writing in translation?
2 years, 10 months ago

Is this the big moment for Indian writing in translation?

Live Mint  

On 26 May, the International Booker Prize will be announced—and it could well go to Geetanjali Shree’s Hindi novel Ret-Samadhi, translated into English by Daisy Rockwell as Tomb of Sand. Among the more prominent efforts are Kannada writer Vivek Shanbhag’s 2013 novella, Ghachar Ghochar, translated into English by Srinath Perur in 2015, and One Part Woman, the 2010 Tamil novel by Perumal Murugan, translated into English by Aniruddhan Vasudevan in 2013; as well as consistent efforts by the independent publishing house Aleph Book Company to bring short stories from various Indian languages into English, starting with their Greatest Stories Ever Told series in 2016. The infection point “In India, there was a big wave of publishing translations around the mid-2000s, till a little after the end of that decade,” says Sinha, who works between English and Bengali. A regular at the Frankfurt Book Fair as well as the Delhi Book Fair, he says “Indian languages need to work through two stages to reach out to the world”. “While translation of Indian literature into English and between languages have long established transition in India, resources for translators are fairly scant,” notes the India Literature And Publishing Sector Study—December 2020-May 2021, conducted by Padmini Ray Murray, Rashmi Dhanwani and Kavya Iyer Ramalingam of Art X Company for the British Council.

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History of this topic

The art of translating editorials
1 week, 1 day ago

The art of translating editorials

The Hindu  

In July 2022, when Amit Baruah, a senior journalist from The Hindu, rang me, I was driving and could not take his call. he told me that the newspaper wanted its editorials translated into the Hindi language and that he had been tasked with finding a good translator. Initially, I would send the translated editorial to Mr. Baruah and he …

Aditi Maheshwari Goyal – “Publishing is in flux after the pandemic”
6 months, 1 week ago

Aditi Maheshwari Goyal – “Publishing is in flux after the pandemic”

Hindustan Times  

Vani Prakashan has entered its sweet sixties. The Vani Prakashan group’s massive backlist, which includes Bharatiya Jnanpith and Yatra Books, required a great deal of care and attention to detail. Whether it is Karl Marx’s Das Kapital or Russian epics like Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, readers have responded enthusiastically to literary translations. It took decades of hard work from the …

I have high regard for writers and readers of Malayalam: Vivek Shanbhag
1 year, 2 months ago

I have high regard for writers and readers of Malayalam: Vivek Shanbhag

The Hindu  

When Vivek Shanbhag read Vaikom Muhammad Basheer for the first time, in English, he was so impressed that he wanted to learn Malayalam. Vasudevan Nair, Zacharia, and K. Satchidanandan.” Shanbhag, a speaker at the ongoing Kerala Literature Festival, has high regard for the Malayali readers, too. “At other festivals, people go there for a variety of reasons, but here people …

Bhasha literatures cross borders
1 year, 3 months ago

Bhasha literatures cross borders

The Hindu  

When academician and literary historian Professor N.S. “I ended up deleting most of the titles because they largely spoke to Kannada audience,” says Gundur, one of the three recipients of the first edition of the New India Foundation Translation Fellowship, which seeks to bring knowledge texts from various Indian languages to English. “It is a fascinating study of medieval Kannada …

International Translation Day | The power of community for India’s young translators with mentors, peer resources, grants and scholarships
1 year, 6 months ago

International Translation Day | The power of community for India’s young translators with mentors, peer resources, grants and scholarships

The Hindu  

The 2022 International Booker win for Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell, is widely considered a watershed moment for Indian translation. Author and translator Arunava Sinha, who both teaches and mentors young translators, says, “They are coming out of everywhere, and with an enthusiasm for books in their mother tongue. “Places like Disney+ Hotstar …

