This week, our team members bring us news from around the world, from worldbuilding at a conference in Canada to reflections on the ties between Ireland and Spain. Read on for more on a bilingual publication out of Hong Kong, and Irish press publishing literature from the Romanian diaspora, and more!
Heloisa Selles, Executive Assistant, reporting from Toronto, Canada
It was the last Saturday of August when a crowd of speculative fiction lovers gathered to attend the AugurCon, in Toronto. It was the first in-person event promoted by Augur Magazine, a biannual publication that promotes Canadian and Indigenous voices writing fantasy, science fiction, and other uncommon forms of genre fiction. As a reader and an appreciator of the strange and unusual, I knew I had to be there.
As the afternoon went by—a mild, muggy breeze bringing spurts of rain and, consequently, people in and out of the venue—I noticed my perception of neighboring urban outlines changing, shaped by the imaginative perspectives on worldbuilding the conference highlighted. Author Larissa Lai, one of the participants of “The Speculative City” panel, spoke about utopia as more than the capacity to imagine something better (or as a concept on the flip side of pessimism), but as a continuous investigation that honors the function of the dream. What is better in the dream, and for whom? “The dream as we dream it may not come to pass,” she said, “but our dreams impinge on flows.” This lyrical statement about the ethics of creation reminded me of the proverb: “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is now.” In SFF, creating new visions of what the world could become is also a way to keep the door open for those who will come after you, writers and readers alike.
Besides the panels, Augur also organized workshop AMAs with leading professionals in the publishing industry. I missed some discussions due to the overlapping agenda—and an enthusiastic, boisterous crowd—but I liked what I saw. I found the deliberate choice of keeping statistics out of discussion rather curious, especially in light of how BookTok helped boost sales in 2022 and fantasy genres went up 26.5% in sales in the first half of 2023, according to Publisher Weekly. Another overlooked but crucial aspect of publishing speculative fiction is the importance of funding for writers. This topic was partially addressed by a workshop about grants, which detailed the eligibility criteria for the Toronto Arts Council (TAC) Writers Program. In the federal sphere, the 2021-26 Strategic Plan created by the Canada Council for the Arts delineates how it is investing $1.6B in grants to authors to support artistic and literary creation.
The day was long and busy. As I packed up my modest book haul at the end of the one-day event, marinating in thoughts about fictional worlds, I noticed an old yearning being rekindled, the promise of being wrapped up in a fantastic story growing inside me. Maybe that is the primordial role of speculative fiction: to help us cope with real life by allowing us to step out of it, even if just for a little bit.
Charlie Ng, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Hong Kong
The 73rd issue of Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, published in early September, placed strong emphasis on translation and poetry. As a major bilingual local poetry publication, Voice & Verse is not only an outlet for poetic creative writing and criticism but has also been proactive in introducing works of international poets to local readers through Chinese translation, as well as promoting the works of Hong Kong poets to English readers through English translation. In this issue, eleven selected poems by Argentine poet Diana Bellessi are translated into Chinese, reflecting her diverse topics ranging from gender, politics, to ecological awareness. Bellessi is also invited to attend events in Beijing and Hong Kong in November this year by the Hong Kong Poetry Festival Foundation and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The special feature aims to honour the poet and respond to the underrepresentation of such an important Latin American voice in the Chinese-speaking world.
Meanwhile, as Hong Kong poet Derek Chung Kwok-keung recently published a Chinese translation of selected poems of William Carlos Williams, Voice & Verse includes a few of Chung’s translated works and the “Afterword” of the volume. The magazine’s editor Chris Song also continues his project of translating Ezra Pound’s The Cantos. In the English section, Jennifer Feeley contributes an English translation of Ng Mei-kwan’s poem for a special feature themed “Intervention”. At the launch party of this issue of Voice & Verse, which will take place on 2 October, Derek Chung will read Williams’ poems and participate in a dialogue with critic Cheng Ching-hang to share his insights on doing translation.
MARGENTO, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Ireland and Spain
Literary translation and transnational exchanges are the order of the day for quite a number of initiatives in Ireland as the European Day of Languages and International Translation (September 26th) is approaching. Itaca Press (the Romanian spelling of “Ithaca”) the “diaspora’s publishing company” in Ireland—which consists of a press, a literary journal, a bookstore, a literary manuscript contest, and a radio station—just launched RoRELAND – Poems for Another Life, a collective volume featuring nine Romanian poets & one visual artist living in Ireland. The book launch involves two main events in Dublin, one that took place on September 15th at the at the Romanian Embassy in Ireland, addressing “the Irish [general] public,” and the next scheduled on Saturday, October 7, at Teachers Club, “for Romanian poetry lovers.”
A relevant event is also announced precisely on the above-mentioned international celebration day at Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation. On September 26th, former president of the Centre and internationally praised author Michael Cronin is chairing a conversation with one of Ireland’s leading writers, Sebastian Barry, along with his French, German and Polish translators, Laetitia Devaux, Hans-Christian Oeser, and Aga Zano, an event that can also be attended online. The Centre is also gearing up for the 12th edition of the widely popular festival ISLA—the Irish, Spanish, and Latin American Literary Festival—to be held on October 11th and 12th also in Dublin and co-organized with Instituto Cervantes in Dublin.
The literary and cultural connections between Ireland and Spain, or the Hispanic world more generally, have a long and strong tradition. As Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca’s world-renowned and awarded biographer Ian Gibson put it a few years ago, “I’ve always maintained that the Irish are basically Spanish.” From shared Celtic roots to the involvement of Irish fighters on the side of the republic in the Spanish Civil War to ongoing events like ISLA, the ties between the two countries have always been strong. Academic contributions have recently analyzed the rendition of Sebastian Barry’s vernacular language in Spanish translation while a poll run by two Spanish companies earlier this year singled out two Irish cities—Dublin and Belfast—as “best in Europe for literature lovers.” No wonder that, besides the European Day of Languages and International Translation, the Irish media have already announced that they will be covering the involvement of writers in the event Europe! An approach from thought and literature, which will take place in Barcelona from September 27th through the 30th.
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