After several days of "radio silence" due to lousy internet @ Readercon's Marriott, I have much to tell, and hope I can get even a little of it down. I'll begin with the big news: Yesterday morning (Finnish time) at Finncon, the Helsinki Science Fiction Society announced:

The Tähtifantasia award for best translated fantasy in 2008 was given to Ellen Kushner for her novel Thomas Riiminiekka (Thomas the Rhymer), published in Finnish by Vaskikirjat. The novel talks about the power of words and speech. The jury commends Kushner’s characters as exceptionally well-rounded, feeling persons. The story uses point-of-view technics to bring multiple voices into a discussion about songs, stories, love and how language brings meaning to life.

Warmest congratulations to my Finnish publisher, Vaskikirjat, and particularly to my translator, the magnificent Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo, who asked me a lot of really interesting questions while she was working on the book, clearly to good purpose. (And thanks to Finnish blogger Tero Ykspetaja for writing the post I quoted from . . . and to my dad for tracking down all the links about it & pointing them out!

I am truly scunnered & honored - especially when I see who else was nominated! Indeed, I blush - and can only think that it is Johanna's brilliant translation that brought me in first in a field that included translations of Patricia McKillip, Robert Silverberg, Nobel Laureate José Saramago, and Gregory Maguire's Wicked!

[The teenage girl whose bed I'm sleeping in here in Maine (while she bunks with her brother & the dog, bless her!) asks - in her wonderful deadpan way, "So do you get anything for this? (beat) What's in it for you? . . . Any Finnish Delicacies? . . . Maybe you should get a crate of pickled herring or something. Ask them about it!" It never occurred to me. I do love herring. But a plaque or some chocolate would be nice, too.]

All right, wiseacres! OK, your Comments made me smirk, a lot - but my Finnish translator, Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo, has kindly set us all straight. Read her explanation here (and one from the actual Finnish reviewer, too! Wow, these folks are a friendly as you said they would be. Can't wait for Finncon!).

Poor GoogleTranslate - it tried. It doesn't really do metaphor.... Another review also praising the multiple viewpoints brings Gavin, Thomas, Meg & Elspeth from Elfland to the Airwaves as "four times a person's various audio tones transmitted clearly."

TranslateGoogle is a beautiful thing. Here is their version of a Finnish review of Thomas the Rhymer (Thomas Riiminiekka):

"Kushner language is successful transformation of the various persons blowjob, which is not a minor achievement ... "

Guess which of my short stories got translated & illustrated?

From the newly-published ALIA - an Italian magazine/anthology of the kind of fantasy & SF that mostly doesn't get published over there, run by some visionaries who think the Italian reading public really needs to get more familiar with Michael Moorcock, Ted Chiang, Delia Sherman & me, among others.

Isn't she great? Here's the original image. And here's her illo for Delia's story. And this is one of my faves.

Color me étonnée et bien frappée quand'meme! mantichore just wrote to let me know that his French translation of Swordspoint, A la Pointe de l'Epee, is one of 5 nominees in the "ROMAN ETRANGER TRADUIT" (Foreign Books in Translation) category for the Prix Imaginales, a sort of French Hugo (or Nebula? or maybe World Fantasy Award, as it's Juried by "journalists, critics and specialists" - including the town's Minster of Culture!) which will be given out May 16th in the town of Epinal*, at the Imaginales festival.

Honestly, I'm overwhelmed and feeling like, merely by being nominated, I just won an Oscar or something: I spent part of my childhood in France, Delia & I have passed much happy time there, both in Paris and the countryside, and my connections in France are very dear to me. I can hardly believe this. I'm sure it's because Patrick's translation is so brilliant.

I actually got the notice earlier this evening, but didn't have time to look at the details since I've been rushing to get a short story in on deadline. Ah! Feeling like a writer again! How sweet it is.


*Oddly enough, just last week a former Boston friend now living in Paris (Linda Gardiner) was telling us about a tiny town in the South of France she'd stayed in, where the entire town gets together to vote on a Best First Novel prize every year. You can imagine the conversations in the town square, or in line at the bank! She explained that each syndicat (a geo-political entity in the French Republic) gets a regular sum from the government to spend on Something Fun. Some throw an annual music festival, some a night of bonfires and grillades (that would be St Martin le Redon, near Cubertou) . . . and some give literary prizes. As the website explains: Créé en mai 2002 à l’initiative de la Ville d’Epinal, le Prix Imaginales est le premier Prix exclusivement consacré à la fantasy en France.

