Online Translation Workshops with Translator-in-Residence Sawad Hussain
Wasafiri is excited to announce translation workshop tutored by our 2024/2025 Translator-in-Residence Sawad Hussain.
Pitching Your Translation
Pitching is a skill that translators are simply expected to possess — without the formal training on how to do it. Having run pitching workshops for translators working in languages as diverse as Yiddish, Swahili, and Portuguese, I’ve learned that the inner workings of pitching can be murky at best.
Pitching can be both a blessing and a curse. The upside is that you get to curate your own body of work, and, of course, translate books that deeply resonate with you. The downsides? How do you approach editors? How do you craft your pitch (whether in writing, or delivered verbally)? How do you remain resilient in the face of rejection after rejection?
This writing workshop will address these questions, as well as how best to manage your time and energy whilst pitching — which, let’s face it, is usually unpaid. Some translators work in language pairs that don’t require pitching, but for the rest of us, this workshop is exactly what I wish I had access to when I was first trying to gain a foothold in the literary translation industry. Now, as an experienced translator, who has had to pitch over 95% of my twenty (and counting) published book-length translations, I will share samples from my pitching materials, as well as top tips for success.
This is a generative writing workshop, and participants will leave with a clearer understanding of what needs to be highlighted in your pitch, how to tailor it to a specific editor or publishing house, the best times of the year to send out a pitch, and how to tell when it’s time to shelve a particular project.
When: Thursday, 20 February, 7-9pm GMT
Where: Online, via Zoom
Tickets: SOLD OUT!
When: Thursday, 19 June, 7-9pm GMT [NEW DATE ADDED!]
Where: Online, via Zoom
Tickets: Full price tickets from £20-30. A limited number of concession and subsidised tickets are available. A Workshop Pass from £35-55 is available to purchase to attend both workshops at a discounted price.
Writing Your Translator’s Note
With the meteoric rise to prominence of both translator visibility, and the act of translation itself, translator notes – which were previously only seen in the translation of academic texts or classic works – are becoming more commonplace, and indeed, popular — whether included in the physical book itself, or signposted online, delivered via a website or podcast.
In this workshop, we will look at a wide range of translators’ notes – across various languages and genres – to provide scaffolding for writing memorable translator notes. We will analyse different approaches and styles, and discuss whether a note is always beneficial to include. Aside from the craft of the translator’s note, we will also delve into the practicalities, such as how, and when, to broach the issue with publishers.
Over the years, I have recognised the value of a translator’s note – whether included in the actual publication or not – as a reparative practice for more complex works, where they often help the reader situate the work in a way that they see fit, rather than how the book has been marketed — which, at times, can be quite sensational or reductionist.
This is an exploratory writing workshop, and participants will leave with an outline of their future translation note. A sampler of translator notes will be provided after the workshop.
When: Thursday, 6 March, 7-9pm GMT
Where: Online, via Zoom
Tickets: SOLD OUT!
Sawad Hussain is a translator from Arabic whose work was shortlisted for The 2023 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, and longlisted for The Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing. She is a judge for the Palestine Book Awards and the Armory Square Prize for Literary Translation. She has run translation workshops under the auspices of Shadow Heroes, Africa Writes, Shubbak Festival, the Yiddish Book Center, the British Library, and the National Centre for Writing. Her latest translations include The Djinn's Apple (by Djamila Morani) and The Book Censor's Library (by Bothayna al-Essa; co-translated with Ranya Abdelrahman). The latter title was recently shortlisted for the 2024 National Book Award for Translated literature. A former Co-Chair of the Translator's Association (in the UK), she is committed to mentoring literary translators and developing the translation industry in general.
