Walking in the Landscape of Writing, Translation and Transcreation
Welcome to the Landscape of Transcreation, a publication on writing and translation, and a community for all those who share a passion for the world of languages, literatures and arts.
This is Landscape of Transcreation, a newsletter about writing and translation.
I am 林紋沛 / Wenpei Lin, who studied Western languages and literatures in college, shifted my interests to Taiwanese history for graduate studies, and now work as a full-time translator based in Taipei. My recent translations (from English to Chinese) are a mix of autobiographies and academic monographs, including On Friendship by Alexander Nehamas, From Mountain to Mountain by Fr. Barry Martinson, Home is Not Here by Gungwu Wang, and Asymmetrical Neighbors by Enze Han.
Fascinated by transcreation, I start this newsletter to explore the possibilities of languages and to share my thoughts on writing, on translation, and on the literary world in general.
Transcreation seems to be a fancy word for translation, but I would say that it captures the essence of every translator’s effort, which I hope to talk in more depths in future installments.
Focus of the Newsletter
The newsletter will focus on issues related to transcreation, mainly including the following:
Ideas on languages, linguistics and translation
Good reads for translators and writers
Interviews of translators of different fields
Trends and challenges in the translation and localization industry
There will also be occasional posts on hiking, birding, and life in Taiwan, in which we focus more on living and writing, while working and translating are quietly pondered.
Through this writing project, we will learn more about the translation industry, the work of translators, and the process of writing and translating, and aspiring translators may have a clearer picture of what the translators’ world is like.
Most important of all, we hope to create a community for translators, writers, editors, readers, and all those who share a passion for the world of languages, literatures and arts. Together, we will build a community where we support each other’s work and share our thoughts and insights freely.
Invitation to Join this Community
The subscription is completely free! The posts will be open to all. Please subscribe for future installments, which I plan to publish regularly starting from February 2022.
Paid subscriptions are dearly welcomed. The subscription fees will go to compensate our interviewees. With a paid subscription, you will be able to read the complete version of the interview, and you will be invited to the monthly reading club (starting from April 2022).
Your support will help building this community and making this writing project sustainable.
This is a bilingual newsletter in English and Traditional Chinese. We publish biweekly, with the English post and the Chinese one published on the same day. If you would like to receive only the English or the Chinese version, please go to “My Account” to change the settings. If there is any question, please do not hesitate to write to us at transcreation@substack.com.
Thanks for your reading. We invite you to subscribe and join the community of transcreators!