Recent intern Tayiba reflects on her time with New Books in German
What is your professional background?
I only graduated last year, with a degree in English and Modern Languages, so it feels a little early to say. Recently, I’ve worked as a nanny, a bookseller, a freelance translator, a proofreader of bad film treatments, an intern at a literary agency and as temp staff at a few literary festivals. In late September, I started a stint as a temp in the editorial team at the wonderful 4th Estate Books. Outside of work, I recently completed the National Centre for Writing’s Emerging Translators Mentorship, and had my first bits of writing published in places like Prospect and PEN Transmissions. So I’ve been up to a range of things, most of which have something to do with writing.
I came across the website years ago whilst I was still at university and looking to read things outside of the traditional canon. I came back to it when I began my translation mentorship with Jamie Lee Searle. She recommended it as a place to find great recent publications, as well a general store of knowledge for navigating the literary industry as a translator. The blog really is a great resource in and of itself – Emma Rault’s guide to writing a readers report has come in handy in the last year, and I’m very glad I read Catherine Venner’s London Book Fair survival guide before braving it for the first time this spring!
I’ve had some fascinating conversations over the last six months, both at the jury meeting, and in the course of conducting interviews with interesting people in the literary ecosystem. I loved meeting Gabi Stöckli from the Translation House Looren and hearing Tanja Howarth’s stories.
But if I’m going to translate in the future, then I also want to know how to advocate for myself, my work, and the work of others.
As well as gaining a much better sense of what’s happening in German-language literature today, I’ve learnt a lot about how different funding bodies operate, and how books manage to be published in English despite an undeniably challenging financial landscape for translated literature. An NBG recommendation functions as a sort of security blanket, since funding is guaranteed before the publisher acquires the rights, which reduces the amount of financial risk on their side, should they not manage to secure any other grants. So it may ultimately be the difference between a book being translated into English or not.
Literary translation sounds dreamy from an external perspective: just imagine spending your work day making a great story click in another language! But without an understanding of how everything is financed, both on the side of the publisher and the translator, you’re in the dark about how your craft slots into a book’s concrete reality. And you run the risk of being severely underpaid further down the line. (Even excellent established translators who know their way around these issues still face these challenges!)
I know: it’s dull to talk at such length about money. We’d all rather be lying in the sunshine thinking about books and not bank balances. But if I’m going to translate in the future, then I also want to know how to advocate for myself, my work, and the work of others. From that point of view, it all becomes a great deal more interesting.
I really enjoyed Emran Feroz’s Vom Westen Nichts Neues, which grounds a personal story in a concern for equality and justice in an unjust political landscape. I’m also excited to read Mithu Sanyal’s Antichristie.
To answer that question fairly, I’d have to read all the books there ever have been, and I’m still quite some way off from that goal. But I would love to translate children’s literature one day, especially the sort of writing for kids that is funny, spikey and a little bit frightening. It would be a dream to work on something as wacky and intricate as The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear, for example. I would have the time of my life.
Thanks for all your work and enthusiasm, Tayiba! We wish you all the best!
Read interview with other former interns here.