Even if I don't win, I wish with all my heart and all my heart that I could be in Epinal for this.

Die Legende vom letzten König
Published in Feb. 09 by Goldmann
The first 48 pages are online or downloadable as PDF. Let me know how it is! And if there are any reviews.

Apparently my Spanish publisher (formerly Bibliopolis) has reorganized & renamed self as "Alamut" and is busily reissuing titles. How do I know all this? From my editor's FaceBook page! Where I read: Luis se prepara para reeditar A PUNTA DE ESPADA de Ellen Kushner en Alamut. Ah, nada como el olor de las reediciones por la mañana... . . which Google translates as: Luis is preparing to reissue the SWORD OF A PUNTA Ellen Kushner in Alamut. Ah, nothing like the smell of reissues in the morning ..

There is a rather splendid PDF of the rather splendid cover here, and a Spanish translation of the short story "Red Cloak" (the first Richard & Alec story I ever wrote, looooong before the novel) here. A PUNTA DE ESPADA went on sale on 10th Feb. They will soon be bringing out Suzy McKee Charnas' delicious THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY. Can't say the guy doesn't have taste!

One of my favorite interviews from the Nantes Utopiales Festival in November '09 is now up online. It's in French. Tell your Francophone friends! You can comment there, too!

There are also some cool reviews of À la pointe de l'épée (with comments, plus a link to the radio show I did in Paris) on French blogs here and here.

There are plenty of words I don't know, but it seems to be an awfully nice review just up on the French fantasy site Elbakin.net. I particularly admire the delicatesse with which the reviewer refuses to give away any of the plot points.

In Paris I did a long interview with one of their number, Lucile Cusenza; now she's kindly sent me a 5-page transcript of our conversation - presumably with all my worst stumblings & grammatical mistakes smoothed over, so now I get the chance not only - as is usual with online interviews - to vet what I've said before it appears, but to see whether what I think I was saying was actually what she heard. It's a huge a mount of work doing a literal transcription of a conversation, and my hat's off to her.

Of course I want to dig into this at once, to get the interview posted ASAP - unfortunately [CUE VIOLINS] I'm leaving for Michigan in a few hours, and my laptop's in the hospital! Dead, dead, Desdemona. Delia's been generously sharing with me, but, as they say, You Can't Take it With You. So herein follow 5 days of me trying to get into the Business Center of various hotels when I get a break, to check e-mail . . . . Please all do pray for the swift recovery and rebuilding of my dear little Mac when I get back - and forgive us our not answering all e-mail (or comments) in anything resembling a timely fashion.

In what was probably a case of youthful show-offiness, 19c poet Robert Browning wrote a nearly impenetrable poem called Sordello, which made even Tennyson feel stupid when he read it. Some years later, the story goes, someone asked him to explain a particularly obscure passage - and Browning replied:

'When it was written, God and Robert Browning knew what it meant; now only God knows.'*

I have been driven lately to quote that line more than once, as my French & Finnish translators ask me whether that capital letter in Swordspoint or strange locution in Thomas the Rhymer was intentional, or just an uncaught typo.

Hey. I wrote those books a long time ago.

*If you're sure you've heard it before, it was used in The Barretts of Wimpole Street, a delicious 1931 play by Rudolph Besier which was made into a movie in 1934 (and deliciously spoofed by Emma Thompson & Stephen Fry.

But wait! There's more (besides the Fall of the Kings cover I posted earlier, I mean)! wintersweet kindly (hmm, why did I just type kingly?) sent me links to the Amazon Japan page with better quality images, and also to "books by Eren Kashunaa" which includes the new Japanese TPOTS and Swordspoint covers - by a very different artist... I'll rely on those more conversant with the contemporary Japanese aesthetic to decode them for me.

( Ha! Baby just learned a new trick. Here are those covers now. I hope. )

P.S. Oh, boy! I just had Google translate their copy for Swordspoint, which includes this: 'formidable権謀術数involved in the thick of the young fencer長篇world classics, Japan's first translation of Customs gem 3 Stories "Death was not named Samurai" . . . '

Of course not. Love it.

Someone take this toy away from me now.

The Japanese appear to have published The Fall of the Kings in two volumes. And to have actually read the book:

sorry about unavoidable crappy glare - can anyone figure out if Hayakawa has put a good scan of this up online anywhere?

