| ebook |
[15 May 2012|08:13pm] |
Circlet Press is releasing ebook versions of my 1st story collection, THE DRAG QUEEN OF ELFLAND, later this month. Anyone want to review/blog about it?
It's a collection of lesbian and gay fantasy short stories, published in 1997. Seems like ancient history! Fifteen years ago!
It was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, the Firecracker Award, the Spectrum Award, and the Small Press Book Award. (Whew!)
It was also published in Spanish as MI NOVIO ES UN DUENDE.
Anyway, if you're interested, email me at desayunoencama (at) gmail.com with your preference for ebook format (.pdf, .mobi, .epub) and I'll be happy to send a copy off to you.
And thanks in advance for helping spread the word!
(Even if you don't like it, or all of the stories in it, or etc. It's been so long, I'm not sure I would either. Although I hope it is an entertaining read, still!)
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| past few weeks |
[15 May 2012|04:23pm] |
Still bad at updating this blog, but some of the literary highlights of the past few weeks:
The Banco del Libro in Venezuela chose my translation into Spanish of Wanda Gág's MILLIONS OF CATS, published by Libros del Zorro Rojo, as one of the best books for children and youth 2012!
(This is the only book I've translated INTO Spanish, I normally translate from Spanish into English.)
UK poetry journal AGENDA (http://www.agendapoetry.co.uk/), founded in 1959 by Ezra Pound and William Cookson, has accepted my translation into English of a poem by Jordi Doce for an upcoming issue.
I haven't written much (poetry or prose) in forever, but my poem "Kristallnacht" and two translations by me of poems by Sofía Rhei are reprinted in THE MOMENT OF CHANGE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FEMINIST SPECULATIVE POETRY edited by Rose Lemberg, Aqueduct Press. (http://www.aqueductpress.com/books/TheMomentofChange.html)
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| translation sold |
[19 Apr 2012|01:33pm] |
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Since PHANTOM DRIFT have now posted the news (http://www.wordcraftoforegon.com/pd/?p=191), I can now reveal that they've accepted my translation into English of Care Santos' short story "Sunrise with Sea Monsters", from her short story collection LOS QUE RUGEN (THOSE WHO HOWL), for their second issue due out later this year.
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| Interpreting |
[02 Apr 2012|09:38pm] |
(blows at cobwebs)
So, it's been a while since I've been here. Am still disheartedly reading my f-list, but not many people left around these parts, it feels.
Thus it's easier to find me over at www.facebook.com/lawrence.schimel or on twitter as @lawrenceschimel
Am swinging by now since I just had to be an interpreter for Marina Abramovic and Willem Dafoe at the Teatro Real tonight, for a public encounter with them as they're preparing THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC, which debuts next week (it was a joint production with the Manchester Festival where an earlier version was performed last summer).
I get such stage fright but it seemed to have gone OK.
There is so much more pressure when you're translating live and on stage, trying to remember everything that was said, re-express it in the other language, no time to look up anything if your mind goes blank on a word (as can often happen, even words you know and use regularly), etc.
I am much more comfortable translating texts, at home, alone, until I'm ready to share it with a colleague or editor (or the author) for proofreading and fiddling with nuances of meanings, etc.
But an interesting (and glamorous!) experience!
Which I'll have to repeat next week,too, for the press conference.
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| How curious |
[07 Feb 2012|07:52pm] |
So, I am madly juggling projects, given that one translation client still hasn't sent me the additional texts that were due to me on Monday (and of course, they don't want to change MY delivery deadline even though I don't have all the texts in hand to work on), whereas another turned in the book earlier and now wants a delivery two weeks earlier than we'd originally discussed.
Luckily, the new project is translating fairly smoothly (it's not yet 8pm and I'm going to take a break now to run some errands before shops close, but I've already managed to translate 5300 words today).
The most curious bit, though, was after I had translated a handful of pages, and I came across a reference to myself. Totally did not expect THAT! :-)
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| London loot |
[15 Jan 2012|12:27pm] |
Pfui, can't seem to share pics from Flickr.
But you can see them over on facebook.com/lawrence.schimel
Slim pickings at London's bookshops, although better luck at the charity stops. Still, hitting over 30 shops, I came home with only 69 bookses... Some little gems, it's true, but a disappointing haul (maybe I just had too-high expectations). I hadn't been to London since 1997, and things have changed a lot in the intervening years. Almost all second-hand bookselling (and much new) has moved online...
However, London was a paradise of gluten-free food, so since had so little luck with books, had plenty of space to schlepp home gluten-free baked goods (photo also on facebook, since can't post here).
It was a joy to have abundant, easily-available selection of foods I could eat!
:-)
Also came home with some 250 tea bags. And it was a delight to make a pot of Darjeeling this morning with "soft", lime-free Madrid water instead of hard London water.
