Blog Archives

The Polyglot Lovers

Posted on 14 August 2019 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

Is this a Marmite book? Or maybe a sour-plum book, given the colour of the cover. My mum spent a large chunk of her childhood in Hong Kong, so she loves them, but they’re too strong for me. My mum…

Tagged with: And Other Stories, Lina Wolff, Saskia Vogel, Sweden, Swedish, The Polyglot Lovers, Translation, writing
Posted in books, gender, international, translation

Come into the story

Posted on 11 March 2019 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

I’m on the way home from Gdańsk, from the choral festival which my choir achieved silver in the equal-voice category yesterday – we are thrilled. For the competition we had to sing two songs in our own language and two…

Tagged with: Finland, Finnish, international, music, Pentti Linkola, Poetry, Sirkka Turkka, Translation, Tule kanssani satuun
Posted in international, music, poetry, translation

New Year: The Sea Migrations

Posted on 1 January 2019 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — 1 Comment

New year. Will old rage fuel new hope? Why publish this poem again now? Thirst was translated by Clare Pollard in 2017, but Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf wrote it earlier. After more than two decades in the UK, she has…

The Ten Thousand Things

Posted on 18 July 2018 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

The bookseller grinned broadly and actually looked me in the eye. Apparently it’s not often that people looking for books in English go straight for the Dutch literature. But how Dutch is this book anyway? It’s caught between two worlds:…

Tagged with: American Book Center Amsterdam, books, Dutch, Hans Koning, Indonesia, Maria Dermoût, Spice Islands, Translation
Posted in books, history, international, translation

Women in Translation Month: Recitation

Posted on 23 August 2017 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

When you’ve lived away from home for a long time, home can be anywhere. If you move around a lot, the places of transit themselves, airports and train stations, can feel the most homelike of all. People may easily mistake…

Standing on Earth

Posted on 28 June 2017 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — 3 Comments

Is a pomegranate a grenade-apple, a cluster of garnets, or a something else? Moshen Emadi has some ideas: Emadi’s Standing on Earth, translated from the Persian by Lyn Coffin, is a Phoneme Media production. I love this publisher for its windows on worlds…

Tagged with: books, Iran, Lyn Coffin, Mohsen Emadi, Persian, Phoneme Media, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, international, poetry, translation

A new year’s resolution: translate more poetry

Posted on 4 January 2017 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

After three days of the new year, how are your resolutions shaping up? There’s still time to make a new one, and join the Poetry Translation Centre in translating some amazing poetry from around the world. You can join the PTC…

the carol that travelled

Posted on 21 December 2016 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — 15 Comments

This is one of the most beloved carols in the Nordic countries, but the tune is from Central Europe and it has travelled across the Atlantic in English translations. So why haven’t you heard of it yet? Maybe it’s because…

Where do you really come from?

Posted on 9 November 2016 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

November 9 is a good date to mark German Literature Month; the day the monarchy ended, the day Hitler’s putsch failed, the night of the pogroms he instigated, the day the Berlin Wall came down… It wasn’t as easy as…

stories from Abulafia Street

Posted on 5 October 2016 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

The Short Story Project brings you a new story every week from around the globe, online, for free. The stories are in Hebrew, English and the language of origin, and best of all, you can listen or read, so the app…