How to Grow Your Writing Career Through Literary Translation
How to bring a translation from discovery to publication, why personality matters more than “talent” and how to plug into the whisper nfetwork
What’s the barrier of entry to literary translation? All we really need is fluency in other languages and a way with words. To do it well though is another story. But first: why would we even want to?
Yes, sometimes we all need to freelance for funds. But are there other reasons writers should translate? (Hint: yes.)
In July, I met online with writer and translator Anton Hur to discuss translation and his debut sci-fi novel Toward Eternity. If you’re a fan of BTS, you might know Anton from his work on Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS. If you’re a fan of Korean literature, you might know him from Love in the Big City and Cursed Bunny.
And if you’re a fan of good info, helpful tips, and spicy gossip, today we’ll be covering…
Why nobody should give a “flying f*ck” about the Paris Review
How to bring a translation from discovery to publication
Why editors and agents should thank us for bothering them
How personality matters more than “talent”
How to plug into the whisper network (👀) and why you should
Introducing your guide, Anton: Anton Hur is the author of Toward Eternity (HarperVia) and No One Told Me Not To (Across Books). He won a PEN Translates grant for his translation of The Underground Village by Kang Kyeong-ae and a PEN/Heim grant for Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny, the latter of which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature. His translation of Sang Young Park’s Love in the Big City was also longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Love in the Big City was also longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. His translation of Kyung-Sook Shin’s Violets and Lee Seong-bok’s Indeterminate Inflorescence were consecutively longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Awards. His co-translation of Beyond the Story: 10-Year History of BTS debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. He has taught at the British Centre for Literary Translation, the Ewha University Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, and the Bread Loaf Translators Conference.
If You Know Another Language—Why Not Translate?
Before we get into the “why” of translation, let’s talk “why not.” If you’re already bilingual, multilingual—what’s holding you back? It seems like a natural thing to do, right?
“Well, I'm very lazy, so I don't want to learn a new skill. I'm trying to look for time to write. So I need to do work that's not going to drain me too much, that I don't need training for, that people are willing to pay me for.
We interpret for our parents, we translate. First generation, second generation immigrant children do it all the time. So it's very natural for them to be translators. If someone's paying you money for it, why not? It's already part of your life. You're already doing it.”
So how did he first transition from translating at home to translating whole books?
“I was extremely successful as a non-literary translator and simultaneous interpreter. I made a lot of money. I paid all my bills. I knew all the ins and outs of my industry, but literary translation was completely opaque. No one really talks about: how do you get rights, how do you get permission to do a sample, what is a sample, what is a proposal. Like, how do you actually get from a book you want to translate to a book that is published and sold at bookstores?
So I attended the Literary Translation Institute of Korea Translation Academy thinking they would explain this to me. They did not. None of my teachers had ever had to write their own publishing proposal. They were basically people who were hired because someone gave them work. Like if an American publisher had already bought the book and asked LTI Korea, ‘Who can you recommend to translate?’ Then LTI Korea would say, ‘Oh, this person, this person.’
It was very opaque. And basically, my debut was all luck. Kyung-sook Shin's old translator did not want to translate Kyung-sook Shin anymore, so I put myself up for an audition and the agent saw something that I’d published in Asymptote. Then she saw my sample. I submitted three samples for three different books and she liked the one that I liked the most, which was The Court Dancer. And that's how I debuted.”
Sniff Around to Scout Your Projects
“That's when I was like, ‘Okay, I have to learn how to do this—everything—on my own.’ No agent is going to help me. LTI Korea is not going to help me. No one is going to help me become a literary translator. I have to do it myself.
I did a lot of research on how you get into it. How do you write a proposal? How does a book become translated and published? How do I create my own job? And the first two books that I brought from discovery to publication were Love in the Big City by Sang-Young Park and Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung. And these were the first books I published that were eligible for the International Booker Prize. And they were both nominated. So everything has been exploding since then.”
OK, so if somebody’s feeling ambitious and they find a book they want to translate, what are the steps?
