Sawad Hussain & Archana Madhavan on translating webtoons & Korean literature

We have a great translation double-bill today, with a conversation between Archana Madhavan and Sawad Hussain. Sawad was a virtual translator in residence in 2021 during our Visible Communities project, and this interview was arranged as part of that residency.  https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/translation/visible-communities/ 

Sawad Hussain is an Arabic translator with a focus on bringing narratives from the African continent to wider audiences. She has contributed to journals such as ArabLit and Asymptote, she was co-editor of the Arabic-English portion of the Oxford Arabic Dictionary and recent translations include Passage to the Plaza by Sahar Khalifeh and A Bed for the King’s Daughter by Shahla Ujayli.

Archana Madhavan is an Indian-American translator from Korean into English. She started teaching herself Korean ten years ago and has now worked on many projects including The Man Who Became A Flamingo by Oh Han Ki, contract work with Lezhin Entertainment on genre webtoons and Glory Hole by Kim Hyun (co-translated with Suhyun J. Ahn), which is coming from Seagull Books in May 2022. She has contributed to chogwa and is a staff translator for The Hanok Review.

chogwa: https://www.chogwa.com/

Find out more: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ 

Hosted by Simon Jones.

Music by Bennet Maples.