I got together last night with six other translators for a “Phil Stratford Dinner” in Ottawa. Stratford was one of the driving forces behind organizing the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada, and at times various groups across the country will get together for a bite to eat, to talk about our craft, and read from a piece we’re working on. It was a lovely evening, a great opportunity to share with people who truly understand what it is that I do, who know how difficult yet rewarding it can be, who I can proudly share some of my work with and know it will be appreciated on some level even if they don’t know the particular langauge I work in. It’s a very validating experience, as well as just being a wonderful evening of food and conversation.
I’m also getting ready to go to the LTAC yearly seminar and AGM, this year in Banff. It’s being held at the Banff International Literary Translation Centre and I’m so excited to see what that is all about. It’s a dream of mine to apply for and get a residency, where I would be able to work solely on a piece of literary translation for a couple of weeks in the company of other translators and often the authors they work with. This conference is going to be a taste of that, as we will be interacting with the translators and writers in residence, and I just know it’s going to be an inspiring experience.
It’s a particularly good time for me to be motivated about literary translation because, just a week ago, a contract I’d been vying and hoping for came through! I’ll be translating Matilde Asensi’s historical thriller, Todo bajo el cielo for HarperCollins in the US. It’s currently a bestseller in Europe and I’m over the moon about this opportunity. These days I’m even more passionate about this side of my work and anxious to start each day… There’s nothing in the world like loving what you do! 
