The translation of literary texts from Catalan and Spanish into English: examples, strategies and challenges in Negres Tempestes / Negras Tormentas

Join us in this roundtable to discuss key issues and challenges of literary translations between Spanish, Catalan and English. Renowned translator Peter Bush and author Teresa Solana will explore the case of Negres Tempestes / Negras Tormentas and its translation into English, Black Storms, which is to be published in October 2024. Catalan writer Xavier Mas Craviotto will bring on his views and experience on the writing and translating processes.

This event is supported by Instituto Cervantes and Institut Ramon Llull

Event Details:

Time: 12pm

Date: Friday 27th September

Location: The Language Lounge

Teresa Solana

Teresa Solana (Barcelona, 1962) is one of the most translated Catalan writers into other languages. A translator by profession, for eight years she ran the ‘Casa del Traductor’ in Tarazona. In 2006 she debuted with the novel Un crim imperfecte (An Imperfect Crime), starring a peculiar pair of detectives, which won her the ‘Brigada 21’ prize for the best original novel in Catalan. The novels Drecera al paradís, L'Hora Zen and Campanades de boda belong to this series. She has also published two books of short stories - Set casos de sang i fetge i una historia d'amor, and Matèria grisa, which won the Roc Boronat prize - and the children's series Supernyaps.  

Negres tempestes, the novel which won the ‘Crims de Tinta’ prize, inaugurates the series starring Norma Forester, a sub-inspector of the Mossos d'Esquadra with a very peculiar family who is also the protagonist of La casa de les papallones and Octubre. Her work is characterised by her ironic view of society and her sense of humour. Teresa has been living in the United Kingdom since 2014. 

Peter Bush  

Peter Bush has translated a number of classics: from Spanish, Fernando de Roja’s Celestina; from Catalan, Mercè Rodoreda’s In Diamond Square (Virago) Joan Sales’ Uncertain Glory (The MacLehose Press), Josep Pla’s The Gray Notebook (NYRB) and his short story collections Life Embitters and Salt Water (Archipelago Books), Rosa Maria Arquimbau’s Forty Lost Years (Fum d’Estampa) and Víctor Català’s A Film (3000 meters) (Open Letter). He has translated six Mario Conde novels by Leonardo Padura (Bitter Lemon).  

He has also translated three novels by Teresa Solana with the detective brothers, Eduard and Borja, A Not So Perfect Crime, A Shortcut to Paradise and The Sound of One Hand Killing, and a selection of short stories, The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories (all Bitter Lemon). Black Storms (The Corylus Press) is the first in the Norma Forester series to be translated into English. 

Xavier Mas Craviotto 

Xavier Mas Craviotto (born 1996 in Navàs, Catalonia) has a degree in Catalan Philology and a postgraduate degree in Language Assessment and Editorial Services from the Universitat de Barcelona. He was a lecturer in Catalan Studies at the University of Bristol (2020-2024) and now he works as a teacher and proofreader. He has published the novel La mort lenta (Premi Documenta 2018) and La pell del món (2023). As a poet, he has published Renills de cavall negre (Certamen Art Jove Salvador Iborra 2018), La gran nàusea and La llum subterrània (Premi Ausiàs March 2022). He has won around twenty literary prizes for narrative and poetry and has contributed to several collections of collective stories.