Want to Write Better Fiction? Become a Translator
Around the world, it’s common for fiction writers to moonlight as translators. Even in places where there’s a robust network of governmental support for writers, translation work provides, at least in theory, a welcome injection of income. Since it’s difficult to make a living writing novels or stories, collecting an extra source of funding is important. What better way to do that than by plying the same medium—language, storytelling—as you do in your art?
In Denmark, Pia Juul (The Murder of Halland; tr. Martin Aitken), Harald Voetmann (Sublunar, Awake; tr. Johanne Sorgenfri Ottesen), Olga Ravn (The Employees; tr. Martin Aitken), and Simon Fruelund, whose work I’ve translated, most recently The World and Varvara, have all translated books into Danish while also developing their craft as writers. Brazilian Paolo Henriques Britto (The Clean Shirt of It; tr. Idra Novey) and Argentine Federico Falco (A Perfect Cemetery, tr. Jenny Croft) have done the same. Jhumpa Lahiri was a prominent novelist and short story writer in English, of course, before she moved to Italy and began publishing in—and translating from—Italian. This is by no means an exhaustive list.
Unlike many of their counterpartsprovide a decent life for yourself and your family. Like freelance writers, independent (non-academic) translators are part of the gig economy—a perilous balancing act between employment and under-employment. For translators whose primary income is derived from translation, it’s a constant hustle. Even if you’re signed to translate two books, say, you’re always thinking about landing a third, because you can’t let the well run dry. You want to know you’ve got a reliable income stream ahead of you. And with many translators , the hustle is even more acute today.