Disunited we stand
1 year, 7 months ago

Disunited we stand

India Today  

Ten years ago, many Indians and foreigners were busily laying down principles for Indian writing in English, or hatching theories about it. Would you even include Jhumpa Lahiri in the category of Indian writing, given that she has spent so little time in India and sets nearly all her stories on the East Coast of America? In desperation, category-makers and …

Interview: Sukrita Paul Kumar, guest editor, Indian Literature
1 year, 8 months ago

Interview: Sukrita Paul Kumar, guest editor, Indian Literature

Hindustan Times  

Sukrita Paul Kumar recently took over as guest editor of Sahitya Akademi’s literary journal, Indian Literature, a 200-page print magazine, which appears every two months. It is perhaps India’s oldest literary journal carrying translations from 23 Indian languages into English. Having been a keen researcher and teacher of Indian literature in different languages as well as of comparative literature, I …

INDIA, THIS SIDE | Learnt in translation
2 years, 1 month ago

INDIA, THIS SIDE | Learnt in translation

The Hindu  

Published : Feb 09, 2023 10:25 IST I grew up in a small town named Bhor in Pune district. When I grew up reading Marathi translations of books from many countries, Hindi was not an easily understood language in Maharashtra. The Language Committee’s recommendation that Hindi be made the language of inter-State official communication in the name of national unity …

English publishing in India is finally discovering the world of Hindi literature
2 years, 1 month ago

English publishing in India is finally discovering the world of Hindi literature

Live Mint  

When Vineet Gill was in his mid-20s and just starting out as a writer a decade ago, he decided to speak in English, one hundred per cent of the time. We usually judge English prose on qualities like beauty or complexity or elegance but when I know it’s implicit translation, I tone it down.” Solanki’s latest work is a “hard-boiled” …

The Booker Prize may have boosted the profile of Indian translations but it is hard to make a living doing it, says author and translator Jerry Pinto
2 years, 3 months ago

The Booker Prize may have boosted the profile of Indian translations but it is hard to make a living doing it, says author and translator Jerry Pinto

The Hindu  

Jerry Pinto gave mathematics tuitions at 16, and bought books from that money to savour and devour. Prolific in poetry, prose and translation, he has ended the year on a high with his coming-of-age novel, The Education of Yuri; a book on the founders of Mumbai’s Chemould gallery, called Citizen Gallery; and two anthologies, one of which he co-edited with …

Non-fiction is king in India. What do writers readers and publishers, from Manu S. Pillai to Chiki Sarkar, have to say
2 years, 8 months ago

Non-fiction is king in India. What do writers readers and publishers, from Manu S. Pillai to Chiki Sarkar, have to say

The Hindu  

When Manu S. Pillai was in school, every year he would visit his ancestral village in Kerala, where his grandparents lived. So, you’ll see many commercial fiction writers working more for TV, starting their own publishing houses, becoming brand ambassadors on social media, and so on,” he says. It doesn’t create a reading culture.” Competition from OTT In a small …

Will the International Booker Prize win for ‘Tomb of Sand’ change much for Indian language writers?
2 years, 9 months ago

Will the International Booker Prize win for ‘Tomb of Sand’ change much for Indian language writers?

The Hindu  

Published : Jun 12, 2022 18:00 IST Many of our magnificent Mughal tombs have one thing in common—they stand in the centre of a large square garden divided into four neat quarters, the Char Bagh. Now that the stardust seems to be settling around the award of the International Booker Prize to Tomb of Sand, the English translation by Daisy …

The social milieu [in ‘Tomb of Sand’] is not alien to me: Daisy Rockwell, translator of Geetanjali Shree’s Booker-winning novel
2 years, 9 months ago

The social milieu [in ‘Tomb of Sand’] is not alien to me: Daisy Rockwell, translator of Geetanjali Shree’s Booker-winning novel

The Hindu  

At the recent Booker Prize ceremony in London, Daisy Rockwell won many hearts by adding a smattering of Hindi to her winner’s speech. As the U.S.-based translator, writer and painter smiled her way through the honours — giving credit to her 90-year-old father, besides author Geetanjali Shree, her publishers and “match-maker” translator friend Arunava Sinha — she acknowledged her in-laws, …

