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Hello Jamie, thank you for your detailed reply. As both publisher and translator I am wearing two hats, obviously not always at the same time. I entirely agree with you as regards the translator-led ideas that you discuss. Commitment to a poet's work is defintely a prerequisite for a translator. Regarding grants: The Dutch Foundation for Literature also offers many grants for translators. I am very grateful to you for drawing my attention to two collections I had not known of. I have not read much of Jan Wagner's poetry but I think it is a collection we should definitely try to review in /Poetry Salzburg Revie//w/. Wolfgang Am 05.10.2015 um 14:16 schrieb Jamie McKendrick: > Hi Wolfgang, > Regarding poetry translation, I think your model is publisher-led > where mine is translator-led, if you see what I mean. If translators > are going to devote sometimes years of their lives to translating a > poet, there needs to be a commitment to the work, and that's unlikely > to have anything to do with prizes - except that news of a prize might > possibly have alerted them to the poetry in the first instance. > From the publishers' point-of-view in most cases there's a > reluctance everywhere to deal with poetry in translation, regardless > of any prizes, because of the inevitable losses. These can be off-set > by grants - the Arts Councils of Scotland, Wales and, I think, the > Republic of Ireland offer supportive grants, and England doesn't. So > in Italy, for example, you will find a great many more Welsh and > Scottish poets published than English. You could say this was a > question of quality, but I rather think it's a question of money. Of > course this will impact on translators who will know that with an > English poet they have very little chance of seeing their work > published. Some bravely continue regardless. > Seamus Heaney, a Nobel prize winner, is in a special and rather > unique category, but it seems shortsighted to make the rights > prohibitive, when what really matters is the quality of the > translator. What's obvious is that merely having a translation which > is no good is worse than useless and it's far better not to be > translated at all. Whereas a good translation can make a world of > difference. At least it should. But I've see no press coverage at all > of two excellent translations of late: Tomasz Rozycki 's Colonies by > Mira Rosenthal and Jan Wagner's 'Self-Portrait with a Swarm of Bees' > by the gifted Iain Galbraith. No, there was a dismissal of the Wagner > book in Stride, written in this glue-y, soporific prose: > "My feeling now is that this is not a book to which I would remember > to return, while I can see it might appeal to writers who are working > in a similar way". Such are the rewards of translation. > > Jamie > > > > On 5 Oct 2015, at 12:17, Wolfgang Görtschacher > <[log in to unmask] > <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: > >> *The Forward Prize for Best Collection (£10,000)* >> Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, /The Boys of Bluehill >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/dream-shine/>/(The >> Gallery Press) >> Paul Muldoon, /One Thousand Things Worth Knowing >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/pelt/>/ (Faber & Faber) >> Claudia Rankine, /Citizen: An American Lyric >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/in-line-at-the-drugstore/>/ >> (Penguin Books) >> Peter Riley, /Due North >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/from-viii/>/ (Shearsman) >> * >> The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection (£5,000)* >> Mona Arshi, /Small Hands >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/what-every-girl-should-know-before-marriage/>/ >> (Liverpool University Press, Pavilion Poetry) >> Sarah Howe, /Loop of Jade >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/there-were-barnacles/>/ >> (Chatto & Windus) >> Andrew McMillan, /physical >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/urination/>/ (Cape Poetry) >> Matthew Siegel, /Blood Work >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/fox-goes-to-the-fox-hospital/>/ >> (CB editions) >> Karen McCarthy Woolf, /An Aviary of Small Birds >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/the-registrars-office/>/ >> (Carcanet) >> >> *The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (£1,000)* >> Maura Dooley ‘Cleaning Jim Dine’s Heart’ >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/cleaning-jim-dines-heart/> >> (/The //Poetry Review/) >> Andrew Elliott ‘Doppelgänger’ >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/doppelganger/> >> (/Sonofabook/) >> Ann Gray ‘My Blue Hen’ >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/my-blue-hen/> (/The Moth/) >> Claire Harman ‘The Mighty Hudson’ >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/the-mighty-hudson/> >> (/Times Literary Supplement/) >> Kim Moore ‘In That Year’ >> <http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/poetry/in-that-year/> (/Poetry >> News/) >> >> This is the shortlist of this year's Forward Prizes. I agree a wide >> range of poetries is represented in the shortlists, and fortunately >> some of the poets are being represented who we have had the pleasure >> of publishing or reviewing in/Poetry Salzburg Review/. But if I may >> draw your attention to the publishers and magazines, they are either >> Irish or British - according to the stereotype requirement "first >> published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland". We at Poetry >> Salzburg are not eligible for submissions, although many of the poets >> that we publish are "born in Great Britain or Ireland, of British or >> Irish nationality, or long-term residents in Great Britain or >> Ireland" (this is MY adaptation of the requirement for Irish prizes >> which I think would be fair and in compliance with EU terms). >> >> I think those people who decide on which translation rights will be >> bought do definitely know the British prizes and it may persuade them >> in the first place to consider whose work they would want to >> translate. On the other hand, Seamus Heaney's last collection /Human >> Chain/ has not been published in German translation because, as >> Michael Krüger, until 2013 director of Hanser Press, told me, the >> amount of money Faber want for the translation rights. Hanser is >> Heaney's German publisher. >> >> >> Am 04.10.2015 um 14:23 schrieb Jamie McKendrick: >>> A footnote on one of the British poetry prizes: this year's short list for the Forward Best Collection comprised three Irish poets Eilean Ni Chuilleanain (sorry, no accents), Ciaran Carson, Paul Muldoon, Peter Riley of this manor, and, the winner, Jamaican born, US poet Claudia Rankine (originally published in the US by Graywolf). Last year's winner of the same prize was the Jamaican poet Kei Miller. I don't think a couple of years' prizes makes everything fair and open in the poetry world but it's an encouraging sign that value isn't just being sought in the most conventional and parochial zones. >>> Jamie >>