December 5, 2022

BEHIND THE ZINES with Rachel Cordasco, translator of speculative fiction

 


This month's Behind the Zines interview features Rachel Cordasco, translator of speculative fiction. I've followed Rachel on social media for years, and I've read so many fantastic stories translated by her. She is an untiring voice for translated speculative fiction, and her website, SF In Translation, is an amazing resource.

More about Rachel and her work:

Rachel Cordasco has a PhD in literary studies and used to work as a developmental editor. She’s written for Strange Horizons, World Literature Today, the SFRA Review, Foundation, Locus, Tor.com, Skiffy and Fanty, and other publications. In 2016, Rachel started SFinTranslation.com, which tracks all speculative fiction available in English. Her translations of Italian speculative fiction have appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, Samovar Magazine, Future Science Fiction Digest, World Literature Today, and The Silent Garden Volume 1. Rachel’s book, Out of This World: Speculative Fiction in Translation from the Cold War to the New Millennium, is out from the University of Illinois Press. You can follow her on twitter @Rcordas.

Q. First of all: what's your background?

RC: I grew up middle-class in Baltimore, Maryland in the 80s and 90s, the youngest of three. Reading was always my passion, partly because I loved learning about new places and people, and partly because my family didn’t travel very often and books allowed me to journey through space and time. My parents always supported my love of reading and were proud when I earned my degrees in literary studies. Now I live in Wisconsin and try to encourage my kids to read SF in translation, though I haven’t succeeded yet. I’m also still waiting for them to fall in love with Star Trek: The Next Generation!

Q. How did you end up "falling into" speculative fiction? Were there any particular books, movies, or shows, or something else that first attracted you to the genre?

RC: My older brothers were always into Star Trek: TNG and Star Wars, but it was an episode of the former, which included Mark Twain’s character, that made me fall in love with the show and the genre as a whole. I started reading H. G. Wells, Michael Crichton, and Arthur C. Clarke, and the rest is history. After not reading much science fiction for several years, I returned to it with a vengeance and have never looked back.

Q. You are a translator and writer. What languages do you translate between? How did you first get started translating speculative fiction?

RC: I’ve loved learning languages since I started watching Pepe le Pew on tv as a kid. My mom remembers that I declared my undying love of French because of that show. Since then, I’ve studied French, Hebrew, Russian, and Italian (hopefully more in the future!). When I realized that Italian sf was underrepresented in Anglophone publishing, I started finding very short stories that I could try my hand at. Then Italian author and editor Francesco Verso connected with me and introduced me to sf authors Nicoletta Vallorani and Clelia Farris, whom I’ve thoroughly enjoyed translating. I’ve also translated several other authors, including Raul Ciannella, Serena Fiandro, and Emanuela Valentini.

Q. What are your thoughts on the role of translated fiction in the speculative fiction field? There are occasional books and stories that make a splash, but it also seems like fiction that is not originally written in English can get a very raw deal. What are your thoughts on the state of speculative fiction in translation and the problems, and the good things, you see happening in the business right now?

RC: Translated fiction in general is rarely promoted in America, for many potential reasons. Translated speculative fiction is even more niche, so even fewer of those texts are known to American audiences. As I’ve argued in the past, major sf awards (like the Hugos and Nebulas) could do much to give sf in translation (SFT) a higher profile if they included a Best Translation category. I’ve been heartened to see the marked increase in SFT (both short- and long-form) from a wide variety of publishers since 2000, though these books still need to be reviewed by more outlets and promoted by publishers. Perhaps this increase is due to American readers wanting more variety in their fiction and their impatience with the US media’s focus on only domestic issues. I hope my website, sfintranslation.com, helps introduce more readers to the pleasures of SFT and other cultures.

Q. If you have a magic wand to wave, what would you do to make the SFF field a better and more welcoming place for translated fiction? Should there be an awards category for this, or maybe an entirely new award for translated fiction, perhaps?

