Katy Derbyshire
@katyderbyshire.bsky.social
Literary translator from German to English, occasional publisher, Berlin lover, appreciator of wallets on chains. She/her.
Photo © Nane Diehl
Photo © Nane Diehl
In my safe and comfortable Berlin home, I’ve been reading that the building was once one of those to which Jews were forcibly rehoused. The rooms will have been shared by multiple tenants, struggling for space and survival while performing forced labour.
zwangsraeume.berlin/en/context
zwangsraeume.berlin/en/context
Forced Homes | Context
In 1933, some 160,000 Jewish residents made up part of the population of Berlin.
zwangsraeume.berlin
November 14, 2025 at 7:43 AM
In my safe and comfortable Berlin home, I’ve been reading that the building was once one of those to which Jews were forcibly rehoused. The rooms will have been shared by multiple tenants, struggling for space and survival while performing forced labour.
zwangsraeume.berlin/en/context
zwangsraeume.berlin/en/context
Reposted by Katy Derbyshire
Dammbruch im EU-Parlament: Erstmals beschließt eine Mehrheit aus Konservativen und Rechtsextremen - also auch CDU, CSU und AfD eine Gesetzesposition. Damit werden u.a. Kinderarbeit und Menschenrechtsverletzungen in Lieferketten gefördert. Vollkommen verheerend. Schämt euch, CDU und CSU.
November 13, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Dammbruch im EU-Parlament: Erstmals beschließt eine Mehrheit aus Konservativen und Rechtsextremen - also auch CDU, CSU und AfD eine Gesetzesposition. Damit werden u.a. Kinderarbeit und Menschenrechtsverletzungen in Lieferketten gefördert. Vollkommen verheerend. Schämt euch, CDU und CSU.
Just found a gorgeous photo of me and Mr #WalletOnAChain looking gorgeous at last weekend’s northern soul weekender, and I can’t stop looking at it. Such an ego boost.
November 13, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Just found a gorgeous photo of me and Mr #WalletOnAChain looking gorgeous at last weekend’s northern soul weekender, and I can’t stop looking at it. Such an ego boost.
Reposted by Katy Derbyshire
Normalize having a book on your bookshelf that, when pulled, opens the door to a secret room.
November 11, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Normalize having a book on your bookshelf that, when pulled, opens the door to a secret room.
What do other people think about those literary events where writers appear to talk openly about their own lives? It often feels uncomfortable to me, I think because surely they’re holding back, and surely these are polished lines? That fake intimacy, the pretense of conversation.
November 11, 2025 at 9:00 PM
What do other people think about those literary events where writers appear to talk openly about their own lives? It often feels uncomfortable to me, I think because surely they’re holding back, and surely these are polished lines? That fake intimacy, the pretense of conversation.
Berliner CDU
www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/auf-d...
www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/auf-d...
Auf Druck von CDU-Kollegen: Berlins Ex-Kultursenator Chialo soll Millionen Euro frei Hand an Projekte verteilt haben
Die Grünen werfen Ex-Senator Chialo vor, willkürlich 2,65 Millionen Euro an Projekte gegen Antisemitismus verteilt zu haben. Das wäre ein klarer Verstoß gegen die Haushaltsordnung.
www.tagesspiegel.de
November 4, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Berliner CDU
www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/auf-d...
www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/auf-d...
We watched the Thursday Murder Club movie. It was like they’d never met a real old person. All the actors looked sheepish about being in such a pile-of-cliches movie — or maybe I thought they should. And we hated all the music, especially the last song.
November 3, 2025 at 10:17 PM
We watched the Thursday Murder Club movie. It was like they’d never met a real old person. All the actors looked sheepish about being in such a pile-of-cliches movie — or maybe I thought they should. And we hated all the music, especially the last song.
Today I went to see the Amrum movie. It was very beautiful and had a great narrative structure, and all the elderly Germans in the crowded cinema had big feelings about it. Then they literally *all* stayed sitting down to watch the credits to the very end, while I fidgeted and looked at my phone.
