Feline Charpentier reflects on her recent internship with the New Books in German project
What is your professional background?
Up until 2022 my work revolved around the outdoors. I taught self-sufficient cookery (preserving, baking, butchery etc.), outdoor skills like woodland management, gardening, blacksmithing and foraging at a private school with its own farm, having grown up home educated and off grid in north Wales. I had trained as a timber framer and then ended up running a bakery, always doing practical, outdoorsy things.
Then, in 2022, I contracted meningitis, and developed post viral fatigue. I couldn’t get out of bed, let alone teach a practical subject. I lost my job and we moved to Devon. I still have ME now, and so my career has taken a very new turn. I always loved writing, and this became my lifeline while I was bed- and housebound. I got a few things published, translated some sample children’s books from German, and then started teaching German for A level online, which I still do now, alongside editing my own literary arts journal and teaching creative writing workshops for A level students. I am about to complete an MA in creative writing at Lancaster University, also online and part time.
How did you first hear about New Books in German?
I was born in Germany, moving to north Wales with my mum when I was two. Mum started writing reviews for NBG when it first started, and I was a student (she’s a translator from English to German) and she introduced me. I have been writing reviews for NBG ever since. The email from NBG is always a highlight in my inbox, as I feel like it’s such a privilege to get to read a new German book and to be able to think about its potential place in the English-speaking market.
Editor’s note: Feline also wrote a piece for us looking back over two decades of writing reader reports for the project. You can read that here.
What have you enjoyed most about your internship with New Books in German?
This internship has been so brilliant! Sarah is the best. I am rather late to the game (at 47 I am probably the oldest intern ever!) and so any and every opportunity to see the workings of an organisation like this is such a great thing. I loved seeing the decision-making process during the jury meetings, the many different, universally knowledgeable and enthusiastic people who make up the whole NBG universe, talking all things books. And of course the opportunity to read lots of new and exciting literature!
What have you learned during the internship?
Seeing the hours of work that go into making the selection process as fair and equal as it can be, and the complex networks of people who are part of bringing a book into the world has given me a greater appreciation of the publishing industry overall, and the exciting developments around books in translation. I already feel like I take that same energy and enthusiasm into my own work, teaching German literature to A level students, and thinking about the kind of work I want to publish as part of my journal.
Do you have a favourite from the books the jury selected and why?
I absolutely loved Nelka by Svenja Leiber, the story of a woman forced to work on an agricultural farm in northern Germany during the second world war. Set on an apple farm, the rich scene setting and imagery is so powerful and an unusual take on what is a much-covered time in fiction. I can’t wait to see this in English!
Thanks Feline, for all of your hard work and enthusiasm. We wish you all the best.
