Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.06.2018, Qupperneq 54

Books 46The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 09 — 2018
Ten Years in
Translation
US publisher of Icelandic fiction Open Letter
books fills a decade
Words: Björn Halldórsson Photo: Kaija Straumanis
Speak w ith any A nglophone
translator of literature for longer
than a few minutes and you’re
likely to hear the number “three
percent” being thrown around.
It’s the percentage of books pub-
lished in English each year that are
literary translations. It has, there-
fore, been emboldening to observe
the increase of English language
translations of Icelandic fiction
in the past
few years.
O n e o f
the most
recent of
these pub-
lications is
Guðbergur
Bergsson’s
1966 post-
modern classic ‘Tómas Jónsson,
Bestseller,’ which was nominated
this month for the 2018 Best Trans-
lated Book Award. The book was
translated by Lytton Smith, and
published by Open Letter Books,
which is based at the University
of Rochester in Upstate New York.
Playing the long game
From the outside, a book like
‘Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller’—a
hefty 50-year-old local classic filled
with wordplay and obscure refer-
ences—seems like a gamble for any
publisher, but as Head of Open Let-
ter Books Chad W. Post points out,
being able to take risks is one of
the benefits of being a small press.
“We only have three full-time
employees, and no rent,” he ex-
plains. “We’re non-profit oriented,
so our goals are to do things for the
sake of culture, rather than for reve-
nue. Everyone would like us to make
money, obviously, but as an aca-
demic entity, that’s not necessarily
your priority. We’re more concerned
with how many sales we’ll have
over ten years than just the next
18 months, and how many readers
we’ll reach over the coming decade.”
The oddity of Icelandic
fiction
Open Letter’s strategy is focused
on publishing works of transla-
tion, often by authors who have not
previously appeared in English. In
the past, they have published novels
by Icelandic authors such as Kristín
Ómarsdóttir, Sölvi Björn Sigurðs-
son and Bragi Ólafsson—whose
latest novel
‘Narrator’
is coming
o u t t h i s
A u g u s t .
Scout-
i n g f o r
books and
w o r k i n g
c l o s e l y
with translators and Icelandic
publishers has given Chad some
surprising insights into Icelandic
fiction. “Lytton pointed out to me
that there’s this ongoing thing of
small spaces and being confined
in small rooms in the Icelandic
books we’ve published,” he says,
guessing that it may have some-
thing to do with the
severe weather that
drives Icelanders in-
doors for most the
year. “Also, often the
plot doesn’t necessarily proceed
in the normal order, with a rising
climax and a resolution. Some of the
books are almost plotless and end
abruptly while in other instances
more and more stories keep get-
ting added to the main story. I
like that sort of unresolvedness;
how it makes the narrative feel
universal because it doesn’t fol-
low a concrete, imposed structure.”
Surviving as a small
press
This May, Open Letter Books cel-
ebrated its tenth-year anniver-
sary—an impressive longevity for
an independent publisher of their
size. In that time, they’ve created a
dependable brand for international
fiction. Chad attributes much of
their longevity to their trusting reg-
ular readership, which allows the
publisher to pursue obscure works
in translation, relatively safe in the
knowledge that their readers will
give any Open Letter book a chance.
He also advises new publishers
in the field to manage their expec-
tations. “It’s important to realise
that publishing literature comes
in cycles,” he explains. “When a
new press starts out, they tend to
get a lot more attention at that mo-
ment in time than they will in the
next three years. That’s just the
way that it goes: people love the
shiny new object. If you base your
future on the success of that initial
moment, you’ll run into problems.
These things go up and down; books
go in and out of fashion like any-
thing else. It’s better to go slow and
remain true to whatever artistic or
stylistic visions you’ve set your-
self, rather than chasing trends.”
Establishing contact
with the local scene
When it comes to domestic ef-
forts to pursue the translation of
Icelandic literature, Chad praises
the Icelandic publishers for their
efforts in promoting their books
internationally. He also makes spe-
cial note of the Icelandic Literature
Centre—whose translation grants
have helped fund some of Open
Letter’s publications
of Icelandic books.
“The job they do
in helping overseas
publishers get a sense
of the local scene, by providing in-
formation and bringing people to
Iceland to meet authors and attend
festivals, is incredibly helpful.” For
authors hoping to see their work in
translation, he stresses the impor-
tance of attending festivals as well
as securing well-written English
language extracts of their works.
“It’s best to work with translators
that are already established in
whatever country you’re consid-
ering.” He laughs. “Whether you’re
a big or small publisher, if you get
a book that doesn’t have a sample
translation, you’re probably just
going to ignore it.”
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