One of the wonderful things about the International Booker Prize @thebookerprizes.com is that it recognizes author and translator equally. When evaluating the books on the longlist, try to pay attention to the translation itself. Does it read well in English? Is the language

striking? You don't need to know the original language to tell if a translation is good or not. For me, the least interesting thing about a novel is the plot. It's the language that interests me. Remember, all those words in English were chosen by the translator. They didn't

write themselves. Try to give equal credit to the translator in your discussions of the books.

my local park is full of hundreds of snow sculptures and someone has been adding museum labels

If you’re verifying your identity with LinkedIn, you should be aware of the alarming number of companies your personal data – PII, biometric data, and other sensitive data – is being shared with many other companies and how they’re using your face to train their AI thelocalstack.eu/posts/linked...

are you sure you need to send that email? Chancleta thinks you have done enough.

Wow.

From Hamdan Ballal, co-director of last year’s Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land.” This is happening now.

Do you remember when people were saying "I think my phone is listening to me, i'm getting ads for stuff I spoke about" and people said "They arent listening to you, they're just this good at predicting your interests"? Well, it happens they were doing exactly that. www.cbsnews.com/news/google-...

Delighted to see that @joannapocock.bsky.social's GREYHOUND is the book of the week in THE WEEK.

‘Michel de Montaigne had it right: companionship’s only value is itself. Seek out company because of its usefulness to you, and it is not companionship you will be getting. When asked what makes a true friendship, Montaigne said: “because it was he; because it was me”.’

Hero.

And last but not least, Anna Claire Weber, Marketing and Communications Manager, picked THE LACK OF LIGHT by Nino Haratischwili (tr. @cctranslates.bsky.social & @dances-with-voles.bsky.social ) @harpercollins.bsky.social bookshop.org/a/169/978006...

The Lack of Light by Nino Haratischwili, translated by @cctranslates.bsky.social and @dances-with-voles.bsky.social is a captivating tale of friendship, loss, & redemption set against Georgia's turbulent history. Join Nene, Ira, Dina, & Keto as they navigate love, betrayal, and life's complexities!

I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.

Next we have the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for translations into English of full-length German works of literary merit and general interest.

Really delighted to find myself on the @societyofauthors.bsky.social Schlegel-Tieck Prize shortlist for both DARKENBLOOM and THE GRANDDAUGHTER! And to see my friends and colleagues @racheltranslates.bsky.social and @roesch6-alex.bsky.social there with me. 🤗 societyofauthors.org/prizes/trans...

If you’re anything like us and Radio 4 is the background soundtrack to your existence, listen in at 3.45 today. I wrote a short story for Short Works about a wild boar release, rural ideologies and searching for balance in an environment that is intrinsically off-kilter www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Yep. And to think that so many people think this man is some sort of hero is such a sign of our twisted times.

It's just occurred to me that, in my pre-German days, I thought the piano piece was called 'Fur Elise'. I don't think I *ever* wondered why. Even more bizarrely, I pictured fir trees. I think this belongs with 'what nonsense have you unthinkingly chirped when singing along to pop songs'.

It is a beautiful formulation

Nino!! 😲 Ich bewundere dich.

It has been such a great honour to be one of Krasznahorkai's interpreters into English (since 2008), along with George Szirtes and John Batki. I also have to mention the visionary New Directions and my beyond stellar editor Declan Spring 🧡 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/b...

I took this picture of Olga and László in London in 2018. Congrats to Krasznahorkai and his translators, including George Szirtes and @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social, and long live a Central Europe free of dictators (foreign and domestic) and full of magnificent minds like these!

Annual reminder that without literary translators, most Nobel Prize-winning authors couldn’t be read by the committee/readers, so celebrate them too. Congrats @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social et al! This isn’t taking away from the author, it’s adding recognition of the miracle/labour/skill of translation.

Shout out to all of Krasznahorkai's #translators who have made it possible for readers all over the world to access his work and his worlds. Congratulations especially to @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social and George Szirtes, for their translations (from Hungarian) into English.

