The Spain-USA Foundation, as part of its Spain Arts & Culture program, organized a Conference on Publishing Spanish Authors in English at the King Juan Carlos I Center of New York University (coordinated by Valerie Miles) on Wednesday, March 11 from 9 am to 6 pm, followed by a reception offered by the Consul General of Spain in New York.
As the director of Pontas Agency, a literary agency who has continuously supported translated work since 1992, Anna Soler-Pont participated in the roundtable discussion “The Rights Divide” together with Amy Hudley (Grove), Elisabeth Kerr (Norton), Chad Post (Open Letter), and moderated by Ira Silverberg, in which the division of rights of translated works between the U.S. and the U.K. and Latin America and Spain was discussed.
This one-day event was aimed at US publishers, book and magazine professionals who translate Spanish-language writers for an American readership, and institutions who offer translation and promotion grants from either side of the language divide. The conference promoted frank discussion on the key issues, on the nuts and bolts of opening an American readership to the burgeoning talent in the Spanish literary scene. Additionally, it provided relevant, state of the market figures on the Spanish-language publishing sector, new trends in Spanish-language fiction and non-fiction, other co-official languages in Spain, with a review of the new editorial and rights map.
In short, the conference’s mission was to foster the ongoing transatlantic conversation between Spain and America, and continue building the cultural and literary bridge between languages and traditions.
The international success of two Pontas Agency's clients such as Milena Busquets and Dolores Redondo was mentioned in several panels and their American English-language publishers participated in the conference too (here below right, from left to right: Johanna Castillo (Dolores Redondo’ s editor at Atria/Simon and Schuster), Alexis Washam (Milena Busquets' editor at Hogarth Press/Penguin Random House, together with Laura Persciapepe (Riverhead) and Sarah Bowlin (Henry Holt).
