Book Club Fest
Love reading? Enjoy talking about books with other people? Interested in other countries? Come and join us for an evening of reading foreign stories in translation from countries including China, Mexico and Sweden. VENUE: Free Word Centre, Wednesday 21 September 2011 6.30 – 8.30pm. How it works: Register online and we’ll email you all the texts as PDFs. Read the stories, then when you arrive at Free Word on the night you’ll receive a printout of them all, plus a free glass of wine. There’s 1 room, lots of book clubs, lots of short stories, and lots of book-lovers. Join a group, take part in the discussion, move around when the bell rings, then all come together at the end and share your thoughts!
Free, but registration essential
Comments
Shame I could not attend this one! I was wondering which London translation agency or freelance translator you worked with in order to have these short stories translated?
James, October 5, 2011, 3:54p.m.
It was a good evening. It wasn't a case of getting new translations. There were four book groups: Spanish, Swedish, Russian and Chinese. They were all existing book groups, who meet regularly in London. This made it a good way to learn about fiction written in a language you don't read. About 4 people from each book club stayed in their seats as hosts. The rest of us moved around, spending about an hour at 3 out of the 4 book clubs (20 mins at each one), and for the last 20 minutes we all came together to hear feedback from the 4 book club hosts. The Chinese translation was by Nicky Harman (it was a short story by Han Dong - Nicky knows his work well and translated his novel Banished); there was a Russian story by Chekov (for which there are several translations, oh! the luxury!) and I think the Spanish and Swedish (author Anna Holmstrom?) were also from published volumes, but I can't remember the titles, authors or translators. Nicky's organising more events at the Free Word Centre this autumn (see FWC website for details and booking). Come along if you can!
Helen, October 8, 2011, 10:17p.m.