2014 Recap
2014 was a pretty good year for me, although in some ways it was a year of transition, as I try and put into practice some reflections on my own life following the death of my grandmother last December; this will hopefully lead to my moving away from the more-commercial translations, which pay much better than literary ones (alas!) but which I am not essential for (whereas my translation of a poem, say, is unique to me and different from another translator's), and also (ideally) doing more of my own writing.
WRITING
Books:
Although there is a lot of new stuff in the works (and I even got to see galleys already for some of them!), I published only one new book of my own this year:
The picture book ¿COMO SE DICE? illustrated by Romina Pernigotte, from Amanuense in Guatemala.
Shorter pieces:
A handful of my poems (mostly self-translations from the Spanish) were published in the anthology JOY EXHAUSTIBLE, edited by Bryan Borland and Seth Pennington (also published as issue 10 of ASSARACUS).
My poem "Deleted Names" was reprinted in the anthology OBSESSION: SESTINAS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, edited by Carolyn Beard Whitlow and Marilyn Krysl (Dartmouth University Press).
My villanelle "Aubade" was reprinted in MEIN SCHWULES AUGE 11 edited by Axel Schock (Verlag Claudia Gehrke).
I wrote and published a new short story, "Statistics," which appeared in Spanish in the anthology LO QUE NO SE DICE published by Dos Bigotes in Spain.
My short story "Pity Fuck" was reprinted in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW EROTCA 13 edited by Maxim Jakubowski (along with my translation into English of Anna Lidia Vega Serova's story "Cancer").
I also wrote the prologue for the Spanish edition of PASSION by Brane Mozetic. (I find writing prologues and blurbs and that sort of writing to be so difficult! It's like having teeth pulled, for me, so I do it so very little...)
My own writing in other languages:
My children's book THE BOY AND THE SPY, illustrated by Jaime Martínez, appeared in a bilingual Hungarian-English edition, translated by Anna T. Szabo, published by Csimota.
My children's book ¡VAMOS A VER A PAPÁ!, illustrated by Alba Marina Rivera, was published in Japan by Iwanami Shoten, translated by Kazumi Uno.
Some of my poems appeared in Galician translation by Isaac Xubin in the anthology ENO MAR CABE QUANTI QUER CABI, the result of the poetry translation workshop organized by Yolanda Castaño on San Simón Island, which I took part in (in October 2013) together with Gökçenur Ç, Samira Negrouche, Xuan Bello, Kätlin Kaldmaa, Anna T Szabó, and of course Isaac, who translated all of us.
And 6 poems of mine, translated into Slovenian by Brane Mozetic, appeared in the journal APOKALIPSA 177-178.
TRANSLATION
This was a very busy year for me, translation-wise, although the vast majority of what I translated this year is still in production and will be published next year. But here is what was published in 2014:
Books:
Art/Nonfiction:
CAMOUFLAGES by Joan Fontcuberta (Gustavo Gili)
PUIG: 100 YEARS OF A FAMILY BUSINESS by Eugenia de la Torriente (Assouline)
IN THE SPIRIT OF SEVILLE by Antonio del Junco (Assouline)
Graphic novel:
EURONIGHTMARE by Aleix Salò (Penguin Random House)
Poetry collection:
DISSECTION by Care Santos (A Midsummer Night's Press)
Children's books:
Into English:
MEET THE ARTIST: MATISSE by Patricia Geis (Princeton Architectural Press)
Into Spanish:
LA BALLENA NEGRA by Fatemeh Sarmashghi (Amanuense)
Shorter pieces:
I published three translations at Words Without Borders this year:
Excerpts from two Mexican YA novels:
FOR NINA by Javier Malpica in June
& THE BOOK OF DENIAL by Ricardo Chávez Castañeda in December
and also an essay by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo in September
I also translated an essay by Gisela Kozak for LITERAL Magazine.
A few poems I translated were published this year (I must try to be better in 2015 about submitting some of the many poems I've translated into English to journals or websites!):
"Somewhere" by Jordi Doce for STRUCTO 12
Untitled by Anna Lidia Vega Serova in issue 7 of 1110
"Beauty" by Ángel Erro in CUTBANK
TRAVEL
I visited Estonia for the first time to talk about children's books with Edward van de Vendel and Áslaug Jónsdóttir, and also went back to Germany, Italy, and Mexico for the Frankfurt, Bologna, and Guadalajara Book Fairs, respectively, as well as trips to the US (for AWP in Seattle and the Brooklyn Book Fair) and the UK (for the Free Verse Poetry Book Fair in London).