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| Anniversary |
[11 Jan 2012|06:44am] |
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Today marks the 13th anniversary of my arrival in Madrid. :-)
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| 2011 Recap |
[31 Dec 2011|01:10pm] |
While on many levels–especially external, quantifiable measurements–2011 was a very "quiet" year, it was a good year and I am in a very good place in my life. This is boring to report on but good to live. As I recently mentioned to some friends, should I win the lottery (not that I play) not much would change in my life: I would still do the things I currently do now, for both work and leisure, even if an absence of financial concerns would allow me to write or translate different things than some of my current or recent projects, and I could travel with more freedom. (And get a larger space, to house more bookses!) But otherwise, not much would change in my life. Which is not at all a complaint, rather a recognition of being in a fortunate place.
I seem to have fallen out of the habit of reading record keeping, I think it happened last year when I was on two literary juries (Tiptree and Lambda Literary) simultaneously and stopped keeping track of what I'd been reading. So I'm not sure how many books I've read this year, or how this year compares to previous years.
In terms of publishing, it is the first year in many when I haven't published a single original book.
That said, I had a novel experience this year, with the translation into English by someone else of a book I wrote in Spanish: LET'S GO SEE PAPÁ, translated into English by Elisa Amado and published by Groundwood in November. (I also received my contributor copies of the Korean edition.)
There was also a Slovenian-English edition of my picture book JUST LIKE THEM/IGUAL QUE ELLOS, illustrated by Doug Cushman, and thanks to attending the Frankfurt Bookfair (my 18th consecutive year?), I also sold rights for editions in German-English, German-Spanish, German-French, German-Italian, German-Greek, German-Turkish, German-Polish, and German-Russian, which will all appear in 2013-2014.
The Slovenian edition of LA AVENTURA DE CECILIA Y EL DRAGÓN (CECILIA IN ZMAJ) was honored by the Slovene library association with a Golden Pear (Zlata hru_ka).
I sold rights to two new children's books written in Spanish which will appear in 2012: one we're still negotiating the contract for, but the other is VOLANDO COMETAS (Flying Kites) a story featuring an HIV-positive woman, which will be published in Spanish and Catalan by Ediciones Bellaterra.
I was included in the Spanish anthology BLANCO NUCLEAR. ANTOLOGÍA DE POESÍA GAY Y LÉSBICA ÚLTIMA edited by Luis Daniel Pino. It was very gratifying to be included, this sort of recognition helps "validate" my identity as a writer in Spanish, which is not my mother-tongue.
My short story "Handle with Bear" appeared in the anthology WHAT LOVE IS: THE SECOND ARCADIA BOOK OF GAY SHORT STORIES edited by Peter Burton, who unfortunately passed away later this year.
My short story "Worth More than a Thousand Words" was reprinted in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF THE BEST OF BEST NEW EROTICA edited by Maxim Jakubowsi.
My own poem "Kristallnacht" and my translation of Sofía Rhei's "Bluebeard Possibilities" and "Cinderella" will be reprinted in, THE MOMENT OF CHANGE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FEMINIST SPECULATIVE POETRY, edited by Rose Lemberg, from Aqueduct Press.
I also published a translation of Sofía Rhei's "The Magic Walnut" in the magazine MYTHIC DELIRIUM; a few other translations of poems by her are also forthcoming in other venues. (I have been remiss in keeping better track of publications recently, alas!)
Atypically (since I generally translate into my mother tongue), I translated Wanda Gág's MILLIONS OF CATS into Spanish for Libros del Zorro Rojo, which was lots of fun for me to do (a childhood favorite).
And I've continued working as a Spanish->English translation for a variety of institutional, editorial, commercial, and personal clients. Among other projects, this year I translated into English a handful of television scripts, a biography of a Catalan saint, a variety of children's books or projects for publication as apps or ebooks, various museum catalogues or texts, etc.
Switching hats to don my publisher cap: A Midsummer Night's Press had a good year, even though we only managed to publish two titles: FAIRY TALES IN ELECTRI-CITY by Francesca Lia Block and the anthology MILK AND HONEY: A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH LESBIAN POETRY edited by Julie R. Enszer.
MILK & HONEY has been on the poetry bestseller lists for our distributor, SPD, since its publication, hitting the number 1 slot in November--first time any of our titles has ever managed this.
2012 will hopefully start strongly with the release of THE LAST SELCHIE CHILD by Jane Yolen and FLAMBOYANT: A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH GAY POETRY, edited by me, in the Spring.
Maybe it wasn't such a "quiet" year, after all, despite not publishing any original books as an author... :-)
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| Golden Pear! |
[09 Dec 2011|09:05pm] |
The Slovenian translation of LA AVENTURA DE CECILIA Y EL DRAGÓN was awarded a Golden Pear for among the best children's books published in 2010. 55 books were awarded in total, and in the category I'm in (translated titles) the other 16 honored authors include Neil Gaiman, Shaun Tan, Tomi Ungerer, Walter Moes, Markus Zusak, and Melvin Burgess--heady company indeed.