“I recommend before doing anything—samples, a proposal, anything—to get permission first. Contact the author and say that you're interested in pursuing their book to publication. If the authors have agents, contact the agent. If they don't, then contact the publishing house.
Once the publisher gives you permission to submit to foreign publishers, you create a sample, you create a proposal. And this process is called pitching. There's a pitch guide for translators on my website. It tells you the process of how to write a pitch.
And then you research a list of publishing houses and editors, specifically editors that you think would be interested in your project. People who have published similar works before.
My generation is very different from the generation that taught me. They had everything handed to them on a silver platter. I have to go out and sell my own books. Translators should just translate, but now translators do a lot of work that a scout or an agent would do.”
Know What You Want to Accomplish: Book vs. Short Story
That might be how a book sells, but what if we want to start small, like with a short story?
“This is so controversial. Tony Tulathimutte, who wrote Private Citizens and a short story collection titled Rejection—isn't that a great title? I really respect him. He's so cool. We've never met. So Tony—I'm gonna call him Tony anyway—Tony wrote a really great series of articles about how to break into writing, basically. How to become a novelist. For Catapult. And these are all available for free. In one of them he says, ‘I don't really get the point of short story magazines. But my editor for this magazine tells me that I should say that they provide early career experience being edited.’ And translating a sample takes about the same effort as translating and doing submissions for a short story. Getting the rights for it and all of that. So if it takes that much effort to get a story in a magazine, I would rather spend that effort publishing a book.
I'm just saying—a famous magazine asked me to submit. So I submitted something and they didn't even bother to reject it. I'm like, ‘Oh, they just ghosted. This is such an incredible waste of time.’ That's what they do. They're like, ‘If you don't hear from us in the next weeks, it means you’re rejected.’”
Who would do such a thing??
“It's the Paris Review. There's a rumor that it was founded by the CIA, that it's a propaganda arm for the American State Department. I don’t think that's real. They're not competent enough for that. But these magazines are these literary institutions that we're supposed to kowtow to, and they hold so much prestige and cultural capital. And I don't give a flying fuck about any of that. You cannot gaslight me into giving a flying fuck about their prestige. Or their cultural capital. Please put those words in quotes.”
OK!
“I just want to get my books out to the readership. That's what I want to do. I want as many people who would like my works to read my works as possible. The people who don't like my works, they can go read Hilary Mantel or whatever. But the people who like my works, I need there to be ways for them to find out that I exist and my work exists and these literary institutions—they're traditionally very anti-translation, very anti-people of color. It's not like the people who read these particular magazines are interested in translated literature. From Korea anyway. So why should I cater to them? Especially when there are hundreds of thousands of people who would pick up a book in Korean translation. I think I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki sold 2 million copies in America. Those are the people that I'm selling these books to. I do not care about pretentious people who read the Paris Review.
There's so much gaslighting in publishing. You really have to know how to cut through BS and to discern, Oh, this is actually important and I actually need to do this part. And so it's a constant reevaluation of what really matters versus what doesn't.”
It’s OK to reevaluate—and this is not about the Paris Review necessarily but in general—why we’re supposed to want validation from institutions we don’t respect.
“It's worthless to me. I don't need that.”
So for those who want to get into translation, it's okay to skip the short story phase. Maybe just start with a book. Get the permission, get the rights, do the sample and proposal. But surely there are good reasons to translate short fiction.
Translate Short Fiction for Your Portfolio
“I'm not saying that people shouldn't submit to magazines. I mean, I really love Words Without Borders. They actually helped my career because having publications in magazines was useful for me.
There are people who only publish in magazines and they're perfectly happy and if that's what you want to do, then that's what you should do. But when I want to read a good short story in translation, there are very few places that you can go. Kenyon Review has a couple. It’s always like one or two. The New Yorker occasionally publishes a short story in translation. But they're kind of bad at selecting, for example, Korean literature that's worth publishing. So it's still very much like this unwanted second class citizen kind of shit going on.”
