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!
- Find
out more about her work on her website: https://www.sfintranslation.com/
- Read
her book, Out of This World: Speculative Fiction in
Translation from the Cold War to the New Millennium. (I wrote one of the chapter intros for this book, talking about Swedish speculative fiction.)
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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