World Lit for Children

Many people have told me that children are essentially conservative readers and that they don’t want to read about people from other countries. That definitely hasn’t been my experience. In fact, I think children are curious and interested in the world beyond their homes and their countries.

Here’s a family reading children’s lit from around the world in 2015. It will be fun to see what they read and to follow their progress.

What world lit would you recommend for young readers?

Crowdfunding Translations

Crowdfunding and sponsoring are major trends these days. They seem to be ways of avoiding big companies, or minimizing stress, or trying out more unusual or avant-garde projects, or to help pay for things that otherwise wouldn’t get paid for. I’ve helped sponsor a book, for example, and I’ve heard of crowdfunding for clothing lines, films, performance art, and even funerals.

I was recently told about sponsoring translations. What do you think of that idea?

Here’s the information I was given about this particular project:

“Haute Culture Books, publisher of limited edition volumes is about to begin its first Book Angel project with the first ever English translation of 'Truth & Justice' by Anton Hansen Tammsaare.

With the support of the Tammsaare Museum, National Library of Estonia, Tartu University Library and Stanford University Library the project allows Book Angels to sponsor the publication of this classic piece of Estonian culture opening it up to the English-speaking world after a 70 year wait.

By sponsoring a hardback print version of the book, Book Angels support the distribution of free e-books of the text allowing a global audience to discover literary treasures seldom seen in the English language.

More information can be found at www.hauteculturebooks.com and www.hauteculturepress.com and if you have any further questions don't hesitate to contact me.”

SELTA Blog

SELTA is the Swedish-English Literary Translators’ Association, of which I’m a member. SELTA has recently updated its website, adding more material, including a blog.