„Wherefore art? Aesthetics after Darwin” by Winfried Menninghaus has finally been published in my English translation by Academic Studies Press – an evolutionary theory of the arts (painting, music, poetry, literature). The author, being a scholar, writes a serious academic German; we decided that the translation could be more reader-friendly and accessible – hopefully it will also succeed as a popular science book; the ideas deserve it.
I am currently translating another study from German into English, namely a social science / historical treatise on Jewish refugees in Kenya. In general, Jewish studies as well as topics such as migration and discrimination have become a focus for me in recent years – and academic translation has always been my cup of tea anyway.
However, there are also orders that do not materialise, even if the test translation is very well received. Recently, it happened again. Since my quote is never higher than what universities expect to pay for scholarly / scientific translation, I was surprised that the translation price seemed to high. It turned out the author wanted to pay for the translation of his monograph himself. But that is usually not necessary if the text is good: customers often do not know what financing possibilities there are for scholarly translations.
For example: “Geisteswissenschaften International – Translation Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences”. The publisher intending to publish the German book in English can apply till July 31st every year; if necessary I can help with the application (e.g. translate excerpts from reviews into English). In the event of success, the translation costs will be borne in full. There is also a grant from the Goethe Institute; the English-language publisher would have to apply by 15.9; there is a subsidy for the translation costs.