Continue to write, be honest to yourself: Geetanjali Shree, Booker 2022 winner
2 years, 9 months ago

Continue to write, be honest to yourself: Geetanjali Shree, Booker 2022 winner

The Hindu  

There is an indefinable charm to Geetanjali Shree’s written word. She considers the prize a “special moment” for literature from South Asia and believes that the world is now “more likely to appreciate literature in South Asian languages.” Happy to share credit for the win with her English translator, Daisy Rockwell, Geetanjali didn’t forget to mention her French translator, Annie …

This new book of Indian poetry is a collector’s item
2 years, 10 months ago

This new book of Indian poetry is a collector’s item

Live Mint  

For over two decades, Jeet Thayil has been compiling the definitive anthology of Indian poetry in English. Madhu Kapparath’s black and white images of poets like Vikram Seth, Dom Moraes, Arun Kolatkar and Thayil himself enhance the book’s value as a physical artefact and collector’s item. In a phone interview, Thayil speaks about the anthology’s making, some of the younger …

In India, English translation is undergoing a renaissance
2 years, 10 months ago

In India, English translation is undergoing a renaissance

The Hindu  

A literary campaign, #translatorsonthecover, started on International Translation Day last year. Over the last 20 years or so, seeing a ‘business opportunity’ in the thousands who emerge with higher education degrees equipped with only English, publishers have become pro-active in commissioning and locating translators, seeking advice from regional language bodies and assembling lists for the home market.” Translated literature is …

New India Foundation to award translation fellowships in 2022
3 years, 7 months ago

New India Foundation to award translation fellowships in 2022

Live Mint  

Over the last decade, translations from Indian languages have become the mainstay of English-language fiction publishing in the country, making their presence felt among major literary prizes and travelling to other parts of the world through foreign publishers. Bengaluru-based cultural organization New India Foundation is aiming to redress the situation with a brand-new translations fellowship, to be awarded to three …

The problem with Indian publishing: State apathy, sales-driven editorial strategy, lack of accurate data
5 years ago

The problem with Indian publishing: State apathy, sales-driven editorial strategy, lack of accurate data

Firstpost  

In the mid-70s, Padma Shri recipient Urvashi Butalia, founder of the independent feminist publishing house Zubaan Books and author of The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India started out in the publishing industry with textbooks, working as a paster-upper at Oxford University Press. “They’re trying to change the course of the textbook,” says Naresh Khanna, editor …

Manoj Das in conversation with Raja Purushothaman
6 years ago

Manoj Das in conversation with Raja Purushothaman

The Hindu  

Manoj Das, one of India’s foremost bi-lingual authors, writes in his mother tongue, Odia, and in English. Excerpts from an interview: The latest issue of ‘The Journal of Commonwealth of Literature’ presents you as “one of India’s foremost and distinguished writers.” How popular are your works in the West? Between the 70s and 90s, a number of university publications in …

The session, ‘Tellers of Tales’, discussed how Indian writers in English are evolving a new language in their works
6 years, 2 months ago

The session, ‘Tellers of Tales’, discussed how Indian writers in English are evolving a new language in their works

The Hindu  

Three novelists got together to converse with The Hindu ’s ideas editor, Mini Kapoor, about the story-teller’s craft, in a session titled ‘Tellers of Tales’ held on the second day of The Hindu Lit for Life. An acclaimed poet, she initially began by trying to tell the story in poetry: “But it needed more directness than what is afforded by …

Hindi-English publishing collaborations to climb a notch higher focusing on National language
6 years, 2 months ago

Hindi-English publishing collaborations to climb a notch higher focusing on National language

India TV News  

Literature, reading, and publishing scenario in India is changing while focusing more on our National language. Bahuvachan endeavours to further consolidate our ethos of bringing fine publishing within reach," Trisha De Niyogi of Niyogi Books, which has carved a niche in fine publishing, told IANS. And here we are, with our Hindi illustrated titles at an affordable price," she said, …

