Edward Gauvin – Translator

CURRENTLY BOOKED THROUGH JUNE 2024

BACKGROUND

A full-time freelance translator for two decades, focusing on comics, literature, and speculative genres, I have been published in the New York Times, Harper’s, the Guardian, the Paris Review, and McSweeney's.

My literary translations have won prizes from the British Comparative Literature Association and been shortlisted for major awards: Oxford Weidenfeld, Albertine, French American Foundation. My authors include Prix Médicis winner Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Goncourt and Renaudot winner Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, and Prix François Mauriac winner Charif Majdalani. I've translated over 60 short stories for leading literary journals, anthologies from Penguin and Macmillan, and various “Year’s Best” collections.

My collaborations with comics publishers—SelfMadeHero, Lerner, BOOM!, Skyhorse, IDW, Top Shelf, Dark Horse, Titan, First Second—have received over 20 Eisner Award nominations and two American Library Association Batchelder Honors, and included top creators: Jodorowsky, Fabien Vehlmann, Rochette, Gébé, Marjane Satrapi, Emmanuel Guibert, Sfar, Trondheim, Zeina Abirached, Christophe Blain, Druillet, Enki Bilal, Blutch, David B.

Highlights from my extensive work in speculative fiction include bestseller Serge Brussolo, Surrealist Jean Ferry, stories in Asimov’s and F&SF, and columns in Jeff and Ann VanderMeer’s Weird Fiction Review.

EXPECTATIONS

“Faster than anyone better, better than anyone faster,” New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling once boasted, which maps well onto the modern freelancer motto: “Fast, cheap, or good: pick two.” My rate reflects my versatility, expertise, and experience, which extends to many a genre: westerns, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, horror, chick lit, children’s, war, and noir. I've often debuted authors in English, whether contemporary or unjustly neglected, pairing them with appreciative Anglophone readerships. Scrupulous research informs my nonfiction work from pop science and reportage to biography and memoir. Today’s translator wears more hats than ever before: not only scholar, writer, and editor, but also an agent, advocate, and ambassador. “Lost in translation,” goes the overused adage, but I see making more work available to wider audiences as 100% win.

Translation is ineluctably subjective; fruitful collaboration stems from shared understanding. I deliver professionally proofread copy, tailored to taste. Queries are always welcome; when accompanied by word count and time frame, even more so. Paid samples on request.

ACCOLADES:

“Edward’s buoyantly translated speech bubbles exude youthful excitement and energy.” ~ Terry Hong, Booklist, Nie Jun’s My Beijing

“My warmest thanks to our translator Edward. I honestly never thought it possible to translate as faithfully, as brilliantly. The intelligence and elegance of his solutions gives me great pleasure on each rereading!” ~ Thierry Smolderen, comics writer

“Our most courageous translator, and our most writerly.” ~ Europe Comics Editorial

“A Middle Eastern heart-of-darkness tale beautifully captured in Edward’s elegant translation.” ~ Suzanne Joinson, New York Times, Charif Majdalani’s Moving the Palace

“A straightforward, canny, page-turning noir... Edward has re-crafted the flat, droll sentences the genre gives us to expect.” ~ Arablit Quarterly, Jérémie Guez’s Eyes Full of Empty

“The stylized writing verges on the overindulgent, yet Brussolo (and his fine translator) pitch it just right.” ~ Michael Orthofer, The Complete Review, The Deep Sea Diver's Syndrome