Charlotte Collins
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cctranslates.bsky.social
Charlotte Collins
@cctranslates.bsky.social
730 followers 300 following 250 posts
Literary translator (DE-EN). Cambridge, UK.
New translation: THE LACK OF LIGHT by Nino Haratischwili, out Sept 9 (US) / Oct 23 (UK)
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cctranslates.bsky.social
Charlotte Collins @cctranslates.bsky.social · Jun 11
Whoop whoop! Coming soon: #NinoHaratischwili 's #TheLackOfLight, tr. Charlotte Collins & Ruth Martin.
HarperVia: "This immersive, character-driven epic is one to get lost in, especially for fans of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet, Isabel Allende, and stories that centre female friendship."
Cover of The Lack of Light: b/w photo of a woman pushing aside a net curtain to look out of a tall window. The title lettering is in a delicate pale lilac-yellow-turquoise wash. Black and white photo of a woman halfway up an old-fashioned staircase, looking up. Over it, white text reads: "The Lack of Light is an immersive, sweeping epic set against the backdrop of Tbilisi, about a group of four women who formed a deep friendship in the turbulent years leading up to and after Georgia's independence from the Soviet Union." Black-and-white close-up photo of Nino Haratischwili, looking straight down the lens and framing her face with both hands. She has striking features, with pale skin, dark eyes, hair and eyebrows, and dark lipstick. The text at the bottom reads: "Nino Haratischwili was born in Tbilisi and is an acclaimed and award-winning novelist and dramatist, and among the most important authors of contemporary German literature. Her international bestseller "The Eighth Life (for Brilka)" was translated into thirty languages and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Haratischwili lives in Berlin." Close-up colour photos of Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin, both white women with dark brown hair. The text reads: "From the note on the translation: 'It is perhaps surprising how rarely literary works take supportive female friendship as their central theme, and in the "The Lack of Light" it is absolutely fundamental. It feels apt that, in the making of this translation, our own friendship and ongoing collaboration have become part of the book's journey into English.'"
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
jadeafitton.bsky.social
If you’re anything like us and Radio 4 is the background soundtrack to your existence, listen in at 3.45 today. I wrote a short story for Short Works about a wild boar release, rural ideologies and searching for balance in an environment that is intrinsically off-kilter
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - Short Works, The Sounder by Jade Angeles Fitton
An original short work for Radio 4 by Jade Angeles Fitton
www.bbc.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
bremaininspain.com
Yep. And to think that so many people think this man is some sort of hero is such a sign of our twisted times.
November 8, 2025 at 12:24 PM
cctranslates.bsky.social
It's just occurred to me that, in my pre-German days, I thought the piano piece was called 'Fur Elise'. I don't think I *ever* wondered why. Even more bizarrely, I pictured fir trees.
I think this belongs with 'what nonsense have you unthinkingly chirped when singing along to pop songs'.
October 16, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
tulletilsynet.bsky.social
It is a beautiful formulation
September 30, 2025 at 10:32 AM
cctranslates.bsky.social
Nino!! 😲
Ich bewundere dich.
ilkokowalczuk.bsky.social Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk @ilkokowalczuk.bsky.social · Oct 10
1/Gestern hielt in Leipzig in der Nikolaikirche Nino Haratischwili die alljährliche Revolutionsrede. Ich wünschte, irgendwer hätte den Einfluss, diese Rede so zu verbreiten, dass sich mit ihr wirklich auseinandergesetzt wird, auch in den Kreisen, in denen man bis jetzt nicht
October 10, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
ottiliemulzet.bsky.social
It has been such a great honour to be one of Krasznahorkai's interpreters into English (since 2008), along with George Szirtes and John Batki. I also have to mention the visionary New Directions and my beyond stellar editor Declan Spring 🧡

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/b...
Laszlo Krasznahorkai Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature
www.nytimes.com
October 10, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
jenniferlcroft.bsky.social
I took this picture of Olga and László in London in 2018. Congrats to Krasznahorkai and his translators, including George Szirtes and @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social, and long live a Central Europe free of dictators (foreign and domestic) and full of magnificent minds like these!
October 9, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
jencalleja.bsky.social
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.
October 9, 2025 at 11:24 AM
cctranslates.bsky.social
Shout out to all of Krasznahorkai's #translators who have made it possible for readers all over the world to access his work and his worlds. Congratulations especially to @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social and George Szirtes, for their translations (from Hungarian) into English.
October 9, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
kojamf.bsky.social
Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.
October 5, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
iangiles.bsky.social
Next Thurs, I'll be talking to co-translators @cctranslates.bsky.social and @dances-with-voles.bsky.social as part of the @societyofauthors.bsky.social #SoAatHome events. We'll be talking translation & celebrating the release of their co-translation of Nino Haratischwili's "The Lack of Light".
October 1, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
jencalleja.bsky.social
Happy International Translation Day!