November 2, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Today I went to see the Amrum movie. It was very beautiful and had a great narrative structure, and all the elderly Germans in the crowded cinema had big feelings about it. Then they literally *all* stayed sitting down to watch the credits to the very end, while I fidgeted and looked at my phone.
Now we watched the Kafka movie, which featured a bit too much Peter Kürth for my taste and about two too many ideas (animation; gruesome “In the Penal Colony” scene) but was otherwise fun.
October 29, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Now we watched the Kafka movie, which featured a bit too much Peter Kürth for my taste and about two too many ideas (animation; gruesome “In the Penal Colony” scene) but was otherwise fun.
Enjoyed how much music they squeezed into the Bob Dylan movie. And I liked the folk festival organizer argument scenes.
October 27, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Enjoyed how much music they squeezed into the Bob Dylan movie. And I liked the folk festival organizer argument scenes.
Does anyone have a TLS subscription? We need this review in full, as we teeter on the edge of our seats: www.the-tls.com/literature/f...
Slow train coming
The European train novel is almost as old as the railway itself. Charles Dickens’s Dombey and Son (1848), Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1878), Graham
www.the-tls.com
October 22, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Does anyone have a TLS subscription? We need this review in full, as we teeter on the edge of our seats: www.the-tls.com/literature/f...
Due to a massive adrenaline comedown, I could only traipse the streets of Hamburg swathed in wan melancholy, and didn’t make it to a good bookshop. I bought Elif Shafak in the station bookstore instead. Next time! (The event went well but sometimes that’s harder to come down from.)
October 22, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Due to a massive adrenaline comedown, I could only traipse the streets of Hamburg swathed in wan melancholy, and didn’t make it to a good bookshop. I bought Elif Shafak in the station bookstore instead. Next time! (The event went well but sometimes that’s harder to come down from.)
Reposted by Katy Derbyshire
TONIGHT: head to @bklynlibrary.bsky.social to hear about the novel László Krasznahorkai called “magnificent”, Krisztina Tóth’s EYE OF THE MONKEY
October 21, 2025 at 2:18 PM
TONIGHT: head to @bklynlibrary.bsky.social to hear about the novel László Krasznahorkai called “magnificent”, Krisztina Tóth’s EYE OF THE MONKEY
I am on my way to HAMBURG to do an event, but I’ve nearly finished the book I’m reading. Where should I go for a new one tomorrow morning?
October 21, 2025 at 2:18 PM
I am on my way to HAMBURG to do an event, but I’ve nearly finished the book I’m reading. Where should I go for a new one tomorrow morning?
Reposted by Katy Derbyshire
Stadtbild kann ich überbieten. Faschisten haben schon immer mein ganzes Weltbild gestört. Und jetzt?
October 17, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Stadtbild kann ich überbieten. Faschisten haben schon immer mein ganzes Weltbild gestört. Und jetzt?
Reposted by Katy Derbyshire
Read an incredible, hefty, brief novel about loss in all its kinds - loss of self, of hope, of love, of life... Every Time We Say Goodbye by Ivana Sajko: triumphofthenow.com/2025/10/10/e...
Every Time We Say Goodbye by Ivana Sajko
perfect, glorious, flawless. i should only read 100 page bleak novellas
triumphofthenow.com
October 10, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Read an incredible, hefty, brief novel about loss in all its kinds - loss of self, of hope, of love, of life... Every Time We Say Goodbye by Ivana Sajko: triumphofthenow.com/2025/10/10/e...