As I said above: a pretty good year, with lots of exciting things in store for 2015!
WRITING
Books:
Although there is a lot of new stuff in the works (and I even got to see galleys already for some of them!), I published only one new book of my own this year:
The picture book ¿COMO SE DICE? illustrated by Romina Pernigotte, from Amanuense in Guatemala.
Shorter pieces:
A handful of my poems (mostly self-translations from the Spanish) were published in the anthology JOY EXHAUSTIBLE, edited by Bryan Borland and Seth Pennington (also published as issue 10 of ASSARACUS).
My poem "Deleted Names" was reprinted in the anthology OBSESSION: SESTINAS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, edited by Carolyn Beard Whitlow and Marilyn Krysl (Dartmouth University Press).
My villanelle "Aubade" was reprinted in MEIN SCHWULES AUGE 11 edited by Axel Schock (Verlag Claudia Gehrke).
I wrote and published a new short story, "Statistics," which appeared in Spanish in the anthology LO QUE NO SE DICE published by Dos Bigotes in Spain.
My short story "Pity Fuck" was reprinted in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW EROTCA 13 edited by Maxim Jakubowski (along with my translation into English of Anna Lidia Vega Serova's story "Cancer").
I also wrote the prologue for the Spanish edition of PASSION by Brane Mozetic. (I find writing prologues and blurbs and that sort of writing to be so difficult! It's like having teeth pulled, for me, so I do it so very little...)
My own writing in other languages:
My children's book THE BOY AND THE SPY, illustrated by Jaime Martínez, appeared in a bilingual Hungarian-English edition, translated by Anna T. Szabo, published by Csimota.
My children's book ¡VAMOS A VER A PAPÁ!, illustrated by Alba Marina Rivera, was published in Japan by Iwanami Shoten, translated by Kazumi Uno.
Some of my poems appeared in Galician translation by Isaac Xubin in the anthology ENO MAR CABE QUANTI QUER CABI, the result of the poetry translation workshop organized by Yolanda Castaño on San Simón Island, which I took part in (in October 2013) together with Gökçenur Ç, Samira Negrouche, Xuan Bello, Kätlin Kaldmaa, Anna T Szabó, and of course Isaac, who translated all of us.
And 6 poems of mine, translated into Slovenian by Brane Mozetic, appeared in the journal APOKALIPSA 177-178.
TRANSLATION
This was a very busy year for me, translation-wise, although the vast majority of what I translated this year is still in production and will be published next year. But here is what was published in 2014:
Books:
Art/Nonfiction:
CAMOUFLAGES by Joan Fontcuberta (Gustavo Gili)
PUIG: 100 YEARS OF A FAMILY BUSINESS by Eugenia de la Torriente (Assouline)
IN THE SPIRIT OF SEVILLE by Antonio del Junco (Assouline)
Graphic novel:
EURONIGHTMARE by Aleix Salò (Penguin Random House)
Poetry collection:
DISSECTION by Care Santos (A Midsummer Night's Press)
Children's books:
Into English:
MEET THE ARTIST: MATISSE by Patricia Geis (Princeton Architectural Press)
Into Spanish:
LA BALLENA NEGRA by Fatemeh Sarmashghi (Amanuense)
Shorter pieces:
I published three translations at Words Without Borders this year:
Excerpts from two Mexican YA novels:
FOR NINA by Javier Malpica in June
& THE BOOK OF DENIAL by Ricardo Chávez Castañeda in December
and also an essay by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo in September
I also translated an essay by Gisela Kozak for LITERAL Magazine.
A few poems I translated were published this year (I must try to be better in 2015 about submitting some of the many poems I've translated into English to journals or websites!):
"Somewhere" by Jordi Doce for STRUCTO 12
Untitled by Anna Lidia Vega Serova in issue 7 of 1110
"Beauty" by Ángel Erro in CUTBANK
TRAVEL
I visited Estonia for the first time to talk about children's books with Edward van de Vendel and Áslaug Jónsdóttir, and also went back to Germany, Italy, and Mexico for the Frankfurt, Bologna, and Guadalajara Book Fairs, respectively, as well as trips to the US (for AWP in Seattle and the Brooklyn Book Fair) and the UK (for the Free Verse Poetry Book Fair in London).
As I said above: a pretty good year, with lots of exciting things in store for 2015!