But if somebody did want to start with a short story, the process would be to get permission from the author or the publisher—
“And then if they say yes, you translate the story from beginning to end. And then you submit it. You go to Submittable and you look up translation because not every magazine accepts translation. And then you publish it, preferably online. Because how else are publishers going to see it as a portfolio piece, right?
If you want to go that route, they're going to Google you, like, “Oh, okay. So I guess this person can translate.” Part of my audition for my first novel involved my story in Asymptote. It's called Aficionados by Jung Young-su. I love that story. And Kyung-sook's agent told me, “Oh yeah, I read that. I really liked how you did it.” So yeah, it is effective in that sense. I feel like I've said so many mean things about magazines. We love magazines. We love reading magazines.
I have co-edited a Kenyon Review translation portfolio. With Jennifer Croft and Jeremy Tiang. That was so much fun. The three of us were like, “Should we set up our own magazine so that we can keep doing this together?” And it was just so nice to see everything that people are working on. So many talented translators. around the world submitting and we would be like, “Oh my God, this is so good.” Kenyon Review made us write an introductory essay on the folio and we were like, “Can we just not write an essay and accept one more piece?” They said no. So I wrote this very passive-aggressive introductory piece.”
How shady was it?
“It's basically like, ‘Why are you asking me to write this? This is so unnecessary. All of these translations stand on their own. Just read it.’ And they published it. We love them. I'm just saying you have to be very, very efficient with your time and it's just a lot of work to submit to magazines.”
Overall, literary translation can be a source of income but it can also boost our craft and careers as writers.
Let Translation Work for You
“The whole point of literary translation at one point was to get a foothold in publishing, in preparation for a writing career. I was like, ‘Oh, I'll get to know editors, I'll get to know agents, I'll get to know all these people in publishing.’ And it kind of worked out that way. It helped to have a reputation in publishing before I submitted my first novel to groups of editors. So in that sense, it was helpful because people knew who I was.“
And now Anton has his own novel out. Toward Eternity. Sci-fi, but more cerebral, not space opera.
“The book is about a cancer therapy that ends up destroying the world, but it has a happy ending. The cancer therapy becomes the basic knowledge to create clones that are turned into an army. And there’s an AI trained on reading and appreciating poetry. And this AI is also used for this clone army. It's a book about loss, poetry, and how love conquers all.”
So translation can help in terms of career by building up our reputation in publishing circles and widening our net of contacts, but how about in terms of craft or skills or perspective?
“In terms of skills, in the translation process, I hear the English. I put down whatever it is I hear. It’s very alchemical. New Age woo-woo. I feel the language coming. It’s the language that does the translation, not me, not my brain. Similarly for this book, I had no idea that it would be the novel it turned out to be when I started writing it. I was like, ‘I'm just going to see where the language takes me.’ And this book is basically what happened. It's where the language took me. It was complete compulsion. It was a compulsive expression of language.
Muriel Barbery, who wrote The Elegance of the Hedgehog, was asked, ‘Why did you write this book?’ She was like, ‘It was a compulsion of language. I just felt like using language and this is what came out when I indulged myself in that compulsion.’ That's basically what happened here. There was very little planning. After about 30% in, I had a vague idea of how it would end, so I was writing toward that ending, but otherwise...I just let the scenes come.”
So much of writing does feel like compulsion. We have to do it. Otherwise, who would choose this masochistic life? Make it make sense!
“For translators, the reason that we translate is we hear the translation and we want to write it down. And it's a way of internalizing the text and—not making it ours, that sounds so colonial but—just being colonized by the text, to let the source text into us. It's like memorizing something by heart, what people used to do in poetry. Instead of doing that, we translate because it makes us deal with the text on a physical level. I feel like I'm physically touching the text when I'm translating in a way that I don't really feel when I'm reading. And I love that feeling.
It's really the language using you, not you using the language. That's how it feels to me. I am a tool for the language.”
Tap into Available Resources and Apply, Apply
So what other opportunities or resources are there for translators to tap into?
