Thread by @nadiya_shabnam

Into the void: Here's a thread on #LiteraryTranslation translation from Bangladesh. Novelist Shaheen Akhtar just won the 3rd Asian Literary Award, a major prize in South Korea, for her novel Talaash (Eng: The Search, trans. Ella Dutta), translated into Korean by Seung Hee Jeon.

A well-deserved honor for an exceptional writer. I can't read Korean, but here's coverage from there

newsis.com/view/?id=NISX2…

and coverage in Bangladesh

dhakatribune.com/magazine/arts-…

Shaheen Akhtar is one of my all-time favorites writers and the prize committee's press release compared her to Svetlana Alexievic--another favorite-which made my heart go ba-boop-a-doop

Two of her novels, Talaash (The Search) published by @ZubaanBooks and Beloved Rongomala (which I had the honor of translating) published by @BengalLightsBooks are my all time faves.

Talaash/The Search is about Maryam, a Birangona. survivor of wartime rape and the enduring trauma that becomes her life. It's the only Bangladeshi novel that gives voice to the Birangona without containing them in a victimhood narrative box.

Talaash was published in English translation by Zubaan in Delhi in 2009. Both @Mahmud_writer and I had some involvement in the translation process. A few years ago, Seung Hee Jeon, a Korean translator, came across a copy, and was very taken with the novel.

To Seung Hee, Talaash resonated to the history of Korean Comfort Women; the women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army. When she got in touch with Shaheen, it turned out that Shaheen had attended the International Women's War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo.

Attending that event informed Shaheen's stance on sexual violence as war crimes, complementing her experience of Bangladesh's history of mass rape during our war. Also: revisionism, the stigma and social ostracism faced by rape victims, etc.

Seung Hee undertook the translation of Talaash into Korean b/c she was convinced that the book would resonate with Korean readers. Shaheen put her in touch with me so I could help with any questions re language/culture. Seung Hee traveled to Dhaka and even learned some Bangla.

There were setbacks to getting this book to print but she did it. And now: this award. Super happy about this b/c Shaheen is a writer who absolutely should gain recognition outside of Bangla sphere. Maybe the west will catch up one day, but for now Asia, through Korea will do.

The journey of Talaash is testament to the hard work of literary translators, and how we connect readers to books (and another reason to #NameTheTranslator). This is how literature+translation make our world bigger and smaller at the same time. It's magic, I swear, we're magic!

Here is some of Shaheen's work available in English. 

An excerpt from
Talaash
feminisminindia.com/2018/06/07/boo…

A review of Talaash
dnaindia.com/lifestyle/repo…

The English translation of The Search is available here through U of Chicago
Press

press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book…

My translation of Shaheen Akhtar's Snakes, Husbands, Ashalota and Us in @wwborders, one of my faves and themes of sexual repression and exploitation, self-recognition, non-hetero sexual exploration

wordswithoutborders.org/article/snakes…

@Mahmud_writer's translation of Shaheen Akhtar's Once Again, Love, also in @wwborders

wordswithoutborders.org/article/once-a…

Kabita Chakma's translation of Shaheen Akhtar's lovely story The Moon Mountain  
outofprintmagazine.co.in/archive/june_2…

And here's @Mahmud_writer's tweet giving gave some context to the story translated by Kabita Chakma

https://twitter.com/Mahmud_writer/status/1282326716996714497

An excerpt from my translation of Shaheen Akhtar's stellar novel Beloved Rongomala in @UIIWP's translation journal 91st Meridian's South Asian literature in translation issue

iwp.uiowa.edu/91st/vol9-num1…

Another excerpt from my translation of Beloved Rongomala was published in the Hauntings issue of @TwoLinesPress

catranslation.org/person/shaheen…

And here's an interview I did with Shaheen many years ago, when I was a baby translator and had just discovered Talaash/The Search

eclectica.org/v11n1/nadiya.h…

Shaheen Akhtar is an exceptional writer. I've translated her work for years and remain hopeful that she will find readership outside of Bengali. To this end, I/we shall persist.

Here's to writers, translators, and readers and how our world is made up of discovery and love

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