RC: You read my mind! A few years ago, I wrote a (perhaps overly long) essay on my site arguing for the establishment of a Best Translation category in sf awards. Many big names in the field disagree with me on this, claiming that such a category would ghettoize SFT rather than promote it. I argue, though, that many readers of sf don’t even know that these books and stories exist, and a translation category would encourage readers to go beyond their comfort zone and read SFT translated from Polish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, and many other languages. I suspect that, like the culture in general, American sf doesn’t want to open itself up to the literatures of other countries because it would threaten entrenched interests. Nonetheless, magazines like Locus and Clarkesworld have made a wonderful effort to promote and discuss more SFT, while Future Science Fiction Digest and Samovar regularly bring new SFT to readers looking for fantastic world literature.

Q. Translating fiction always requires creativity. What are some translation conundrums, fun and otherwise!, that you've encountered as a translator, whether it's translating specific terms or words or other translation challenges.

RC:  I love asking other translators this question, because figuring out a particularly tricky translation is like solving a puzzle—it’s so satisfying! One of my favorites from translating Clelia Farris is the word “nonnixedda.” Farris (a native of Sardinia) sometimes sprinkles her stories with Sardinian slang, which is similar to Italian. I encountered this particular word in her story “Gabola,” and was thus sent down a rabbit hole of online dictionaries and discussions of Italian-Sardinian similarities and differences. Eventually, I figured out that the “nonna” in “nonnixedda” was indeed the “nonna” from Italian (“grandmother”) and the “xedda” was the Sardinian diminutive that turned the word into “Granny.” When Clelia was pleasantly surprised that I had figured this out (since I don’t know Sardinian), I was quite proud of myself.

Q. Is there any advice or insight you'd give to your younger self about getting involved in the speculative fiction world? What advice would you give to other people who might be interested in translating speculative fiction?

RC: I wish I had started reading SFT at a younger age and learning more about it, despite being distracted by grad school. In fact, I wish I had done my dissertation on SFT, though that likely wouldn’t have been acceptable in the academy. Indeed, I left academia and never looked back, so I guess it all makes sense! In terms of people wanting to get started translation sf, I would tell them to just find stories they love, do the translations, and send them everywhere until they get acceptances. Only when you’ve got your foot in the door will editors notice you and start wanting more of your work. This does mean that you’ll be doing a lot of work in the beginning on spec, but it might lead you to some bigger opportunities down the road. I know that a lot of translators do what they do mostly for the love of language, but of course getting paid is a necessary part of doing this job. That’s why publishers need to make sure that they’re treating translators fairly when writing up contracts for translated work.

Q. Can you share some of your current favourites in translated SFF, whether it is translations you've done, or something translated by others? What are some writers we should be keeping an eye on that are not writing in English?

RC: Of course, I’m going to mention Clelia Farris first! But so many great non-Anglophone writers are coming into English these days, that it’s hard to narrow down my list. I’ll say here that people need to read more Stanislaw Lem and Jacek Dukaj (Poland), Yuya Sato and Dempow Torishima (Japan), Keren Landsman and Dror Burstein (Israel), Pedro Cabiya (Dominican Republic), Yoss (Cuba), Liu Cixin and Hao Jingfang (China), Elisabeth Vonarburg (Quebec), Marina and Sergey Dyachenko (Ukraine), the Strugatsky brothers (Russia), Francesco Verso (Italy), and so many others!

Q. Where can we find your work? Do you have some recent translations or works you would like to share?

RC: Clelia’s latest story in English is “The Words” in the November 2022 issue of Apex Magazine (exciting!), about time travel and Anne Frank. Her collection Creative Surgery (translated by myself and Jennifer Delare) is out from Rosarium Publishing. Readers can find many of her stories online, as well. My reference book, Out of This World: Speculative Fiction in Translation from the Cold War to the New Millennium, is out from the University of Illinois Press. My site, sfintranslation.com, keeps readers updated about the latest SFT and reviews. I also regularly review SFT for Strange Horizons and World Literature Today.

Huge thanks to Rachel for doing this interview!

 


 About Behind the Zines:

In this interview series, I talk to people working behind the scenes at various speculative fiction publications. My goal is to highlight the work that goes into keeping these publications alive, and to share insights from the people doing that work. Each interview is available exclusively on my Patreon for one week, and is then posted here at Maria's Reading

If you want to support my work, check out my Patreon or Ko-Fi.

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