Regional literature finds new readers across India, thanks to excellent translations, a dedicated litfest
6 years, 5 months ago

Regional literature finds new readers across India, thanks to excellent translations, a dedicated litfest

Firstpost  

Readers of Indian English are beginning to wake up to the pleasures of regional literature, thanks to translators, publishers and literary foundations joining forces. Big publishing houses such as Penguin, HarperCollins, Random House, Hachette, Oxford University Press, and Rupa have joined forces to serve Indian English readers the many flavours of regional literature. Last year, when Vivek Shanbag’s Kannada novella, …

Different shades of 'agrarian crisis' in contemporary Indian writing
6 years, 11 months ago

Different shades of 'agrarian crisis' in contemporary Indian writing

The Quint  

New Delhi, April 25 What with farmers' suicides and protests, there is currently a lot of talk about an agrarian crisis -- as well as a renewed interest in lives lived in the hinterland. Recent books like "Moong over Microchips" by Venkat Iyer, that charts the transformation of an urban techie into a rural farmer, or "Widows of Vidarbha" by …

Found in Translation: A few noteworthy initiatives are helping Indian literature breach the language barrier
7 years, 5 months ago

Found in Translation: A few noteworthy initiatives are helping Indian literature breach the language barrier

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: This is the first in a four-part series on translation efforts in India; we begin with a look at some contemporary efforts. Take the Murty Classical Library, launched in January 2015 which “aims to make available the great literary works of India from the past two millennia” or the new Indian Novels Collective which felt “young readers needed …

What we think of Indian literature
8 years, 3 months ago

What we think of Indian literature

Live Mint  

One Thousand Days In A Refrigerator, a collection of short stories by Manoj Kumar Panda, translated from the original Odia by Snehaprava Das, exposed to me my inadequacy as a reader. One Thousand Days In A Refrigerator: By Manoj Kumar Panda, translated from Odia by Snehaprava Das, Speaking Tiger, 224 pages, Rs299. In Pronunciation Therapy, a doctor is so obsessed …

Jerry Pinto reviews Translating Bharat Reading India
8 years, 9 months ago

Jerry Pinto reviews Translating Bharat Reading India

The Hindu  

Translation is an enterprise fraught with politics. But already I can imagine the editors and publishers and writers of Translating Bharat Reading India thinking, “Is he ever going to talk about our book?” Here it is. Her manuscript came back with thousands of comments, demands for explanations, demands for English equivalents, all of which the anonymous editor in a brownstone …

In 2015, a Milestone for Indian Literature
10 years, 2 months ago

In 2015, a Milestone for Indian Literature

The Diplomat  

Even within India itself, many are unaware of the scope, diversity, and breadth of India’s traditional and classical literature. Rohan Murty noted the lack of access to India’s classical literature, saying: “I wondered why we weren’t reading our own classics? I was looking for an India narrative, not always a Greek and Latin one.” As a result of Murty’s insight, …

2014: The year of Indian American and pulp fiction writings
10 years, 3 months ago

2014: The year of Indian American and pulp fiction writings

Hindustan Times  

With more than a hundred-year old legacy, Indian writing in English now has established roots. 2014 saw a good deal of popular fiction churned out in India, a sprinkling of scholarly work and a great deal of non-resident Indian writing. If Jhumpa Lahiri’s work last year The Lowland brought the Naxal uprising in West Bengal to focus, then Neel Mukherjee’s …

The region writes back
10 years, 9 months ago

The region writes back

The Hindu  

What’s common to Animal Farm, Of Mice and Men, Heart of Darkness and The Old Man and the Sea apart from the fact that they are all acknowledged classics? This displacement narrative in translation — into film and into English — is truly a case of translation/s providing a rich ‘afterlife’ to the original! Sridhara writes perceptively in his critical …