Looking forward to hosting tomorrow in Berlin
October 13, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Looking forward to hosting tomorrow in Berlin
Being a translator is great. I made this description exist in English:
“a multiply married Muslim on the lookout for a buxom Saxon to add to his harem”
It’s a rumour spread by locals in an East German town about a newly arrived stranger, in Clemens Meyer’s The Projectionists. #amtranslating
“a multiply married Muslim on the lookout for a buxom Saxon to add to his harem”
It’s a rumour spread by locals in an East German town about a newly arrived stranger, in Clemens Meyer’s The Projectionists. #amtranslating
October 10, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Being a translator is great. I made this description exist in English:
“a multiply married Muslim on the lookout for a buxom Saxon to add to his harem”
It’s a rumour spread by locals in an East German town about a newly arrived stranger, in Clemens Meyer’s The Projectionists. #amtranslating
“a multiply married Muslim on the lookout for a buxom Saxon to add to his harem”
It’s a rumour spread by locals in an East German town about a newly arrived stranger, in Clemens Meyer’s The Projectionists. #amtranslating
Reposted by Katy Derbyshire
Annual reminder that without literary translators, most Nobel Prize-winning authors couldn’t be read by the committee/readers, so celebrate them too. Congrats @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social et al! This isn’t taking away from the author, it’s adding recognition of the miracle/labour/skill of translation.
Nobel prize in literature 2025 live: Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai wins
Nobel prize in literature 2025 live: László Krasznahorkai wins
Follow along as the next winner of the world’s most prestigious literature prize is announced in Stockholm
www.theguardian.com
October 9, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Annual reminder that without literary translators, most Nobel Prize-winning authors couldn’t be read by the committee/readers, so celebrate them too. Congrats @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social et al! This isn’t taking away from the author, it’s adding recognition of the miracle/labour/skill of translation.
Oooooh, @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social !
October 9, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Oooooh, @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social !
Sorry to use you as a dumping ground, but I just talked to a guy who’s thinking about getting into literary translation by “using software” and post-editing. Because it would be too time consuming the long way. He was also unimpressed by my suggestion that good translation takes practice.
October 9, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Sorry to use you as a dumping ground, but I just talked to a guy who’s thinking about getting into literary translation by “using software” and post-editing. Because it would be too time consuming the long way. He was also unimpressed by my suggestion that good translation takes practice.
Kaufhaus, das ich nach 29 Jahre Berlin nicht kenne,* macht Werbung mit Schriftsteller:innen! Die meisten kommen aus der Schweiz. Ich bin so verwirrt. Writers are cool now? Writers wear expensive clothes? Writers are stylish? No offence, but these have not been my observations.
October 7, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Kaufhaus, das ich nach 29 Jahre Berlin nicht kenne,* macht Werbung mit Schriftsteller:innen! Die meisten kommen aus der Schweiz. Ich bin so verwirrt. Writers are cool now? Writers wear expensive clothes? Writers are stylish? No offence, but these have not been my observations.
Reposted by Katy Derbyshire
Seit Mai 2025 werden auf Weisung von Alexander Dobrindt an der deutschen Grenze Asylsuchende (widerrechtlich) zurückgewiesen.
Habt ihr auch schon bemerkt, wie dadurch die Wirtschaft aufblüht, wie Lebensmittel, Mieten und Strom wieder bezahlbar werden und ihr mehr Geld in der Tasche habt?
Eben.
Habt ihr auch schon bemerkt, wie dadurch die Wirtschaft aufblüht, wie Lebensmittel, Mieten und Strom wieder bezahlbar werden und ihr mehr Geld in der Tasche habt?
Eben.
October 5, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Seit Mai 2025 werden auf Weisung von Alexander Dobrindt an der deutschen Grenze Asylsuchende (widerrechtlich) zurückgewiesen.
Habt ihr auch schon bemerkt, wie dadurch die Wirtschaft aufblüht, wie Lebensmittel, Mieten und Strom wieder bezahlbar werden und ihr mehr Geld in der Tasche habt?
Eben.
Habt ihr auch schon bemerkt, wie dadurch die Wirtschaft aufblüht, wie Lebensmittel, Mieten und Strom wieder bezahlbar werden und ihr mehr Geld in der Tasche habt?
Eben.
As my mum would say: What are you all going to wear once it gets cold? #BerlinSeptember
September 29, 2025 at 8:31 PM
As my mum would say: What are you all going to wear once it gets cold? #BerlinSeptember