I Attend an American writers to Texas writers, before the world fell into Covid-19 Lockdowns. Between panels and networking, I spent my time around the Fair book, leaf of titles and pepple publishers of questions.
“How many translated works do you have in your catalogs? How do you know the authors from outside the US? And how do you evaluate the quality of writing you don’t say?”
I don’t just say – I’m on a mission. I would like to know what kind of work the publishers of America appealed and if I could get in my interest. I don’t worry hiding my ambition.
A response keeps me, staying in my mind like a spore. It comes from a representative of one of the largest US printing houses. After I explained where I came from, using the buzz
“Think of stories and themes specific to your culture and in the history of the place.”
“So,” I said, “Not a story about, say, a woman who left her financial career, rounding her husband, and became a potter?”
“Well, if that story also explores your cultural issues or historical, then yes.”
I felt a fragment of hostility but thanked him respectfully and walked away. A coffee and cigarette suddenly felt important.
In the years since, I understood why his words were so annoyed with me. They expose a pattern – one still fails me.
For the authors from the Balkans, and other European countries and countries of the whole history and culture a concentrated state of English and our work of public conditions in English or our public conditions. In order to succeed, there must be a meaning or figurative value – good to have a Dash in didacticism.
“American readers should learn about the place,” as it publishes.
At first sight, this expectation as well as reasonable, however. Then, the authors everywhere, including the Balkans, reflect on their surroundings around politics and culture. Literature is always a medium for repeating, analyzing and spilling society.
But the deeper explanation of this expectation is more disturbing. It rests on a tacit believed that the Balkans are a smaller place – a region to keep whitened with tragedy potential. While the publisher is trusted:
By “traumatic”, is he imagining the violence in the Second World War or in Yugoslav wars? Did he explain to a region taken in poverty, inequality and patriarchal traditions? He may consider Balkan Societies that are unique in violence or sadness. She probably hopes post-socialist’s refusal stories, which keeps the idea we processed “trauma” in socialism in Yugoslav.
I can’t say that. What I know is this: he is not interested in a Balkan version of My year to rest and relaxation. A novel about a protagonist from the Balkans tired of capitalism of capitalism, self-absorbed, angry or morally not failing to mark the correct boxes.
Sad for him, he might be glosed in Hybrid novel Through Slovenia writer Nataša Kremblerger, taking a farm in Slovenian Styria, after moving from Berlin. And I suspect he doesn’t care about the short stories of Croatian Luiza Bouharauawhich paints the angst and happiness of the millennials, even with adriatic colors. Neither for poet poets in North Macedonian Kalia DimitrovaWho wants to refer to Capri and Berlin but are rarely on the skopje.
For an act by a Balkan writer who succeeds, the protagonist should be a victim – a clear and not a bad. Publishers prefer stories with mercy, morale, heart heart or, good, all three.
In short, we expect Balkan authors to approach themes universal – sadness, separation, love, loss, by a narrow lens in the region. And that lens should include a treatment of a self-exoticising twist.
To manifest, the Balkans are a specified region with unique culture, political and historical complexity. The writers from this part of the world have a lot to say about it, and many are very good. But if the English translations are intended to expand knowledge of “Balkan area”, publishers should be willing to participate in stories that challenge stories that challenge views of perspectives.
The question is not when Balkan writers need to reflect their context. We will always do, naturally. The question is when publishers listen to variation in voices that arise from the region – or if they continue to be privileged smoothly with their minds.
Then, there is more than the balks than trauma, tragedy or tutorial talents. There are also extraordinary stories about women who have previously worked financing, leaving their husbands and opened a business in pots. Some PubliChishers in North American and UK have already supported such stories fully – so Georgi Gospodinov ‘International Booker Award in Booker – And the mission to bring voices from various corners of the world of a global audience, not as ambassadors of their geography but as hasty their own rights. But many more have done so.
