Nicky Harman writes: Literary translation, like writing, is traditionally a one-woman or one-man job. At most, two people might work together to translate a book. Large-scale collaborative translation projects are a thing of the past, the far distant past when the Bible and the Buddhist scriptures were translated. But literary translators are resourceful folk and have begun to get together in mutual support groups. Here, I interview Natascha Bruce and Jack Hargreaves, both of whom are active in such groups and agreed to tell me more about them.
Natascha Bruce translates fiction from Chinese. Her work includes Lonely Face by Yeng Pway Ngon, Bloodline by Patigül, Lake Like a Mirror by Ho Sok Fong and, co-translated with Nicky Harman, A Classic Tragedy by Xu Xiaobin. Forthcoming translations include Mystery Train by Can Xue and Owlish by Dorothy Tse, for which she was awarded a 2021 PEN/Heim grant. She recently moved to Amsterdam.
Jack Hargreaves is a translator from East Yorkshire,
now based in Leeds. His literary work has appeared on Asymptote Journal,
Words Without Borders, LitHub, adda and LA Review of
Books China Channel. Published and forthcoming full-length works include Winter
Pasture by Li Juan and Seeing by Chai Jing, both of them
co-translations with Yan Yan, published by Astra House. Jack translated Shen
Dacheng’s short story ‘Novelist in the Attic’ for Comma Press’ The Book of
Shanghai and was ALTA’s 2021 Emerging Translator Mentee for Literature from
Singapore. He volunteers as a member of the Paper Republic management team and
releases a monthly newsletter about Chinese-language literature in translation.