Translation Work in Progress
Yet-unpublished stories and poems from Central Asia (and elsewhere!)
The authors of the books listed here have entrusted me to translate their work into English, and I'm eager to finish the job. Please email me for a sample of any of these translations or to learn more.
My most recent publications are at the bottom of this page.
Russian Matryoshka
By Hamid Ismailov
Epic novel in 6 parts (Russia/Uzbekistan)
Translation funded by Arts Council England. Seeking publisher
Renowned Uzbek author-in-exile Hamid Ismailov returns with his most ambitious project to date: an Uzbek take on the classic Russian novel, with a post-modern twist. More than one twist, to be precise. In 6 books of diminishing size, we experience the bohemian youth of writer Xamid in 1970s Soviet Tashkent; the odyssey of an older man, Georgy, spanning most of the Russian/Soviet 20th century; the career of Georgy’s true love, Lizzy, a professor in England; the mystery of Tsar Alexander I and the hermit Fyodor Kuzmich, who may have been one and the same; the story behind Prince Oleg’s selection of a religious creed for Ancient Rus’; and a post-Soviet tale of political upheaval and dastardly crime. Throughout, Xamid’s life and work is presented in contrast to that of his lost friend Oleg, who once wrote his own masterful novel, but burned it. As Xamid consciously and unconsciously recreates Oleg’s lost masterpiece, this pattern of X and O, opposites and reflections, substitutions and absences, connects all the diverse styles and stories in the book. Translation complete and fully funded. English rights available.
Read a published sample
Castigation
By Sultan Rayev
Surrealist novel (Kyrgyzstan), 112,000 words
Translation fully funded. Seeking publisher
A Kyrgyz cultural icon, Sultan Rayev is known for his works of drama. His novel “Castigation” (Жанжаза in the original Kyrgyz) is a testimony to his solid instincts for storytelling, informed by his history writing for the stage and the Kyrgyz oral epic tradition. The novel follows the journey of seven people who escape from a mental hospital and travel across the desert in search of the Promised Land. With their anxious conversations and surreal back stories, they populate an absorbing world stripped down to the essential questions of sin, death, and absolution, not to mention the disturbing Soviet history of abusing the mental health system for political purposes. Translation now complete. All rights available.
Listen to an excerpt in Kyrgyz
Read a published sample
Read more in English
Mothersland
By Shahzoda Nazarova Samarqandi
Novella (Uzbekistan), est. 38,000 words
Forthcoming from Slavica in 2024
This haunting novel is a time-twisting reverie on the bond between mothers and daughters. Growing up in late-Soviet-era Uzbekistan, Mahtab feels more at home in the cotton fields – and in the past, as depicted in her mother’s diary – than at school, where the books in the library are rewritten with every new political trend. When a Russian film crew comes to town to make a movie about cotton, starring Mahtab in the role of her hero-worker mother, Mahtab suffers an accident that scrambles her memory. As she struggles to recover, she must untangle her mother’s story from her own, and navigate the hazy contours of memory, love, storytelling, and country to finally find herself. Translated from Tajik to English through Youltan Sadykova’s lyrical Russian version. Read more
Fiberglass and Sonnets to Shoqan Walihanov
Poems by Rena Zhumanova
Poetry (Kazakhstan)
Samples available. Seeking publishers
Rena Zhumanova’s verses burst with originality and individuality, relishing in rhyme, irony, and cross-cultural identity crises. Her multilingual, multicultural writing manages to be playful and sharp, sentimental and insightful, often all at the same time. Seeking publication for a chapbook of 20 sonnets dedicated to the life and questionable legacy of Kazakh-Russian explorer Shoqan Walihanov as well as individual poems. Read sample translations
Read published poems in English
Bilingual poetry collection
Poems by Oral Arukenova
Poetry (Kazakhstan)
Samples available. Seeking publishers
Thirty new poems by a bilingual Kazakhstani master of spare, thoughtful verse. Arukenova’s poetry and short prose have been translated into English and published in The Brooklyn Rail (2020), Suspect (2022), and Amanat (2022), and her latest poetry collection is ready for translation. From Asel Omar’s introduction: “Oral Arukenova is not afraid to ask questions, and that is where her power lies… Oral posits that every person has their own political and social sensibilities, their own sense of danger and beauty. But are our concepts of these things absolute? No: there is humanism, something big enough to transcend all these boundaries.” Read previously published translations
