On the Translation of Southeast European Contemporary Literature: an Interview with Barbara Anderlič, from Traduki

EUPL – Hi Barbara, thank you for being here today. Could you start by introducing yourself and TRADUKI? 

Barbara Anderlič – TRADUKI is a project that was founded back in 2008 by the S. Fischer Foundation and several other founding members to promote translations. Over the years, an increasing number of institutions and organisations from different countries have become members of the network: pretty much all the Germanophone countries – Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein – form part of this network – as well as Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and the countries that emerged after the break-up of Yugoslavia. 

The goal is to support translations from the German language to Southeast European languages and vice versa, so also to support and promote translations from Southeast European languages into German. We also try to promote translations between different Southeast European languages, for example from Albanian to Slovenian. Some of the countries we work with also have official minority languages, in which case we also support translations from these languages. 

My role in the network is between project management and communication. I am the communications manager but there is also a more creative side to my job. I’m also the project manager for the Balkan Film Week and am involved in other projects, for example the Leipzig Book Fair programme. 

EUPL – How would you define the network’s core mission? Would you say it’s translation? 

Barbara Anderlič – Of course it started out with translation, which is why we have an open call for publishers to apply for translation support twice a year. However, a translation needs to be read. So of course, we need to have mechanisms in place to promote the translations. We do this via events at book fairs, such as the Leipzig Book Fair or the Buch Wien, and at festivals and readings and we are also present at festivals and book fairs in Southeast Europe. 

In addition, TRADUKI also offers residency grants for authors and translators. This allows them to focus on their work and to network. TRADUKI also has open calls for project grants to allow authors to attend smaller festivals, to support reading tours and literary projects etc. 

EUPL – What would you say – which language pairs are the most frequent within your network? 

Barbara Anderlič – TRADUKI has been around since 2008 and has supported more than 1600 translations over this time. Translations from German are the most recurrent and make up about 50%. Translations between Southeast European languages make up about 34%. 

The latter are important to us since after the breakup of Yugoslavia, the publishing industry completely collapsed and got divided into national publishing houses and institutions. Over the years we have also found that there is very little dialogue between some neighboring countries, for example between Bulgaria and Romania, or Bulgaria and Serbia, which is why these SEE translations are so important.   

And then what we try to support, but what is difficult sometimes, is translations from Southeast European languages into German, which makes up about 12%. And lastly, 6% goes into translations from minority languages. 

EUPL – You mentioned that after the end of Yugoslavia, the publishing industry fell apart into national entities. Do these industries communicate a lot with each other, or do they tend to face the West? 

Barbara Anderlič – There is obviously a big influx of translations from the Anglosphere now, and people also have developed the tendency to read books in the English original right away. I have observed this big shift, especially when it comes to English, where people just read the original because more people speak the language now. 

At the same time, worldwide English is becoming more important in the translation sector as the target language. Up until about 15 years ago there were very little translations into English, I think it was even under 1% at one point. But over the last years a few publishing houses have developed that focus specifically on translations to English. 

It’s a quite new phenomenon that I think is great. Now we have all of a sudden this big boom. But at the same time, it’s funny that the English-speaking world, that has ignored Southeast European literature and other literatures for so long, is now becoming the tastemaker. 

One of the examples I would mention is Georgi Gospodinov, who won the International Booker Prize. A little bit of history: TRADUKI supported one of the first translations of Georgi Gospodinov and we have been following him and supporting his books in different languages for more than 10 years. And Time Shelter had already won the prestigious 2021 Strega European Prize in Italy. So there was already interest and excitement around the book. However, Gospodinov was only labelled a fully-fledged ‘internationally renowned author’ and became widely known after he won the International Booker Prize. Interest in translations we supported years ago suddenly surged over night. 

EUPL – That’s interesting. 

Barbara Anderlič – One more example: There is David Diop’s novel Frère d’âme about the Senegalese Tirailleurs during the First World War, fighting on European battlefields. This had already been translated into Slovenian. So, he had already gained international recognition in my book. However, it only “really” became an international success when Barack Obama put the novel on his summer reading list. 

