Three years on the Parkbench

Greetings all, and hope you're marking Bloomsday with something appropriately meaty and literary.

Bloomsday 2011 marks Parkbench's third birthday, and for the occasion, I'd like to redirect you to SelfMadeHero's blog guest post by yours truly for a bit of chat about the ups and downs of translating graphic novels, particularly BLACK PATHS by David B., out from SelfMadeHero on 30 June at the London launch party, to which you're all invited.

While you're there, check out our other 2011 titles: the wildly successful Cuban love story, Chico & Rita, translated by Howard Curtis, and Baby's in Black, a Beatles fan must, translated by Michael Waaler.

PARKBENCH TURNS TWO!

Parkbench shares the anniversary of its founding with an infinitely more important local event: Bloomsday. Today, Parkbench turned two, and Bloomsday was celebrated for the 106^th time. I would be hard pressed to make further comparisons between the two on any front, but, wearing my anorak, I do quietly enjoy the fact that a Dublin-based literary business was founded on a decidedly literary and decidedly ‘Dublin’ day.

Without sounding too much like an annual report, it has been a tough year for publishing, and thus for Parkbench. That said, it has seen a few important developments. I got an M.Phil in Literary Translation from Trinity College, Dublin, where I met and worked with an impressive team of new literary translators, some of whom have worked for Parkbench on sample translations for a French publisher and a Greek film festival. We kept up a steady online presence, through which we found translator Michael Waaler, who did the wildly successful translation from the German of Cash. My own first full translation from the French was published just this month, The Hot Rock, and there’s another in the pipeline: Kiki, a graphic biography of Man Ray’s model and the toast of 1920s Paris.

Also through web connections, we came across Sorcha Grisewood, a Dublin native now living in Abu Dhabi, where she works as a teacher. She caught my eye on the Publishing Ireland website for having a Masters in Translation Studies from Dublin City University and for her interest in breaking into publishing. Sorcha now works remotely as a part-time researcher for Parkbench, exploring new possibilities for our translation work abroad, and she has been delivering the goods by email and Skype for some weeks now, and her work has been invaluable.

By way of diversifying, Parkbench will be a patron of the Ranelagh Arts Festival, a local Dublin festival offering an impressive week-long programme of theatre, literature dance, music and the visual arts in area venues starting on Dublin’s Culture Night on 24 September – so be there or be square!

So, onwards and upwards. Plans for the coming year include building relationships with more Continental publishers, and closer to home, with our many arts and theatre festivals across the country.

Keep an eye on the Parkbench facebook page and Twitter account to keep in touch about all things translation and publishing, or indeed just drop us a line.

All the best,

Nora Mahony

OYEZ, OYEZ: Trinity Translation Conference coming up

The second Trinity College Dublin translation conference

'Translation, Right or Wrong'

will take place on

Friday 6th and Saturday 7th March 2009

The latest version of the programme is available here.

Keynote speakers are Josephine Balmer and Lawrence Venuti.

The website includes a booking form;
further information can be obtained by contacting cato@tcd.ie

Nominations for Best Irish Bookshop

The Guardian is now accepting nominations for the best Irish bookshop for their bookworm-generated guide. Judging by the breakdown of other regions covered across the UK and across the world, they're meaning to include shops across the island of Ireland.

Do it do it!

I'm thinking of the Winding Stair, but it's much diminished in hours and ambiance since the swank, chain-owned restaurant moved in. I liked the dirty windows and the grimy teapots of yore... I go to Reader's in Dun Laoghaire a good bit, but mainly to sell. Books Upstairs is good, and they have an online service through their fantastic website. My own neck of the woods is disturbingly bookshop-free, so will have to have a think.

Comments, please!

Dublin Writers Festival

While wading through the red tape that is setting up a new business, I'm very much looking forward to a break in the form of the Dublin Writers Festival. I'll aim for Lloyd Jones in a panel with John Boyne, headed up by Claire Kilroy, but I'm stuck on the Friday between the IMPAC Winner (tba - but here's the shortlist) and Tom Stoppard, who's a bit of an idol of mine and equally, clearly, of the guy running the Festival blog. If I thought that McGuinness was going to discuss the Ibsens he's put to bed after so many years, I might run back up to Dublin for that one - we shall see!

Meanwhile, tomorrow will cover the Tax Man and requirements for being self-employed, the Companies Registration Office to relocate my place of business to our new home address, and the good, old-fashioned bank, comparing deals for business banking. No one ever said it was going to be glamourous!

The great news, however, is that we're now up to nearly twenty editors, proofreaders, literary translators and foreign readers on the books and ready for work at Parkbench!