A event on Friday 23rd May. The event starts at 19:00.
SOLD OUT
Translated By, Bristol presents an evening with writer/translator Jen Calleja, where she will discuss her latest book Fair: The Life-Art of Translation with fellow writer/translator Polly Barton.
This event will take place at Storysmith, BS3 1JD. Doors open at 6:30pm for a 7pm start on Friday 23rd May.
ABOUT JEN CALLEJA
Jen Calleja is a poet, writer and essayist who has been widely published, including in The White Review, The London Magazine, and Best British Short Stories (Salt). She was awarded an Authors’ Foundation Grant from the Society of Authors to work on her debut novel Vehicle (Prototype, 2023), an excerpt of which was shortlisted for the Short Fiction/University of Essex Prize. Jen’s short story collection I’m Afraid That’s All We’ve Got Time For was published by Prototype in 2020, and Goblinhood: Goblin as a Mode was published by Rough Trade Books in 2024. An excerpt from Fair was Longlisted for the Ivan Juritz Prize for Experimentation in Text.
Jen has been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize and the Schlegel-Tieck Prize as a literary translator from German into English and was the inaugural Translator in Residence at the British Library. She is co-founding editor of Praspar Press and played and toured in the DIY punk band Sauna Youth.
ABOUT FAIR
Fair: The Life-Art of Translation is a satirical, refreshing and brilliantly playful book about learning the art of translation, being a bookworker in the publishing industry, growing up, family, and class.
Loosely set in an imagined book fair/art fair/fun fair, in which every stall or ride imitates a real-world scenario or dilemma which must be observed and negotiated, the book moves between personal memories and larger questions about the role of the literary translator in publishing, about fairness and hard work, the ways we define success, and what it means – and whether it is possible – to make a living as an artist.
Fair is also interested in questions of upbringing, background, support, how different people function in the workplace, and the ways in which people are excluded or made invisible in different cultural and creative industries. It connects literary translation to its siblings in other creative arts to show how creative and subjective a practice it is while upholding the ethics and politics at play when we translate someone else’s work.
Blurring the lines between memoir, autofiction, satire and polemic, Fair is a singularly inventive and illuminating book by one of the UK’s most original and admired writers and translators.
ABOUT POLLY BARTON
Polly Barton is a Japanese translator and writer. Her translations include Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura, and Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai. Her translation of Asako Yuzuki’s Butter was named Waterstones Book of the Year 2024. She is the author of Fifty Sounds and Porn: An Oral History.
ABOUT TRANSLATED, BY BRISTOL
Translated By, Bristol is a new festival celebrating translators and translated literature, taking place in Bristol from May 12th - May 25th 2025, founded by author/translator Polly Barton in collaboration with two independent Bristol bookshops (Gloucester Road Books and Storysmith).
The festival will celebrate the art and practice of literary translation, foregrounding the translators themselves. Events will include in-depth conversations with translators, conversations between renowned authors and their translators, discussions of the translation/publishing process, translation workshops, translation slams and events for children in collaboration with Bristol schools.
The complete programme will feature collaborations with an international range of translators, authors and publishers, held across multiple venues in Bristol.
With a mission to acknowledge the role and contribution of translators across the world, Translated By, Bristol is the first of its kind in our city.
Head to translatedbybristol.com for more information and line-up announcements.
Photo credit: Robin Silas Christian.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
Translated By, Bristol presents an evening with writer/translator Jen Calleja, where she will discuss her latest book Fair: The Life-Art of Translation with fellow writer/translator Polly Barton.
This event will take place at Storysmith, BS3 1JD. Doors open at 6:30pm for a 7pm start on Friday 23rd May.
ABOUT JEN CALLEJA
Jen Calleja is a poet, writer and essayist who has been widely published, including in The White Review, The London Magazine, and Best British Short Stories (Salt). She was awarded an Authors’ Foundation Grant from the Society of Authors to work on her debut novel Vehicle (Prototype, 2023), an excerpt of which was shortlisted for the Short Fiction/University of Essex Prize. Jen’s short story collection I’m Afraid That’s All We’ve Got Time For was published by Prototype in 2020, and Goblinhood: Goblin as a Mode was published by Rough Trade Books in 2024. An excerpt from Fair was Longlisted for the Ivan Juritz Prize for Experimentation in Text.
Jen has been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize and the Schlegel-Tieck Prize as a literary translator from German into English and was the inaugural Translator in Residence at the British Library. She is co-founding editor of Praspar Press and played and toured in the DIY punk band Sauna Youth.
ABOUT FAIR
Fair: The Life-Art of Translation is a satirical, refreshing and brilliantly playful book about learning the art of translation, being a bookworker in the publishing industry, growing up, family, and class.
Loosely set in an imagined book fair/art fair/fun fair, in which every stall or ride imitates a real-world scenario or dilemma which must be observed and negotiated, the book moves between personal memories and larger questions about the role of the literary translator in publishing, about fairness and hard work, the ways we define success, and what it means – and whether it is possible – to make a living as an artist.
Fair is also interested in questions of upbringing, background, support, how different people function in the workplace, and the ways in which people are excluded or made invisible in different cultural and creative industries. It connects literary translation to its siblings in other creative arts to show how creative and subjective a practice it is while upholding the ethics and politics at play when we translate someone else’s work.
Blurring the lines between memoir, autofiction, satire and polemic, Fair is a singularly inventive and illuminating book by one of the UK’s most original and admired writers and translators.
ABOUT POLLY BARTON
Polly Barton is a Japanese translator and writer. Her translations include Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura, and Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai. Her translation of Asako Yuzuki’s Butter was named Waterstones Book of the Year 2024. She is the author of Fifty Sounds and Porn: An Oral History.
ABOUT TRANSLATED, BY BRISTOL
Translated By, Bristol is a new festival celebrating translators and translated literature, taking place in Bristol from May 12th - May 25th 2025, founded by author/translator Polly Barton in collaboration with two independent Bristol bookshops (Gloucester Road Books and Storysmith).
The festival will celebrate the art and practice of literary translation, foregrounding the translators themselves. Events will include in-depth conversations with translators, conversations between renowned authors and their translators, discussions of the translation/publishing process, translation workshops, translation slams and events for children in collaboration with Bristol schools.
The complete programme will feature collaborations with an international range of translators, authors and publishers, held across multiple venues in Bristol.
With a mission to acknowledge the role and contribution of translators across the world, Translated By, Bristol is the first of its kind in our city.
Head to translatedbybristol.com for more information and line-up announcements.
Photo credit: Robin Silas Christian.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
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