Social: Translators Social with Jan Mitsuko Cash

 

screenshot of some of the attendees at the Translators Social

Hosted by SCBWI Global Translator Coordinator Avery Fischer Udagawa, the friendly group included translation coordinators Susan Jones (SCBWI Japan) and Kelly Zhang (SCBWI Canada East).

The community meeting started with Avery sharing opportunities for translators through SCBWI, including the new grant, Pitch Perfect - a grant to help translators propose projects. Keep an eye out for World KidLit Month (coming up in September.)

Jan Mitsuko Cash won the 2024 Batchelder Award (the equivalent of the Newbery award for translating children's books) for translating Houses with a Story by Seiji Yoshida, and Jan is a special guest at the social! 

Avery and Jan talk about the translation work Jan is doing - mostly manga, a little bit of novels, and also some middle grade -- mostly commissioned works.

Jan's advice for those who want to translate books for children:

Cold emails - that's how Jan got her start!

Jan's advice for published translators:

Be careful about scheduling - "I've had to learn how to say 'no' to things." Think about what you want to prioritize and what you really want to pursue.

We get to see more of Jan's translation projects, Jan talks about puns (translating puns), and there's a whole discussion about the spread about toilets in Houses with a Story. "It's just a really great spread... and all these fun facts... he makes everything look beautiful." That translation job was also unique in that the original 200 page book was hand-written by the author/illustrator in the original edition in Japanese.

The social transitioned to introduction and conversation among the group.

A lovely community of translators!

PS: If you're a translator, and you're interested in being a guest blogger for SCBWI (a paid opportunity) please see this post here.