Jamie Lee Searle

“Writing, for me, has always meant having to go elsewhere” – New Books in German Translator Jamie Lee Searle interviews author Kim de l’Horizon.

Sublime interview de Kim de l’Horizon avec @jamielsearle.bsky.social ! « I don’t see it as Blutbuch having an original in German and sixteen translations, but rather that the text now exists in seventeen versions, with seventeen co-authors. » www.new-books-in-german.com/writing-for-...

Translating Kim de l'Horizon's #Blutbuch has been one of the greatest, hardest, most joyous challenges of my literary translation career to date. To celebrate its publication week, Literary Hub have published a piece I wrote on the experience👇📚❤️

My translation of Kim de l'Horizon's stunning debut novel #Blutbuch was published yesterday, with @fsgbooks.bsky.social in the US and @sceptrebooks.bsky.social in the UK. To read an extract, head over to @literaryhub.bsky.social... 👇

The Secrets of the Abbey In international bestselling author Jean-Luc Bannalec's The Secrets of the Abbey, between large inlets, the wild Atlantic, and enchanting apple orchards, a t...

Putting the finishing touches to my #translation of the latest in the Brittany Mystery Series, and as always, I'm reluctant to part ways with the delightfully grumpy, caffeine-addicted Detective Dupin ☕🕵️

Out next spring with Macmillan USA.

us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Couldn't agree more 📚 ❤️

One of the things I enjoy most about #literarytranslation is polishing the dialogue (where there is dialogue), and making it sound as natural as possible. In my own writing, I've always veered away from dialogue and felt intimidated by it. Something to lean into, I think!

Remember that episode of Friends where Julio the misogynist poet blames a 'bad translation' for not liking the book he's reading? I guess we'll never know if he read the original!
#translation #clichés

With thanks to @goethe-institut-uk.bsky.social and @frenchinstituteuk.bsky.social!

Absolutely *loved* taking part in yesterday's panel on Gender in Translation and AI for @bristoltranslates.bsky.social with @rebeccadewald.bsky.social, and being reunited with @roselab.bsky.social, the French translator of #Blutbuch, for the first time since our Swiss workshop ❤️

Bristol Translates 2025 - Institut Français · Royaume-Uni Keynote Lecture : Reading Like a Translator with Damion Searls Monday 7 July – 17.00 Free and open to all (registration required) The opening keynote will be delivered by renowned American translator ...

Looking forward to discussing gender in translation and the limitations of AI at Bristol Translates, together with #Blutbuch's French translator, @roselab.bsky.social, in collaboration with the @goethe-institut-uk.bsky.social and @frenchinstituteuk.bsky.social

@bristoltranslates.bsky.social

One of the first things that drew me to my partner was his exquisite taste in stationary. I'm now hooked on the same stuff, and it's an expensive habit 📝 #rulerofmyheart

Thanks Steph!

I wouldn't be surprised! My pleasure.

The Author just arrived. Excited to have a piece in it, for the first time, on the process of translating #Blutbuch. It includes mischievous mountains, voice software, and dancing! @societyofauthors.bsky.social

Mine too! Thank you for commissioning my piece on Blutbuch; it's great to see it in print :)

The Death of the Student Essay—and the Future of Cognition One professor's reflections on the end of an era, as AI tools such as ChatGPT have murdered the student essay (RIP). Here's why that threatens the future of human cognition—and how to save ourselves.

''Every piece of technology can either make us more human or less human […] In the formative stages of education, we are now at risk of stripping away the core competency that makes our species thrive: learning not what to think, but how to think.''

This is excellent 👇

A brass candlestick has just popped up on p. 96 of the mystery novel I'm #translating, and I'm so hoping it turns out to be the murder weapon.

Currently #translating a sample for an exciting upcoming title which opens with the Greek myth of Pandora, and I've gone down a rabbit hole of how it was originally a jar ('pithos') but seemingly mistranslated into Latin as a 'box' in the 16th C by the Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam...

Reading from my sample translation of Joachim B
Schmidt's wonderful new novel Ósmann for @translatorsaloud.bsky.social #swisswriting #icelandicstories

Ah, dictation software, how I love thee for the amusement you bring to my working day! A young woman has just been "rescued from the clutches of wild librarians" (rather than barbarians. Were they irate at her flagrant disregard for the Dewey Decimal System?). #amtranslating

Letter. Please follow the link if this isn't legible

My letter to the @theguardian.com on the META theft of our work. Will be in the physical paper tomorrow.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The journey from Blutbuch to Sea, Mothers, Swallow, Tongues – New Books in German Reflections on translating award-winning Kim de l’Horizon's Blutbuch.

www.new-books-in-german.com/the-journey-...

NBG invited me to write a piece about the wild ride of translating Kim de l'Horizon's #Blutbuch, which is (finally!) out this August, with Sceptre in the UK, and FSG in the U.S. @sceptrebooks.bsky.social @newgermanbooks.bsky.social @fsgbooks.bsky.social

societyofauthors.org/prizes/trans...

The Goethe Institut's biennial Award for New Translation is open for entries, with an award of EUR 1,000 plus a trip to the Leipzig Book Fair & the International Translators' gathering at the LCB. Entry details below! 👇

Thank you! Yes it was pretty toasty, and a great sun trap. It'd be a good place for a DIY writing retreat, I reckon.

Spent the weekend in a cabin in the frosty woods, listening to owls and crows. Now to dive into the final Blutbuch proofs and editing my translator's note - one last push!

Jamie Lee Searle, Ruth Martin and Jo Heinrich in conversation with Kate Sotejeff-Wilson on Zoom

Thank you @jamielsearle.bsky.social @joheinrich.bsky.social and @dances-with-voles.bsky.social for a great discussion with the @iti-uk.bsky.social #German network book club about team #translating Angela Merkel’s Freiheit! You drew in a crowd and we learned a lot about your process together.

Saw #Maria last night. *Loved* Pierfrancesco Favino's subtle but scene-stealing turn as the butler. Also came out wanting to move to a fin-de-siecle apartment in Paris, and with a major craving for Fernet Branca.

Last night I dreamt I went to Porthcawl again. And I'm wondering if this would be a good writing prompt for a very un-Rebecca like novel... 🖋️

Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025 Well, 2024 was fairly bad, and 2025 may in fact be worse. Regardless, we will be reading. Here are the books the Lit Hub staff is most excited to pick up in the (first half of the) year ahead. JANU…

I've resolved to start keeping a reading journal again this year - it always galvanized my reading in the past. Some intriguing titles on this @literaryhub.bsky.social list to get me started:

lithub.com/lit-hubs-mos...

Just sent off my sample translation for Joachim B. Schmidt's forthcoming novel, and let me tell you it's an absolute corker! Not a Kalmann, this time, but wonderful regardless! Fingers crossed for an English-language rights acquisition 🤞🏻 @diogenesverlag.bsky.social