The Translation Database is a searchable tool housed on PublishersWeekly.com. Comprising more than 15 years of data, it now covers more than 9,500 titles–and is continually growing. In here you can find bibliographic data about works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature in translation, from January 2008 through to the present. There is a cliché that U.S. publishers are not interested in foreign books or works in translation, but the data proves that this is untrue.
There are a lot of U.S. publishers interested in the world
From 2008 to 2022, more than 930 different publishers and imprints brought out at least one book in translation. From AmazonCrossing (450+ titles), Dalkey Archive (300+), Seagull Books (230+), Europa Editions (225+), to the 353 presses that have published a single translated book, the sheer volume of publishers included in the database deflates the old adage that “U.S. publishers aren’t interested in the rest of the world.”
This is still an independent press world
Of the 60 presses/imprints that have published the most translations between 2008 and 2022, only 11 are from the Big Five. And if you look at the number of titles published over the period, those from the independents/nonprofits/university presses–and the almost uncategorizable AmazonCrossing–outnumber those from the Big Five by a ratio of almost five to one.
The gender gap is real, but shrinking
Over the course of the years in question, some 7,600 works of fiction and poetry were published in translation. Of those, 65% were written by authors identifying as male and 32% by authors identifying as female. Breaking it down by years, it’s clear that the various campaigns–#ReadWomen and #WomenInTranslation being key–are having an impact. In 2008, 74% of the works of fiction and poetry published in translation in the U.S. were written by authors identifying as male, versus 24% identifying as female. That’s very different in 2022, in which male authors constituted 52% of the total, compared to 46% for authors identifying as female.
French, Spanish and German still dominate
Since the database was founded, French, Spanish, and German (generally in that order) have been the three most translated languages year in and out. Over this 15-year period, the dominance of these languages is strikingly apparent. There are titles in the database from 84 different languages, but the top three make up 45% of all the titles published in translation. There’s a huge drop off from German (1,121 titles) to the fourth most-translated language, Italian (593). In fact, the number of books translated from the top three languages is equal to the number translated from the next 17 languages.
There is a lot of diversity
Even though those three languages dominate in terms of sheer numbers, the fact that Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic are among the top ten most translated languages is telling. Within the top 20 translated languages, you’ll find Hebrew, Korean, Polish, Czech, Catalan, Icelandic, and Turkish. This is likely to grow and expand over the years to come, especially as many presses have said that they intend to expand the diversity of voices they publish. Efforts to bring more South Asian voices into English, as well as more works from the African continent, and to preserve the literatures of endangered languages are all going to have a major impact as time goes on.
And that’s the final note that I want to end on: the Translation Database is continually growing. We’re always finding titles and presses that slipped through the cracks, there are always more books being published, more unique ways of representing the world making their way to U.S. readers. Explore the database to find new gems worth checking out, add anything you see that’s missing, and stay tuned for more breakdowns and analysis.
Chad W. Post is the publisher of Open Letter Books.