The Last Hope Foundation
By Lilya Kalaus
Novel (Kazakhstan), est. 93,000 words
Sample translated. Seeking publisher
Asya can handle her abusive stepfather, layoffs at work, and the debauchery of a corporate retreat with her wacky coworkers. She can probably even cope with the homicidal ghost in Room 4. But can she survive a slowly budding romance with a sophisticated stranger from Moscow? Critic Maia Stavitskaya calls Kalaus’s writing “A bewitching word game careening freely through a four- or five-dimensional universe of words and expressions that are paradoxically both thoroughly carnal and extremely meaningful.” The Last Hope Foundation was partly inspired by the author’s experience working for the Soros Foundation Kazakhstan. It was longlisted for the prestigious Russian Prize in 2010. Read more
Metamorphoses of a Dream
By Sharif Ahmedov
Essays on literature (Uzbekistan), est. 160 pages
Title essay published. Seeking publisher for individual essays or collection
Sharif Ahmedov is the translator of Jorge Luis Borges into Uzbek. Inspired by that experience, Ahmedov wrote this cycle of metamorphoses, exploring the interconnection – and disconnects – between cultures, dreams, masterpieces, and creative genius, not to mention uninvited visitors, illness, and other more mundane misfortunes. Ahmedov presents his thoughts in a smart but accessible way that is sure to charm readers eager to glimpse the view from his unique vantage point at a previously uncharted cultural crossroads. Read a published sample
Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup
By Zira Naurzbayeva and Lilya Kalaus
Children’s adventure (Kazakhstan), est. 60,000 words
Just released! Order here!
When the Golden Warrior on Batu’s notebook cover comes to life and sends him on a vitally important mission, he has to go, of course – even if it means taking his baby sister along, battling monsters, and fighting off the school bully all at the same time. This book is the first in a series; Books 2 and 3 are already published, and Book 4 is being written now.
Amanat: Women’s Writing from Kazakhstan
Selected and translated by Zaure Batayeva and Shelley Fairweather-Vega
Short fiction collection, est. 68,000 words
Now available from Gaudy Boy – Purchase now!
Winner of a RusTrans bursary for translation and promotion
From the editors: Kazakhstan is the largest country by landmass to emerge from the breakup of the Soviet Union aside from Russia itself, but it has had an undersized impact on world literature. Its rich oral storytelling tradition has so far gone largely unrecorded outside the Kazakh and Russian languages. This project is meant to be more than a collection of attractive literary gems; because it comes from Kazakhstan, a place where good writing often struggles to be recognized, we feel we have a moral obligation to showcase this work—not as an additional accolade for world-renowned artists, but as an urgent report to the English-speaking world that these authors and their work do, in fact, exist.
The RusTrans research project at University of Exeter is funding the translation of two stories in Amanat as part of its project to study the publication of Russian-language literature in translation. Stories from this anthology have been published in English by Words Without Borders, Best Asian Short Stories 2019, and Singapore Unbound.
Not looking for Central Asian literature right now? Read on for something completely different!
Stigmalion
By Kristina Stark
Young adult novel, est. 125,000 words
First chapter complete. Partially funded, seeking publisher
Best-selling young adult romance author Kristina Stark makes her English-language debut with Stigmalion, the dark but ultimately hopeful tale of Dolores McBride, a young woman with a devastating allergy to the human touch. When a handshake, a kiss, or a slap on the face can kill you, life and love take on whole new meanings… and dangers. Stigmalion has sold 113,000 copies in its original language. Translation complete, pending final edits. Read more
The As*trobiologists
By Olga Gromyko and Andrei Ulanov
Comedy space opera (Belarus), 152,000 words
Published October 2021 – order here!
Seeking publisher or sponsor for self-publishing for subsequent books in the series.
Happily retired space commando Stanislav wakes up from a night of drunken revelry to find he has mortgaged his apartment to buy a spaceship—and as if that’s not enough, he has also signed a contract to transport a crew of space biologists to a very distant planet. What else could possibly go wrong? Cyborgs, runaway robofoxes, and space pirates, for starters.