This is a bit of a self-indulgent post, but yesterday I received a copy of the Bog Markedet, a Danish book trade magazine, that contains an article I wrote on the surprising success of Scandinavian literature in English translation. Since most of the people I know can’t actually read Danish, I thought I’d reprint the original English version here. Nothing terribly new to people who regularly read Three Percent, although it was fun using the translation database to uncover some trends . . .

Anyway, here’s the English original:

Surprising Success of Scandinavian Lit in English Translation

The American publishing industry’s overwhelming indifference toward international literature has been well documented over the past few years. From the oft-cited statistic that approximately 3% of all books published in the United States are in translation (a statistic reported by Bowker and included in an informal study by the National Endowment for the Arts) to an article in the New York Times entitled “American Readers Yawn at Foreign Fiction,” most of the news related to international fiction has emphasized America’s cultural provincialism. With the notable exceptions of Roberto Bolano (The Savage Detectives), Muriel Barbery (The Elegance of the Hedgehog), and Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind), works of fiction published in English translation don’t get much attention in the mainstream media and almost never make the best-seller lists.

American publishers tend to point the finger at readers to explain this lack of international voices (the basic argument is that readers aren’t interested in reading works from the rest of the world, and the lagging sales prevent publishers from investing the necessary money in getting more works translated), but this is a moot point based on the relative lack of international fiction available in translation. According to the Translation Database I put together for the Three Percent website, in 2008 only 362 original translated works of fiction (280) and poetry (82) were published in the U.S. And in 2009, the numbers are even more dismal: a total of 327 translations came out this year, 272 works of fiction and 55 collections of poetry.

It can be hard to find a bright spot among numbers so miniscule, but there are a few things worth highlighting that provide hope for the future of American book culture—especially in relation to the translation of Scandinavian literature into English.

One thing worth noting is the sheer number of independent and small presses publishing literature in translation. In 2008, over 140 different publishers brought out at least one work of literature in translation. And of all the translations published last year, more than 80% were from independent houses.

The translation of Scandinavian literature is another bright spot: In 2008, 27 works were translated from Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and Icelandic and published in America. In 2009, that number rose by 33% to 36 titles. The most notable increases were in translations of Norwegian literature (up from 6 titles to 11) and Swedish (12 in 2008, 18 in 2009). In fact, in 2009, Swedish is the fourth most translated language into English, ranking behind only Spanish, French, and German.

There’s no single explanation for this significant increase (which is particularly remarkable considering the overall decrease in the number of works being translated into English this year), and not even the continued interested in Scandinavian crime fiction can account for this increase. It’s true that Ake Edwardson, Johan Theorin, Hakan Nesser, Roslund & Hellstrom, Steig Larsson, Karin Fossum, Jo Nesbo, and Gunnar Staalesen all have books coming out in English this year, but there are also four works of Swedish poetry and two books by Norwegian author Jan Kjaerstad.

Nor are these books all coming out from a small group of publishers. Granted, Norvik Press is doing a great job making Scandinavian works available to English readers, but the other titles are spread out over a range of small and large presses.

Whatever the reason, it’s encouraging to see this interest in Scandinavian literature. And with ventures such as Archipelago, Dalkey Archive, Melville House, Europa Editions, and Open Letter doing more and more translations every year, there’s hope that the numbers—both for Scandinavian works and international literature in general—will continue to increase and Americans will be “wowed” by foreign fiction.

Since it’s the start of a new month, and since I’ve added a number of books since the last update, it seems like the perfect time to post updated versions of our Translation Database. To read the complete background on this database, and to access the updated files, simply click here.

Or, click here for the 2008 Translation Database.

And here for the 2009 Translation Database.

As always, here are my disclaimers: I’m only tracking original fiction and poetry—no retranslations or reprints. I’m also doing this by myself by scanning PW, SPD’s weekly releases, all catalogs, dozens of websites, etc. So if I missed something (or, much, much more likely, I have a typo in the file) just send me an e-mail at chad.post at rochester dot edu and I’ll fix it.