Filling up a gap
10 years, 9 months ago

Filling up a gap

The Hindu  

For various reasons, Hindi has primarily been a language of literature and journalism and very little has been written in it on social or natural sciences. Against this background, a joint initiative of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and Vani Prakashan has come as a very pleasant surprise as they have started Hindi’s first peer-reviewed journal “Pratiman: Samay …

Translating India
11 years, 4 months ago

Translating India

The Hindu  

IT is well known that India has a translating consciousness and we keep translating every moment of our active lives. He has delineated the motifs behind his work in a dedicatory letter to his translator, W. Dumergue: “First my wife’s oft-expressed desire to read in her own language a novel written after the English fashion, and secondly a desire on …

Short history of Indian writing in English
11 years, 5 months ago

Short history of Indian writing in English

The Hindu  

Indian writing in English has a relatively short but highly charged history. However, most early Indian writing in English was non-fictional work, such as biographies and political essays. This began to change in the late 1800s, when famous Indian authors who wrote mostly in their mother tongue, began to try their hand at writing in English. Soon after, a new …

The shape of things (to come) in Indian publishing
12 years, 2 months ago

The shape of things (to come) in Indian publishing

Firstpost  

Have the domestic players reacted to the changes happening, like the entry of multinationals in Indian publishing? An interview with Urvashi Bhutalia, co-founder of Kali For Women and founder of Zubaan Books, in Forbes India throws light on the prevailing and emerging trends in Indian publishing. On the prospects of Indian publishing, she says, “Growth will not stop in the …

English as a Literary Language in Multilingual India
12 years, 5 months ago

English as a Literary Language in Multilingual India

The Hindu  

A decade ago, in 2002, the Indian Council of Cultural Relations organised a literary festival at Neemrana that witnessed a major debate on the medium of authentic Indian writing. Indian language writing and English writing share themes, concepts, experiences, world views and belief systems as a comparison might reveal between, say, U.R. Indian language writing and English writing often share …

English authors steal show
15 years, 1 month ago

English authors steal show

Hindustan Times  

The 19th New Delhi World Book Fair has a dedicated hall housing hundreds of Hindi publishers. The best selling authors at the stalls of the most prominent Hindi publishers such as Prabhat Prakashan and Rajpal & Sons are not famous Hindi authors but the likes of Chetan Bhagat, Sobhaa De, Aravind Adiga, Jaswant Singh and Amartya Sen. We have sold …

A welcome and new maturity
15 years, 3 months ago

A welcome and new maturity

Live Mint  

A great deal more needs to be done before this literature, which for the most part speaks from, and for, metropolitan India, can be said to be truly representative in the social sense and truly independent in the linguistic, aesthetic and philosophical sense. Again, from the publishing side, a literature appears mature when it is not just one or two …

Publishers acquire a Hindi accent
16 years, 5 months ago

Publishers acquire a Hindi accent

Live Mint  

New Delhi: About one-third of Indian book readers read in Hindi and not English. So far, small, local and scattered publishers have been the ones publishing Hindi books. 23c49882-9088-11dd-837a-000b5dabf613.flvRecently, Harper Collins India launched March, Ma, aur Sakura, its first original commissioned Hindi literary work by Geetanjali Shree. It is the second mainstream international publisher to get serious about the national …

Towards a paradigm shift
20 years, 2 months ago

Towards a paradigm shift

The Hindu  

Interview with Paul Sharrad. But within the tradition of Indian writing in English, if you compare the writings of people like Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan with that of Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie, I think, there is definitely a greater concern for form in the latter than in the former. Raja Rao's spiritual India that was typical of much …

India and world literature
27 years, 7 months ago

India and world literature

The Hindu  

On the map of world literature, India has been undersized for too long; that age of obscurity is coming to an end. This is it: the prose writing - both fiction and non-fiction - created in this period by Indian writers working in English, is proving to be a stronger and more important body of work than most of what …

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