“So many things. I cannot underestimate how helpful it was winning a PEN Translates grant in the beginning of my career. I put it behind my name in everything. Absolutely everything. I would be like, ‘Oh, Anton Hur, winner of a PEN Translates award.’ And because the British used the word ‘award’ for ‘grant,’ it looks like I won an award. It helped me get jobs and I'm very grateful for that. So definitely apply for PEN Translates. The PEN/Heim grant—more than the Booker Prize, more than the National Book Award, it was the PEN/Heim (FYI: check out Anton’s cover letter) that catapulted Bora Chung's Cursed Bunny into literary contention. It was considered a genre book, but I knew that it had literary and artistic merit and I was like, ‘I'm going to prove it.’ And so we won a PEN/Heim and that's when I was like, ‘We can contend in the literary sphere with Bora Chung.’ I mean, I knew this, but now everyone else knows this.
Should we worry about getting embroiled in PEN America politics?
“I think writers should pull out of PEN America awards, I'm totally for the boycott—I think translators, especially emerging translators, should apply for the PEN/Heim. Just do it. It's up to the more established translators like me and other people to ensure that the PEN Heim finds a new home, but that should not be the concern of young and emerging translators. You guys should be concerned with creating a banging sample, getting that grant and producing the best translation that you can produce. That's what emerging translators should be focusing on.”
Then Plug In, Build Relationships, and Get Connected
What about community? Where would translators find that?
“I recommend emerging translators network as much as possible. Get to know other translators. Get to know editors. There are translation conferences like ALTA, The American Literary Translators Association conference. They do online matching, like online speed dating between translators and editors. If you're based in the UK, I recommend attending the British Center for Literary Translations. They have a summer school. They both have online components. Some people like The London Book Fair. I went once. It was nice. I'm not sure what the point is, but maybe different people operate differently. It's so industry, it's so Hollywood. There's a new summer school in Bristol, the UK, which is online. I hear it's very good. It's taught by really excellent translators. There are book festivals if you happen to live in a major metropolis. Book festivals are a nice way to meet people in the industry.”
Not only is it good to meet people, it’s good to show them your work. Opportunities abound.
“If I see a work in a workshop that I really liked, I will try to find an editor for them. After a critique, what I always ask is, ‘Hey, do you have an editor for this? Like, do you want me to bring this to someone? Do you have the rights for this?’ I’m very—I can tell you about the grammar, the text of your translation, the aesthetics of it. But what makes me really special is what comes after. ‘Okay, I'm going to help you publish this work.’ You have to find someone who can do that for you. You have to get agents really excited about your author. An editor that you happen to meet somewhere.
A lot of people are very intimidated at the prospect of meeting or emailing an editor, but even if the editor never gets back to you, editors still like to see everything. They want to know what's on the market. You're providing them with a piece of information they'll be very happy to have. So really you're doing them a favor. They're not doing you a favor by looking at your proposal. So I encourage emerging translators to reach out and be bold and brazen and have fun. Really. Because it's such a ridiculous industry. If you can't laugh at the things that happen in publishing then you're not going to survive long.”
It might feel strange to think of our work-in-progress as a Hot Property (or maybe not! I don’t know! Maybe your self-esteem is healthy!). But if we have—let’s say—a queer retelling of the Outlaws of the Marsh set in 1960’s Sao Paulo or something, it doesn’t hurt to broadcast, by whatever means, that we do. People want to know. And people talk. In general, it’s vital to be Out There and connect with those who can help.
“I taught at Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference and I may teach next year. But if not me, there'll be other really great translators on site because they really pick the best. So there are people that you can talk to and a translator who's in your language combination could help—like, by taking their class because sometimes they have work overflow. And, I'm sorry, but I cannot recommend a translator who I've never taught. I have to have taught you in order to recommend you.”
So translators who teach sometimes offer work overflow, like a kind of apprenticeship.