So, here’s the new breakdown: in 2008 there were 362 translations published in the U.S., and for 2009, I’ve identified 326. Which is a pretty steep drop-off and it doesn’t really look like 2009 is going to catch up.

BUT WAIT, there is an interesting trend here. In 2008, 82 works of poetry in translation were publisher, but only 55 in 2009. That’s a 33% decrease, compared to only a 3% decrease for works of fiction (280 in 2008, 271 in 2009).

It’s quite possible that I’m missing 9 works of fiction that will come out later this year, making 2009 vs. 2008 a wash.

The decrease in poetry titles seems very real though . . . I did have an intern search the websites of all presses that published at least one work of poetry in translation in 2008, and although she found a couple titles missing from the database (literally a couple), it looks like a number of presses have cut back, stopped doing international books, etc. According to our numbers, in 2008, 40 different presses published at least one work of poetry in translation. That number dropped to 32 in 2009.

Another interesting shift can be found on the language charts. In 2008, the top five source languages were: French (59), Spanish (48), German (31), Arabic (28), and Japanese (23). The rankings for 2009 are a bit different: Spanish (56), French (48), German (29), Arabic/Japanese/Swedish (17).

Not terribly surprised that Spanish surpassed French, but Swedish? That’s quite a jump from 12 books in 2008 to 17 in 2009.

So, to give Sweden their due, here’s the list of all Swedish books coming out this year with links to order them from Brazos, our Featured Bookstore of the Month (more on that later):

With Deer by Aase Berg, trans. Johannes Goransson (Black Ocean)

Amberville by Tim Davys, trans. Paul Norlen (HarperCollins)

Death Angels by Ake Edwardson, trans. Ken Schubert (Penguin)

God’s Mercy by Kerstin Ekman, trans. Linda Schenck (University of Nebraska)

Island of the Naked Women by Inger Frimansson, trans. Laura Wideburg (Pleasure Boat Studio)

Road to Jerusalem by Jan Guillou, trans. Steven Murray (HarperCollins)

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, trans. Marlaine Delargy (Other Press)

True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, trans. Thomas Teal (New York Review Books)

Collobert Orbital by Johan Jonson, trans. Johannes Goransson (Displaced Press)

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson, trans. Reg Keeland (Knopf)

Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell, trans. Laurie Thompson (New Press)

Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti, trans. Sarah Death (Penguin)

Woman with a Birthmark by Hakan Nesser, trans. Laurie Thompson (Pantheon)

Box 21 by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom, trans. ??? (not even listed in the PW review) (FSG)

Mozart’s Third Brain by Goran Sonnevi, trans. Rika Lesser (Yale University Press)

Darkest Room by Johan Theorin, trans. Marlaine Delargy (Delta)

Sorrow Gondola by Tomas Transtomer, trans. Michael McGriff (Green Integer)

Thanks to everyone who pointed out how I screwed up the links to the latest versions of the 2008 and 2009 translation databases . . . Everything should be fixed now.

And if you don’t feel like revisiting the original post, here are the correct links:

2008 Translations

2009 Translations

Sorry it’s taken so long to correct—been a bit preoccupied of late, but things are quickly getting back to normal around here . . .

I know things have been pretty quiet around here of late—I’ve been out of the office and am detail with some personal issues, so I might not be posting as much as usual for the next couple weeks—but since July 1st is such a great day for spreadsheets, I thought I’d post updated versions of the 2008 and 2009 translation databases.

As always, these spreadsheets contain info on never-before-translated works of fiction and poetry distributed in the U.S. (I left off anything that’s been published in English translation before, even if the earlier version was censored, corrupt, etc. Just trying to focus on what new titles are being made available to English readers.)

The numbers shift a bit over time, with books being delayed from 2008 to 2009, new titles being uncovered, etc. But although I’m not sure these are 100% accurate, I know we’re damn close. (That said, if you see anything missing, please let me know: chad.post at rochester dot edu.)

So, some comparisons:

In 2008, there were 362 translations published in the States (282 works of fiction, 80 works of poetry). That number is down significantly in 2009 (although the data is incomplete) to 299 total translations (249 works of fiction, 50 poetry collections).

