Translating a Book: More Like a Marathon than a Sprint
Session Overview
In March 2020, I was offered the opportunity to participate in an exciting project. For the first time in my three-decade career as a freelance JP-EN translator, I was asked to translate a full-length nonfiction book as part of a professional team led by a Japanese publisher. In this presentation, I’ll review the entire publication process from the formation of the bidding team in early 2020 to my receipt of the finished physical book in mid-2021. I’ll also touch on several challenges that arose in translating this book by Nobel Prize winner Professor Yamanaka Shinya and interviewer Midori Shinya, titled 山中伸弥先生に、人生とｉＰＳ細胞について聞いてみた (English title: The Winding Road to Discovering iPS Cells: The Life of Yamanaka Shinya). This presentation, to be delivered in English, will be useful for translators, editors, and others who are interested in the translation of Japanese books, and for those who enjoy reading about medical and scientific research.
Speaker Profile
Tony Atkinson is a freelance Japanese-English translator working mainly in the areas of science communication, medicine, and drug development. He also teaches English scientific writing to pharma company staff in Japan.