And I think this is something to be careful of. Sometimes I hear things such as “If this Bulgarian book has already been translated into English, a German publisher might not be interested because some people will just read it in English anyways”. So, this is one thing. But readers from Slovenia, Romania etc. should also trust their own instincts and publishers and not wait for the Anglosphere to “discover” and anoint a new “renowned author” from their own region as was the case for some with Gospodinov. 

EUPL – So you do perceive a growing interest in English translations generally, which in turn also impacts Southeast European literature. How interested is the German market in Southeast European literature? 

Barbara Anderlič – While Southeast European literature still does not get the same attention as for example Francophone or Spanish literature, there has definitely been a shift. However, it really depends on the writer and on where you are looking. Austria is somewhat of a special case because of its historical ties to some countries in the region due to the joint Habsburg history (and there’s also a Slovenian minority in the country). At the same time, there is a big Albanian-speaking diaspora in Switzerland from either Albania or Kosovo. In Germany there are also many authors who grew up in Gastarbeiter families or who came as refugees. 

These historical ties are also reflected in literature today. You have all these authors who came from this region to Germany, Austria or maybe Switzerland as children or as students and who now write in German (for example Meral Kureyshi and Barbi Marković). While these are not translations, we do promote these authors via podcasts or events. Sometimes we also support the translation of their works into Southeast European languages because that creates a dialogue between those who grew up far away and those who live in their place of origin, painting a unique picture of the country. 

EUPL – One question regarding terminology used in TRADUKI – why do you use the term Southeast European countries, rather than Balkan? 

Barbara Anderlič – It’s true that the term can seem sterile, but one must keep in mind that the network has been around since 2008, which is just a good 10 years after the wars in Yugoslavia in the 90s. And I think maybe when the project started the term Balkan was not very helpful to promote Southeast European literature. It would have quickly been pigeonholed into what the 90s have been in this region. However, that has changed – nowadays we have the Balkan Film Week, we have a Balkan Night (a literary event with music during the Leipzig Book Fair). One also needs to keep in mind that there are people who do not perceive and define themselves as Balkan in these countries and that the term “Balkans” is porous and shifty from country to country; it really depends on where you are. 

EUPL – The term has also recently been reclaimed and attached with a more positive value. 

Barbara Anderlič – Indeed, when I was a student in Spain I still had to explain to people where Slovenia was, and that it has a border with Italy. Today this is less the case. 

EUPL – And would you say that, for people to be interested in their stories, Southeast European authors need to write about their country’s history, migration and politics? 

Barbara Anderlič – I mean, one thing is pigeonholing, and one thing is what people write. It is hard to answer that but, unfortunately, yes, to some extent. If it’s just a normal, let’s say, love story of two students, which maybe is wonderfully written, a German publisher will be like, “But why would I want that from Croatia? We already have that.” I think that is to some extent the case.  

But I hope, and I do feel, that there are more and more exceptions and I do think that things are changing. Even the themes themselves in these countries are changing, and hence also what is translated. For example, there’s a surge of LGBTQ+ writers from Southeast Europe who garner a lot of visibility. And even though poetry does not always sell, there is a lot of it from Southeast Europe that moves away from the above-mentioned topics. 

So war and tragedy do not always take a central position. Maybe it’s touched upon, but it’s not the focus. Some young authors weren’t even born when the Yugoslav Wars happened for example. I think you’ll probably see a change in what authors themselves write, and maybe also what German-language publishers are willing to publish. But yes, unfortunately, people are still a bit pigeonholed. 

Then again, you have, for example, Faruk Šehić. He writes a lot about war, but he was a soldier in the war. And I think it is something that comes up in his work often. It’s also unfair to say, “Oh, you’re not supposed to write that,” if that is what he needs to write. 

EUPL – What are a few of your must reads at the moment? 

Barbara Anderlič – In June a book got published, which is the first one to trace the history of queer life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is called Historija kvir života u Bosni i Hercegovini. We have worked with one of the authors, Lejla Kalamujić, before and have supported the German translation of some of her books. She presented the book project last year at a festival in Berlin, at Balkan Radikal, where she talked about how much time went into the research. The book was created to counter negative stereotypes and oft-repeated claims along the lines of,  “Oh you know, all these queer things they are not from here. This is something imported from the West”. Luckily, the book proves that this is not the case and that the region has a very vibrant queer past. 