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

Next Thurs, I'll be talking to co-translators @cctranslates.bsky.social and @dances-with-voles.bsky.social as part of the @societyofauthors.bsky.social #SoAatHome events. We'll be talking translation & celebrating the release of their co-translation of Nino Haratischwili's "The Lack of Light".

Happy International Translation Day! Here’s part of my translation manifesto, which can be found in full at the end of Fair: The Life-Art of Translation. (Written out in replies)

How AI is undermining learning and teaching in universities: Prof Leo McCann and Prof Simon Sweeney say student misuse of generative artificial intelligence is widespread and we must be sceptical of its usefulness www.theguardian.com/technology/2... via @theguardian.com

National epics aren't written so often these days, but Georgian author Nino Haratischwili has made them her stock-in-trade. This weekend's WSJ Fiction Chronicle leads with her big, operatic, immersive latest, 'The Lack of Light,' a story of friendship in a broken country. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Nino Haratischwili and Morgan Leigh Davies discuss her new novel “The Lack of Light,” nostalgia for hard times, and post-Soviet corruption. buff.ly/ATHw5ba

I just read my tenth #COVID19 research study in the past month or so that demonstrates COVID infections cause brain changes that may accelerate Alzheimer's disease, are associated with cognitive decline, and cause fatigue, memory impairment, and sleep disorders. (1/?)

“Wide-eyed, we stared at our friend as she stood between two worlds.” Read from Nino Haratischwili’s novel The Lack of Light, translated by @cctranslates.bsky.social and @dances-with-voles.bsky.social.

🎉 We are delighted to announce the longlists for the 2025 National Translation Awards (NTA) in Poetry and Prose! 2025 marks the 27th year for the NTA, and the 11th year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose. View the lists here: buff.ly/PJoX7du

„Europa, wach auf!“ heißt das neue Buch der deutschsprachigen Autorin Nino Haratischwili. Darin enthalten ihre Reden und Essays über Freiheit, Werte und Demokratie. Durch Putins Imperialismus, seinen Krieg gegen die Ukraine und auch seinen steigenden Einfluss in Georgien 8/22

My op-ed in the @chicagomaroon.bsky.social on the University of Chicago’s appalling plans to gut the humanities and possibly eliminate the South Asian studies department chicagomaroon.com/48353/viewpo...

“Can you draw? Does that make you an artist? Can you sing? Does that make you a singer? Can you write? Does that make you a novelist? Speaking two languages does not make you a translator.” 👏👏

“I am worried that a reliance on ChatGPT will erode people’s ability to use their brains. I do believe that the creative imagination in particular is a muscle, and one that is rewarding to exercise.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Zdena Salivarová, deceased at age 91, is underappreciated in the general public. But literary circles are well aware of her accomplishments. Her novel Honzlová [Summer in Prague, tr. Marie Winn] is one of the best works of 20th-century Czech literature. english.radio.cz/without-her-...

This year’s Sebald Lecture on literary translation will be given by Elif Shafak 📣 Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist with 21 published books, 13 of which are novels translated into 58 languages. Presented in association with @britishlibrary.bsky.social events.bl.uk/events/the-w...

Time for a reality check: Britain cannot be a big global player unless we speak more languages www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... via @theguardian.com @sophiasgaler.bsky.social

UGH. "The quality of translations across the board...stands to decline, with AI output...often being homogeneous, blind to local details, or flat-out wrong. Nuances about places and cultures, recognizable to a knowledgeable human interpreter risk disappearing, sanded down by blunt-force automation."

For shame. I wouldn't be weeping over a particularly knotty Georgian paragraph at this very moment were it not for UChicago. What a ridiculous thing. I mean.

More A-levels taken in PE than in French, German and classical languages combined! on.ft.com/3Hw6eq3

Fed up with the exhausting process of finding the perfect publisher for your translation? At @wwborders.bsky.social, check out this tongue-in-cheek essay by translator from French Laura Vergnaud about the dos and don’ts of searching for a publisher: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

Translators - the excellent journal Exchanges run out of the stellar mfa program in translation at Iowa is now on Bluesky @literaryexchanges.bsky.social. They’re also open for submissions for what sounds like a cool themed issue on in/fidelity in translations. Give it a look!