“I recently got a book deal for a student. I knew that she was extremely talented and she was perfect for the job. And she was like, ‘Oh, I don't know. I have this other friend who's a translator. Maybe you could talk to her….’ And I'm like, ‘Girl, I’ve never—I'm sure she's a nice person. But I have never taught her. She could be psychotic for all I know.’ I cannot be recommending psychotic translators. There are way too many psychotic translators. ‘I know you're not psychotic. I know you're going to do a really good job and the publisher is going to really love me by the time they're done working with you. And that's what I'm looking for. So just freaking please say yes and shut up.’ I said it in a much nicer way but I was very adamant. I like to push people because I feel like people are very wimpy and like, ‘Oh, I have to search my soul before saying yes.’ No, shut up. Just say yes and learn as you're falling through the air how to land. That's how you do it.”
Personally, I’m a trial-and-error guy so I have to agree. Figure it out while you're doing it! So many of us are.
“I pass on a lot of work to other translators that I feel would do a better job than me or who just vibe more with the material than I would. I don't want to be greedy. The ecosystem has to be healthy for me to be healthy in it.”
And one way to contribute to a healthy ecosystem (or at least stay on the healthy side of it) is to simply…
Be Nice and Build Trust
“There's a very short list of people that I wish I never worked with. And this is why networking is so important. There are names that circulate in the whisper network and you should know who these people are. And the only way that you can know is if someone tells you. And the only way that someone tells you is if they trust you. And how can they trust you if they've never heard of you, if they've never talked to you before?
You need to plug into the whisper network so that you do not make the mistakes that previous people made. And not just people to avoid, but also certain practices, like translating an entire book on spec. That kind of thing. Very common mistakes.
You cannot navigate this space on your own. You simply cannot. A lot of translators that I've met think they can do it all on their own. That they don't need to talk to anyone. They don't need any colleagues. No, fuck your talent. No one cares how talented you are. We're all talented. Newsflash! At some point it becomes a matter of—it is a community. It is an industry. And you have to be someone that people can work with. Otherwise you can be replaced. So be professional, be cordial, be collegial. And be aware because there are people who want to rip you off.”
And what’s Anton working on next?
“I'm so excited for this book—it's called Blood of the Old Kings. I know I shouldn't say this because I have so many authors and books, but this was the most fun I've ever had translating a book.
Not only is it very entertaining I mean, of course, all of the books I do are very entertaining, but it's brilliantly written and also I did not know that I could translate like that. When I read the book in Korean, I was like, I don’t know how to translate this. I'm gonna say yes, because it's Tor, and all little nerdy boys love Tor. And I kind of figured out that it's more of a science fiction book that's pretending to be fantasy. And then I was like, “It's like Anne McCaffrey.” I can do Anne McCaffrey. I love Anne McCaffrey. And I had so much fun translating this book. Oh my God. I was, like, screaming in my heart.
It’s a trilogy. I just translated the second book earlier this year, so that's in the can. And I'll do the third book next fall. Oh, in America, I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki is gonna come out in August. So watch out for that one. And also Blood of the Old Kings in October from Tor.”
Connect with Anton at AntonHur.com or on Twitter and Instagram. He also has a secret Bluesky account that is, according to him, the most entertaining of all his social media accounts, “the most whimsical and unfiltered.” (Imagine Anton unfiltered)
Next Steps & Networking:
It’s nice to have trusted readers to share work and discuss career and craft. Sample, proposal, story, whatever. As always, the comments section could be where you find those friends. As well as other answers.
(Do we have any translators, agents, or editors in this workshop…? 👀) Share your thoughts, ask questions, and find your people. Or just muse or lurk or vent. Whatever you do, be supportive and kind and generous and let us know what else you want to know.
Resources and Sub Opportunities Mentioned
Craft & Community & Publishing Chat
Anton’s pitch guide for translators
Tony Tulathimutte’s articles on agents, pitching, and careers
ALTA Conference
Grants & Fellowships & Residencies
PEN Translates Grants
PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants
On Wednesday September 11 we’ll discuss how to land a major deal for your YA novel, How Reddit and YouTube can help writers, how to get agents on the phone and what to ask, and what sorts of discipline it takes to write novels. If you want this sent strait to your inbox make sure you
Thanks for all the details. So helpful.
I am multilingual and studied literary translation at uni and found out that I hate doing translations 😂😂 but also, it doesn’t pay well in my country as a profession