Navigating Across Worlds and Languages: The Craft of Translating Speculative Fiction

Authors of the fantastic create a world for their readers to step into, mapping out its borders with touchstones from familiar tales, or exploring less well-known territory drawn from the depths of their imagination. Translating these works of fiction demands an approach that does justice to their worldbuilding. We’ll explore this topic by looking at Tolkien, Murakami, Le Guin, Gaiman, Sapkowski and more.

About the speaker:
Joy Phillips (she/her). Professional translator, author’s editor and copywriter with an MA in English literature and linguistics. An inveterate bookaholic who has lived more than half her life over 9 000 km from where she was born, Joy is fascinated by language, food, coffee and speculative fiction. Currently based in the Netherlands, she has spent the past 25+ years helping fiction writers, researchers, companies, NGOs and government agencies convey their concepts to a broader international audience. An earlier version of this talk was presented at the Once and Future Fantasies Conference (July 2022) at the University of Glasgow.