News and Events

Los Angeles Times | Books, February 17, 2010
Carolyn Kellogg

"The Best Translated Book Awards of 2010 will be presented in March; today, the shortlist of 10 works of fiction was announced by Three Percent, the online arm of the University of Rochester's translation program, and Open Letter Press."

Publishers Weekly, February 1, 2010
By Judith Rosen

When South End Press relocated from Cambridge, Mass., to the Brooklyn campus of Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York last fall, it joined a handful of presses that have formed partnerships with universities. In some cases, these presses have been launched by academic institutions, which have created such imprints as Open Letter at the University of Rochester.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 17, 2010
By Jennifer Howard

In addition to some academic presses, a couple of university-affiliated publishing ventures, Dalkey Archive Press, at the University of Illinois, and Open Letter Books, at the University of Rochester, have created spaces where work in translation is not only tolerated but promoted and—the ultimate compliment—published.

The Guardian, January 6, 2010
By Alison Flood

Nobel prize winners Orhan Pamuk and JMG Le Clézio are going head to head with last year's hottest translated author Roberto Bolaño for the title of 2010 best translated book. The prize, set up in 2007 to combat the lack of translated titles on "best of the year" lists, is run by the international literature Web site Three Percent, part of New York's University of Rochester.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 31, 2009
By Jennifer Howard

If there were required reading for the 125th annual meeting of the Modern Language Association, which began here yesterday, it would be Walter Benjamin's essay "The Task of the Translator." The German-Jewish critic, philosopher, and translator has emerged as the gray eminence of the gathering, his name invoked repeatedly at sessions on translation—this year's theme, thanks to the MLA's president, Catherine Porter.

New York Times, December 25, 2009
By Larry Rohter

“The publishing industry is in a tailspin; translated works account for, at best, 3 percent of the American book market; and budgets for higher education are shrinking. But none of this seems to deter Open Letter Books, a small, year-old press here affiliated with the University of Rochester that publishes nothing but literature in translation.”