The Governesses
Lessons in shame, lust, and constraint: Anne Serre's The Governesses
In a large country house, shut off from the world within a gated garden, three young women responsible for the education of a group of little boys are hanging paper lanterns for a party...
Following on from publication in the US by New Directions, we too are dusting out our paper lanterns to celebrate Anne Serre’s UK debut, published 2nd April. Read an exclusive extract published today on Granta.
Congratulations to Sophie Lewis for her translation of Blue Self-Portrait by Noémi Lefebvre (Les Fugitives’s third title)!
Also shortlisted are the translators of Alain Mabanckou, Virginie Despentes (translated by previous Scott Moncrieff laureate Frank Wynn), Vénus Khoury-Ghata and graphic novel writer and illustrator Dominique Goblet — that’s four female authors and translators out of five (see The Society of Authors for the full shortlist of all translation awards 2019).
In the judges’ words: ‘Sophie Lewis’s translation artfully renders the syntactical and lexical syncopations that Noémi Lefebvre deploys to evoke - and destabilise - the temporal and geographical moorings in her narrative counterpoint.’ (We couldn’t agree more.)
The Scott Moncrieff Prize is an annual award of £1,000 for translations into English of full length French works of literary merit and general interest. Established in 1965, and named after the celebrated translator of Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu, the prize is generously sponsored by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni. The 2016 Scott Moncrieff Prize, for translations published in 2015, went to Natasha Lehrer and Cécile Menon for their translation of Suite for Barbara Loden, by Nathalie Léger, published Les Fugitives, in an exceptional year for the nano-press’s very first book. We are delighted to be back in the translation prizes runner-ups, for the third consecutive year (Jeffrey Zuckerman was shortlisted for the TA’s inaugural First Translation Prize 2018 for Eve out of Her Ruins, by Ananda Devi)
The translation prizes will be awarded in a ceremony at The British Library Knowledge Centre on 13th February.
Now, Now, Louison among excellent company on this year’s Republic of Consciousness longlist!
‘An immersive and profoundly satisfying engagement with the artist Louise Bourgeois. Gorgeously translated, it is full of illuminating observations on a remarkable life and tremendous body of work, from the striking opening to the final poignant evocation of gathering darkness. ‘
Announced 14 January 2019 with TLS Online
Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses 2019 longlist
Listen to Neil Griffiths and guests discuss Now, Now, Louison on the November and December 2018 RofC podcast.
Now, Now, Louison will be published in the USA by New Directions in March 2019. This is a first collaboration between Les Fugitives and the much-admired American independent literary press. Two more books for publication in 2019, in partnership with New Directions, are underway and will be announced later this year. Meanwhile the editors of Harper's BAZAAR USA have also fallen in love with Now, Now, Louison and will publish a 2000 words excerpt in their August issue 2018.
English PEN named Mireille Gansel #WITMonth author for 23 August 2018.
Translated by Ros Schwartz, English PEN notes 'Translation as Transhumance is a humanist meditation on the art of translation'.
Read English PEN's presentation of the book here.
Read more reviews of Translation as Transhumance here.
Read more about Women In Translation month here.
The Film Stage has announced that Wanda, Barbara Loden's American independent 1970 landmark is to return to theatres thanks to production company Janus Films. 'Thanks to the likes of champions Isabelle Huppert and John Waters – as well as Nathalie Léger’s recent book – the film has received a resurgence as of late, and now Janus Films will release it in theaters this summer, followed by a likely release on The Criterion Collection.' Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger, was published in the UK by Les Fugitives in March 2015 and by American indie press Dorothy Project in 2016.
'Sometimes a writer (and translator) get “voice” so perfectly a character emerges into real life. This is one of the most fluidly charming, intellectually committed, funny pieces of fiction in years.' Neil Griffiths, author and founder of the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses.
Presenter Sara Cox & Eimear McBride, author of A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, talk about books they love with Harriett Gilbert. Eimear recommends Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger, in which a French researcher tries to write a biography of the film actress Barbara Loden. She's now nearly forgotten despite being the first woman to write, direct and star in her own feature film, Wanda, which won the International Critics Award at the 1970 Venice Film Festival.
Record number of women authors and translators win PEN Translates awards this year, including Translation as Transhumance, by Mireille Gansel (Les Fugitives, Nov. 2017)
The fiction finalist of the CLMP (Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, USA) Firecracker Awards is Eve out of Her Ruins. The award was accepted on 6th June 2017 by translator Jeffrey Zuckerman.
Eve out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi was shortlisted for the 2017 fiction shortlists of the BTBA and the newly created readers' award Albertine Prize. See The Offing and Lithub for exclusive web excerpts.
Our first title, Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger (2015) won the 2016 Scott Moncrieff Prize for Translation. It was shortlisted for the fiction shortlist of the French-American Foundation 2017 Translation Prize and longlisted for the 2017 Albertine Prize. It was chosen by Eimear McBride as one of her two Books of the Year in the Guardian’s Best Books of 2015. See exclusive web excerpts on 3:AM and The Paris Review.
On 18th June 2016, Isabelle Huppert introduced a rare and exclusive screening of Wanda (the inspiration behind Nathalie Léger’s docu-novel) at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.
The US election has put a new responsibility on us as translators and publishers to stand up to misogyny and bigotry and misinformation.
"It is in times like this when we most need stories that open windows into other spaces and other lives. It would not be unreasonable to read Eve Out of Her Ruins as an allegory of these various populist movements. There's the same seductive resistance to authority, that same adolescent insistence on destructive, romantic rebellion. But then comes the more difficult question: how does Eve go forward into a better life after escaping and bringing down the various forces that held her back and hurt her? How does any country move forward after saying 'no' and casting aside the framework that had, however imperfectly, kept it on a steady course? It is one thing to want change, but it is another to see change through to a new reality.
It's only one of many possible readings that could be applied to Eve--the fact is that I had never thought about the book and the story in such terms until this election came around."
— Jeffrey Zuckerman, translator of Eve out of Her Ruins