It's already Women in Translation month again! I love this time of year -- it's a great time to read and share some of the wonderful books written by women and translated into English so I can read them. Or into another language if that's what you read!
This effort was spearheaded by Meytal Radzinzki of Biblibio in 2014 when she noted that the rate of translation for women authors was only 30% of translations. And in some publishing houses, it was as low as none at all. So she started this movement to put a focus on that, and get people reading and talking and requesting more women in translation!
So this month exists for us to highlight and share and focus on those fantastic reads we've found, and to build our to-read lists to enormous heights to last us the rest of the year as well. Reading Women in Translation does not stop at the end of August.
I've participated over the last few years, and have read some excellent fiction -- I think all of my reads have been fiction. I've read books from all over the world, from right next door in Quebec all the way to Malaysia or Finland! You can take a look through my reading last year here. I don't think I'll be able to review something every single day this year, but I'm aiming to share as many of my current reads and want-to-reads as possible.
This week I'll be sharing my working list of things I'm planning on reading this month, and things I've read and reviewed since last August. What about you? Do you like reading translated works? Do you have any favourites to share?
Interesting topic. When I look back at what I've read at the end of every year, I always wish I had read more translated works. But I hadn't realized that women writers were translated that much less than men writers. That kind of surprises me, but now you have me curious enough to start looking for translated works by women for my TBR list. The last book I finished, Fredrik Backman's "Us Against You," was translated from the Swedish. But that's only second translation I've read all year long.
ReplyDeleteI've been noticing myself that I don't read as many translated works as I think I have! This project really has made me more aware of what I'm reading, which is a good thing. I've found some fabulous writers by intentionally looking for more translations. I hope you'll find some good ones this year as well.
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