Lost to translation: how English readers miss out on foreign female writers
Only a third of books translated into English last year were by female writers. As Women in Translation month wraps up, we investigate why – and if things are changing
• In their own words: 10 female translators on the work that inspires them
When Argentinian author Samanta Schweblin’s first book, El núcleo del disturbio came out in 2002, she was 24 years old, a fresh, female voice in a Latin American literary scene dominated by male greats: Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez. Every good review was important, even if the praise was occasionally backhanded: one well-known Argentinian critic loved her debut and said that she wrote like a man.
More than a decade later, she rolls her eyes. “That’s a compliment? It was so strange to me … and he was trying to be very nice, trying to cheer me up and push my career,” says Schweblin, now with a Man Booker International prize nomination under her belt.
Related: In their own words: 10 female translators on the work that inspires them
Related: The malice and sexism behind the ‘unmasking’ of Elena Ferrante