(Hey, minayi - when can you come over and tell us which is Volume 1?)

The book's not out yet, but my Finnish publisher, Vaskikirjat has just posted their cover for Thomas the Rhymer . It couldn't be more different from Tom Canty's or Kinuko Craft's (or any of the other that's we're working on putting up for my website) . . . but to me it really has that Kalevala flavor, all folky wildness. You?
( THOMAS RIIMINIEKA cover )

Oh, boy! Found the new Dutch edition online: Het Privilege von het Zwaard (Luitingh-Sijthoff - my book is Luitingh, I guess, described on this agent's page as books that are thrilling, imaginative, scary, amazing or addictive - that would be me, then. Here's a link to a long article from PW about Dutch publishing, of interest only to the trade).

I thought it was being published in February, but looks like they moved it to July. That explains why I couldn't find the cover (below) til now. I got it off of this website - for a good time, tell Google to translate the page for you - that's all I'll say for now.
( Het Privilege von het Zwaard Dutch cover: )

ADDED: The actual publisher's page for Het Privilege is here.

now up on the Calmann-Levy site - and an extra ration of rum to anyone who can tell me what roman à fleuret non moucheté means (people styling themselves mantichore who actually translated the book for C-L are excluded from this offer).

I love the cover with a deep and passionate love. The clothing & the attitude look just right. I am one lucky devil.

• The elegant and affordable paperback edition of Delia Sherman's Changeling will be released on July 17th!

• We've sold Finnish rights to Thomas the Rhymer (to Vaskikirjat). I'm so happy. The translator, Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo, I met at the Dutch Worldcon shortly after the book came out, and she says she's been dreaming of translating it ever since - we've already had some great discussions about the (non-)intersection of British & Finnish mythic material . . . and she's a friend of author Johanna Sinisalo, whose wonderful Troll won the Tiptree. Is there a trip to Finland in our future? One can only dream. . . .

• A friend of a friend sent word of her new book, Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion (Beacon Press, August); author & rabbi Danya Ruttenberg wrote me: It's part-memoir, part cultural criticism, about the personal and political implications of taking on a religious discipline. It's the story of my own post-dotcom, punk rock Third Wave move from atheism into traditional (feminist) Judaism... ( Read more... )

Have a mentioned that Arabesque in Moscow has contracted for a Russian translation of Swordspoint? (oops - yeah, I guess so) I can't wait to see what they do with "St Vier" . . . . I guess this means they did well with Thomas the Rhymer - it's certainly a gorgeous, gorgeous edition - stunning cover (thanks, theoutstanding, for the link; is there a way to see the interior illo's online, too?) - if I haven't said so before, I'm saying it now!

Swordspoint will be coming out this October in France, from the distinguished house of Calmann-Lévy. I am fortunate enough to know my translator, Patrick Marcel (we met at Worldcon in Glasgow), a.k.a. mantichore-- he drops in here on LJ from time to time, and weighed in on the French pronunciation of "St Vier" recently - but now we're down the nitty gritty, and came to a surprising realization. Here, with his permission, is our latest correspondence for your amusement:

( Read more... )

"Saint-Vière" it is, then! And god bless La Marseillaise.

Interestingly, "St Vier" gave the Spaniards trouble as well - I had a long conversation with my wonderful editor, Luis Prado of Bibliopolis, when he was about to publish A Punta de Espada - for sociological as well as linguistic reasons I still don't fully understand (as my Spanish is pretty much nil), he begged me to consent to changing it to "de Vier." I honestly don't object to any of this; names are mostly sounds to me, so if it sounds better in translation, why not?

The nice folks at Italy's ALIA project (foreign short fiction in translation) have asked Delia & me for stories, which we will painstakingly select & send them. They've sent a link to the work of a young Roman illustrator, "ScarletGothica" - I am just enchanted with this picture in her online portfolio - looks like someone I'd know!

to TPOTS sold to Uitgeverij Luitingh-Sijthoff - don't know anything about them but they have an address on Leidsegracht, which is nice! It will probably be a year or two before the edition comes out, but I'm looking forward to it - we love Amsterdam, have good friends there - any excuse for a visit!
[Oops - Wrote this in March 2007 & forgot to post - the book is now out - more news soon!]

Meanwhile thank you, the_darkstar, for insights into German SF/F publishing, which I'm sure all my colleagues will appreciate.