Another book I would recommend is Ćrtice (Založba Goga) from Slovenian author Tina Perić. It was nominated for the Kresnik Award for the best novel of the year in Slovenia.  The book deals with a very peculiar topic, which is part of Slovenian history: “The erased ones”. After the break-up of Yugoslavia, there were a lot of people from the other parts of Yugoslavia living in Slovenia who needed to decide if they wanted to become Slovenians or go back to their countries. Many of them wanted to stay because they had started families in Slovenia and they had their whole life there. However, when they went to the Slovenian authorities to get their passports changed, their old Yugoslav passports were taken away, but they were not given a new one. So, they basically became stateless. The novel tells the story of a family. Of a Slovenian mother and daughter and Serbian father. Their life comes crashing down when the father loses his passport and then his job and so on. He cannot even travel anymore. This quite dramatic story is told with such humour and warmth, making it a lovely read. 

Another recommendation would be Tatiana Țîbuleac, who was a laureate of EUPL in 2019 with the novel The Glass Garden. We supported the translation into Slovenian (by Aleš Mustar, published under the title Stekleni vrt by Beletrina) and I absolutely love this book. She writes about the changes in Moldova during and after the time of its independence. It touches on themes like the search for identity but also holds an indisputable political dimension. The way she addresses the struggle of speaking the language of the oppressor is really complex and touching. 

One book that is maybe not that well known is Our Unburied Past written by László Végel, who is a Serbian writer, but from Vojvodina, where about 10% of the population belong to the Hungarian minority, so he writes in Hungarian. I love the way he describes the situation of the Hungarian minority in Serbia in such a satirical, witty, sharp but also comical way. Even though this book does not follow current trends, he writes so well and has a very precise understanding of political manipulations and how political parties foster nationalist thinking on both sides of the border. 

Then there is also Ana Marwan, a Slovenian author who writes in Slovenian but also German, since she has been living in Austria for more than 10 years. She won the Ingeborg Bachmann Literary Prize in 2022 and her book Zabubljena (Beletrina) is just beautiful. She plays with language; it makes you think the book is going in one direction while leading you somewhere completely different. And I will not spoil it for you, but it is kind of a book inside a book. 

EUPL – Thank you so much, Barbara. We are definitely looking forward to reading these!

 

BARBARA ANDERLIČ’S READING SUGGESTIONS
David Diop, Frère d’âme, Le Seuil. The English translation by Anna Moschovakis was published under the title At Night All Blood Is Black and won the 2021 International Booker Prize. It was published in the UK by Pushkin Press and in the US by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The Slovenian translation by Janina Kos was published by Mladinska knjiga under the title Več kot brat.
Georgi Gospodinov, Времеубежище, Janet 45. The English translation by Angela Rodel was published under the title Time Shelter and won the 2023 International Booker Prize.
Maja Haderlap, Engel des Vergessens, Wallstein Verlag.  The Slovenian translation by Štefan Vevar was published under the title Angel pozabe by Litera with the support of TRADUKI. The English translation by Tess Lewis entitled Angel of Oblivion, was published by Archipelago Books.
Barbi Marković, Minihorror, Residenz Verlag. Winner of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize 2024 (among several other accolades).
Meral Kureyshi, Im Meer waren wir nie, Limmat Verlag.
Faruk Šehić, Knjiga o Uni, Buybook. The German translation of the novel by Elvira Veselinović was published under the title Von der Una by Voland & Quist and was supported by TRADUKI.
Damir Imamović, Matej Vrebac, Lejla Kalamujić, Amila Buturović, Nikolina Todorović, Historija kvir života u Bosni i Hercegovini, Sarajevski otvoreni centar.
Tina Perić, Ćrtice, Založba Goga.
Tatiana Țîbuleac, Grădina de sticlă, Cartier. [The Glass Garden]
László Végel, Temetetlen múltunk. Önéletrajzi regény, Noran Libro. [Our Unburied Past. Autobiographical Novel]
Ana Marwan, Zabubljena, Beletrina. The German translation by Klaus Detlef Olof was published under the title Verpuppt by Otto Müller Verlag. The translation of the novel was supported by TRADUKI.