Assuming I have all the books from Jan – June, the numbers are a bit closer: 195 books published in 2008 through June, 173 (down 11%) in 2009. (I have a feeling that I’m missing some poetry and small press titles and will check a lot of websites this month and post another update in the near future.)

In terms of languages translated, the top five for both years are remarkably similar, with only French and Spanish switching places:

2008
French 59 books, 16.30% of total
Spanish 48, 13.26%
German 32, 8.84%
Arabic 28, 7.73%
Japanese 23, 6.35%

2009
Spanish 48 books, 16.05% of total
French 43, 14.38%
German 27, 9.03%
Arabic 17, 5.69%
Japanese 17, 5.69%

In terms of publishers (and this is where I think I need to do additional research), in 2008, 141 different presses did at least one book in translation, and in 2009, I’ve only identified 108 so far.

There’s more that can get teased out of these spreadsheets, and hopefully with the next update 2009 will be much closer to last year . . .

It’s been a couple months since the last Translation Database update, and quite a few titles have been added in the meantime. And a few from 2008 were shifted to 2009, etc., etc. So, the current totals are:

2008: 363 books (283 fiction, 80 poetry)
2009: 235 books (196 fiction, 39 poetry)

Looking at this breakdown by month, I think 2009 is pretty accurate through August. If that’s the case, and the end of 2009 is similar to 2008, I think we’ll end up with around 340 translations in 2009—a substantial decrease. (Hopefully I’m wrong, and hopefully I’m missing some 2009 titles. Next month’s post-BEA update should be a much stronger indication of how the year will break down.)

In terms of publishers, American University of Cairo Press, Dalkey Archive, Europa are still at the top, along with New Directions, which has tripled it’s new translation output from 2008 to 2009. (Open Letter will jump up as well if I ever get around to adding our fall titles to the database.)

What’s most surprising though is the slight shift in the most translated languages. Here’s the stats for 2008:

French 59 titles, 16.25% of all translations
Spanish 49, 13.50%
German 33, 9.09%
Arabic 28, 7.71%
Japanese 23, 6.34%

So the top five languages account for 192 of the 363 books published in 2008, or approx. 53%.

For 2009, the same top five languages are there, but the order is slightly different:

Spanish 40 titles, 17.02% of all translations
French 35, 14.89%
German 21, 8.94%
Arabic 16, 6.81%
Japanese 12, 5.11%

That amounts to 124 of the recorded 235 translations, or approx. 53%.

It’s almost spooky how similar the years are in terms of the top five languages as a percentage of the total (53% in both 2008 and 2009), and that the only shift is Spanish taking over the top spot from French.

Because of the amount of time that it takes to acquire a book, commission a translation, and then bring it out, it’s impossible for this to be the case, but I’d like to think that Roberto Bolano (and Horacio Castellanos Moya) are somehow responsible for this surging interest in Spanish-language literature.

It’s been a while since I last posted an update of the 2008 Translation Database (full spreadsheet available via that click, complete with sheets breaking this down into country, language, and publisher).

Not a lot different from last time I put this online, although it’s now up to 215 titles for 2008 from 54 different countries and published by 86 different publishing houses.

Post-BEA I suspect all these numbers will jump . . . Most fall catalogs will be available and we’ll have a much clearer view of where this will end up for 2008. I’m still going with my guess of 412 total titles . . . (Just to reiterate, we’re only tracking original translations of adult fiction and poetry—no reprints, no new translations of classics.)

And sometime—once all our sales calls are over?—I’ll go back to posting summaries of all these titles. . . .

It’s not available online, but there’s an article by Rachel Deahl in this week’s Publishers Weekly about Three Percent and the translation database.

The Excel file behind the above link is the most up-to-date version of the database, listing 187 works of adult fiction and poetry coming out this year. Some fall catalogs have started trickling in, so expect more updates in the near future . . . And soon, I swear, we’ll get back to writing brief overviews of all the books. (If you’re interested in seeing some of the earlier ones, all 2008 translation posts are available here.)