To witness the broad reach of Asymptote, one need look no further than Close Approximations, Asymptote’s first-ever international translation contest targeting fledgling translators and awarding $3,000 in prize money for two categories: poetry and fiction. (That’s $3,000 from your generous donations going directly into the pockets of these literary practitioners, but don’t forget that running a contest also requires heavy promotion—both paid and unpaid—, Asymptote‘s own editorial brainpower—in this case, to screen for the 20 best prose entries—, unseen but substantial administrative work—organizing contest entries and fielding queries from prospective contestants.)
Judged by no less than acclaimed translators Eliot Weinberger (in the poetry category) and Howard Goldblatt (in fiction), this contest received close to 200 submissions. Those who emerged victorious were lauded for their ability to “successfully cross the linguistic boundary,” and render translations that “zip along.” (Here are the complete judges’ citations.) Read on to see where these gifted newcomers find themselves now, a year after winning. If you would like to help us run a second contest (that will include a new nonfiction category!), give us some love—especially now that we’re entering the final stretch of our fundraising campaign, with TEN NERVE-WRACKING DAYS left!
—Lee Yew Leong, Editor-in-Chief
Owen Good (winner, poetry): Winning Close Approximations was a fantastic experience in every way. Asymptote rewards translators early in their careers, and I certainly fell in this category, given that I had only been translating a few years and had not yet been published. It was heartwarming recognition from across the water that I—young translator, young writer—am doing something right. Translation can be such a solitary activity, so these moments are rare and valuable.
My appearance in Asymptote stimulated all sorts of responses both in Hungary and in England. I was alerted to poetry and translation projects in London, while in Budapest, I was given mention across the larger literary journals and portals for this success. Though it has only been a year since the publication of my work in Asymptote, I’ve since been approached quite frequently by writers and poets looking for a translator.
Taije Silverman (co-runner-up with Marina Della Putta Johnston, poetry): Before the contest, we’d been translating these poems in the vacuum space of new work, not sure whether it held up as good poetry or (I think more interestingly) whether it was…allowed in the first place. That’s one of the questions with translation, isn’t it? What you can get away with. Whether a new English creature counts as a poem by an Italian poet who died in 1912. The question invites an uncertainty as exhilarating as it is scary—how far can you go? How far do you need to go to get from one language to another without breaking the bridge?
Eliot Weinberger’s selection—and more than that, his thoughtful praise of our translations—was immeasurably validating. Since Asymptote‘s contest, our translations have found some nice homes in literary journals (e.g. The Nation) furthering the sense not just of validation but of community that Asymptote so particularly provides. I hadn’t known, for example, about the Hungarian poet Krisztina Tóth until the contest chose Owen Good’s translations, and now I’m considering including her work in the course I’ll teach on translation this spring.
Alexander Dickow (runner-up, poetry): Being chosen as a runner-up in Asymptote’s Close Approximations instantly opened up new opportunities for publishing exciting new translations and collaborating with editors at other journals. These fresh opportunities bear witness to Asymptote’s remarkable profile: editors know that Asymptote is the place to look for up-and-coming translations across the globe. A special dimension to Asymptote is that translators have a real place and presence in its pages, rather than disappearing behind the author’s name: the translator is honored as writer. I am honored and excited to be a part of Asymptote’s tireless and heroic endeavors on behalf of world literature, and I look forward to thanking the journal soon in a full-length translation of Sylvie Kandé’s Neverending “Quest For the Other Shore.” (Check my website for further developments.) I could hardly imagine a better home for Sylvie’s first lengthy appearance in English!
Since being chosen as runner-up in the Close Approximations translation contest, I have published a new translation chapbook of work by French contemporary poet Henri Droguet, Clatters. I translated these poems in collaboration with the author, which was a rich and rewarding experience, and provided a critical afterword included in the chapbook. A few bonus poems can be found here. I had the pleasure of reading some of Clatters at this year’s ALTA conference in Milwaukee. Pusteblume Journal of Translation also accepted my translations of Guillaume Apollinaire’s “Pont Mirabeau” and “The Song of the Unrequited Lover.” I am currently (slowly) preparing translations of work by Gustave Roud, Max Jacob, Sylvie Kandé, and Alain Damasio. A scholarly book, Le Poète innombrable : Blaise Cendrars, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, is due out in 2015 from Editions Hermann (Paris).
Cory Tamler (co-winner with Željko Maksimović, fiction): The Close Approximations focus on underrepresented languages was one of those rules that—while unofficial—proved freeing instead of limiting. It pushed me to think about stories and languages to which my access felt limited, and encouraged me to ultimately reach out to Željko and give collaborative translation a try.
Collaborative translation was appealing to the theater artist in me (and as it turns out, it opened up a language pair for the both of us that neither of us would be equipped to try on our own). It also has proved to be the start of an ongoing effort at collaboration between us and the author of the story we translated.
Rhonda Buchanan (runner-up, fiction): What a thrill it was to see a sample of my translation from Poetics of Wonder: Passage to Mogador by the Mexican writer Alberto Ruy Sánchez, published in the January 2014 edition of Asymptote—complete with the beautiful Arabic calligraphy created by Caterina Camastra for the English translation of Nueve veces el asombro and an excerpt of the author reading a passage from the novel in the original Spanish.
I believe this recognition helped Dennis Maloney, editor of White Pine Press, secure a PROTRAD grant from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA). With funds from FONCA’s Program of Support for Translation, Poetics of Wonder was published in July 2014 in the “Companions for the Journey” series of White Pine Press. In September 2014, Alberto Ruy Sánchez and I were invited to Washington, D.C. by the Mexican Cultural Institute to present a bilingual reading of the novel, and we’ve been invited back to D.C. by the Mexican Embassy for an encore book presentation this March.
Shortly before Christmas 2014, Texas Tech University Press published my translation of the Argentine writer Perla Suez’s novel La pasajera in their Americas Series, titled Dreaming of the Delta. I hope that being selected as a winner of the Close Approximations Competition will help me secure grants and publishers for future translation projects. I am truly grateful to Howard Goldblatt, Lee Yew Leong, and the Asymptote editors for this honor that truly has been the gift that keeps on giving!
Krista Brune (runner-up, fiction) did not get back to us in time for this blog post. However, we’re happy to share the thrilling news that her translation of Nuno Ramos’s O was nominated by us for a Pushcart Prize last year.
As of this moment, we’ve raised $9,808 from 136 donors. If the idea of supporting emerging translators working in underrepresented languages appeals to you, donate to our Indiegogo campaign today! Thank you!