August brings with it a sense of melancholy, a sense of the year turning, a back-to-school feel in the air. But it also brings the excitement of Women In Translation Month!
I love this initiative! First begun by Meytal Radzinski of Biblibio.com in 2014, it serves to encourage readers to read and celebrate books by women in translation.
According to Meytal's work, "approximately 30% of new translations into English are of books by women writers. Given how few books are translated into English to begin with, this means that women are a minority within a minority." This is definitely something I want to help address.
If you're interested, you can visit Biblibio.com, WomenInTranslation.com, the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, or follow @Read_WIT on twitter, or use the #WITMonth and #womenintranslation hashtags.
Everyone is encouraged to read, review, share, promote and highlight books by women in translation during August, and keep it going throughout the year. As a reader and blogger, I am aiming to review as many translated works as I can this month, as well as share some of the titles that have been catching my eye from all the other reviews I know I'll see! As a librarian, I have a list in our catalogue of some of the books by women in translation in our collections, and am planning a big display for August as well.
What about you? Do you enjoy reading books by women in translation? Do you have a favourite I should check out?
I've just been reading the wonderful Flights - trouble is, it's so good I'm not sure which WIT book to follou it up with! :D
ReplyDeletekaggsysbookishramblings
Good point - when you read something amazing it's hard to follow it up. I'd suggest Disoriental by Negar Djavadi if you haven't read it yet - it was fantastic.
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