The full list can be found here:
http://www.bukla.si/?action=articles&article_id=1578
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| World AIDS Day |
[01 Dec 2011|04:25pm] |
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Today is World AIDS Day, and since the publisher wrote to me this morning that the contract is in the mail, I think it's a good moment to announce that my children's picture book VOLANDO COMETAS (Flying Kites) will be published next year (or in early 2013) in Spanish and Catalan. The book includes an HIV+ woman as a character, a reality that is often "silenced" or erased by its absence from our cultural production.
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| Let's Go See Papá! reviews |
[03 Nov 2011|11:48am] |
LET'S GO SEE PAPÁ! was reviewed in PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-55498-106-9) which concludes:
"Schimel, ably translated by Amado, never coddles his heroine or papers over the hard realities she faces; even the ending, which finds the girl on a plane heading for the States, is tinged with emotional ambivalence. Rivera fills the pages with poignant, angular portraits and telling details. For some children (and even adults) it may be too somber, but there will be readers who will admire the heroine’s stoicism and faith in the importance of having her family whole again."
And also a good review from KIRUKUS (http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lawrence-schimel/lets-go-see-papa/#review) which concludes:
"Schimel takes readers into the mind of the unnamed girl through his skillful use of the first-person narration, while Rivera’s mixed-media illustrations combine traditional materials with photocopies and transfers to give some pages a scrapbooklike appeal. Readers will enjoy deciphering the various visual elements.
While this is clearly a much-needed story that effectively captures the experience faced by many immigrant families, its themes are relevant to all children."
:-)
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| Happy Halloween |
[31 Oct 2011|11:03am] |
Loved this cartoon. :-)
Happy Halloween!
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| Hmmm |
[25 Oct 2011|09:29pm] |
Maybe gestating some new poems?
Just alphabetized my single-author English-language poetry shelves. Imposing physical order like this is usually what I do just before writing (ordering words)...
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| Home and Birthday |
[15 Oct 2011|11:29pm] |
Back from Frankfurt. Met many people, some already friends and colleagues and some new, saw lots of interesting books, showed various of my own books or projects to people who expressed interest, etc. Will no doubt now fall into my post-bookfair slump.
But first, will be turning 40 on October 16 which starts in just a few minutes.
Am happy to be arriving in my 40s. Am in a good place in my life, I think.
And given all my food intolerances and allergies, I think it's a miracle I've survived this long. :-)
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| Frankfurt |
[11 Oct 2011|10:30am] |
Getting ready to fly to Frankfurt this morning, for my 19th consecutive bookfair. My how the time does fly.
I do love going, even if I'm not actively hawking new projects. I have maybe a dozen meetings with publishers or colleagues I already know and a few new people, but for me the most important part of these events is the serendipity factor: by being there, you'll bump into someone, not necessarily at a meeting but waiting online to buy a coffee or for a train, and they'll turn out to have a compatible interest to what you do, or know someone they recommend you talk to, who will wind up publishing a book of yours two years later.
For me, the bookfairs have always been something I do because I enjoy doing them, and because I'm in publishing for the long-haul. As such, I don't need to sell something right away or sign a contract at a fair for it to have been a successful and worthwhile investment of time and $$$ to attend. (It does help that I'm able to crash with a friend and the flight from Madrid is relatively inexpensive, so my costs for doing the week are much lower than for many other people.)
Still, I plan to enjoy myself and get an opportunity to see what people are writing and publishing in many other parts of the world as I wander the aisles in between my meetings--something I always find fascinating.
There are probable flight delays announced due to possible strikes and airport ground staff meetings. I have some work I'll be bringing with me, plus for reading, I've got THE PERICLES COMMISSION by Gary Corby, a mystery set in ancient Greece which looks like fun, and I'm halfway through Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell's KING SOLOMON'S CARPET, so will bring that with me and finish as well.
(I plan to pick up something good to read for the return flight during the bookfair, so don't need to schlepp something for the return journey.)
For a change, I'm leaving the bookfair on Saturday instead of Sunday, since I turn 40 on Sunday and while I am not planning on doing anything special, I just decided that it would be good not to spend my birthday at the bookfair this yar (it almost always coincides with the dates of the Buchmesse).
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| RIP |
[06 Oct 2011|11:18am] |
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| MOMENT OF CHANGE anthology |
[04 Oct 2011|05:12pm] |
Rose Lemberg has posted the Table of Contents for MOMENT OF CHANGE, an anthology of feminist speculative poetry she edited for Aqueduct Press. I'm pleased that a poem of mine is included in the collection, as well as two translations into English of poems by Sofía Rhei.
http://roselemberg.net/?p=142
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