Here’s part of my translation manifesto, which can be found in full at the end of Fair: The Life-Art of Translation.

(Written out in replies)
September 30, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
germanatportsmouth.bsky.social
How AI is undermining learning and teaching in universities: Prof Leo McCann and Prof Simon Sweeney say student misuse of generative artificial intelligence is widespread and we must be sceptical of its usefulness www.theguardian.com/technology/2... via @theguardian.com
How AI is undermining learning and teaching in universities | Letter
Letter: Prof Leo McCann and Prof Simon Sweeney say student misuse of generative artificial intelligence is widespread and we must be sceptical of its usefulness
www.theguardian.com
September 17, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
ssacks.bsky.social
National epics aren't written so often these days, but Georgian author Nino Haratischwili has made them her stock-in-trade. This weekend's WSJ Fiction Chronicle leads with her big, operatic, immersive latest, 'The Lack of Light,' a story of friendship in a broken country. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
Fiction: ‘The Lack of Light’ by Nino Haratischwili
Plus Angela Flournoy’s “The Wilderness.”
www.wsj.com
September 11, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
electricliterature.com
Nino Haratischwili and Morgan Leigh Davies discuss her new novel “The Lack of Light,” nostalgia for hard times, and post-Soviet corruption.

buff.ly/ATHw5ba
The Sadomasochistic Chain of Post-Soviet Society - Electric Literature
Nino Haratischwili discusses nostalgia and the chaos of 1990s Georgia in her epic novel “The Lack of Light”
electricliterature.com
September 9, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
augieray.bsky.social
I just read my tenth #COVID19 research study in the past month or so that demonstrates COVID infections cause brain changes that may accelerate Alzheimer's disease, are associated with cognitive decline, and cause fatigue, memory impairment, and sleep disorders. (1/?)
July 5, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
literaryhub.bsky.social
“Wide-eyed, we stared at our friend as she stood between two worlds.” Read from Nino Haratischwili’s novel The Lack of Light, translated by @cctranslates.bsky.social and @dances-with-voles.bsky.social.
The Lack of Light
Tbilisi, 1987 The evening light was tangled in her hair. She was nearly there; at any moment she would overcome this barrier, too, would press her body against the railing with all her strength unt…
buff.ly
September 4, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
littranslate.bsky.social
🎉 We are delighted to announce the longlists for the 2025 National Translation Awards (NTA) in Poetry and Prose!

2025 marks the 27th year for the NTA, and the 11th year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose.

View the lists here: buff.ly/PJoX7du
September 4, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
thomasleurs.bsky.social
„Europa, wach auf!“ heißt das neue Buch der deutschsprachigen Autorin Nino Haratischwili. Darin enthalten ihre Reden und Essays über Freiheit, Werte und Demokratie. Durch Putins Imperialismus, seinen Krieg gegen die Ukraine und auch seinen steigenden Einfluss in Georgien 8/22
"Europa, wach auf! Texte und Reden" von Nino Haratischwili
September 2, 2025 at 5:41 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
kenbar.bsky.social
September 1, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
shreedaisy.bsky.social
My op-ed in the @chicagomaroon.bsky.social on the University of Chicago’s appalling plans to gut the humanities and possibly eliminate the South Asian studies department chicagomaroon.com/48353/viewpo...
Lost in Extraterrestrial Translation
The University celebrates the success of area studies alumni, all the while erasing the programs that made those careers possible.
chicagomaroon.com
August 30, 2025 at 5:22 PM
cctranslates.bsky.social
“Can you draw? Does that make you an artist?
Can you sing? Does that make you a singer?
Can you write? Does that make you a novelist?
Speaking two languages does not make you a translator.”

👏👏
naometsa.bsky.social こはな @naometsa.bsky.social · Aug 21
Here's a thing about translation. Particularly, people who complain about "accuracy." Nearly always, what they mean is, "I put this word into a J>E dictionary and that's NOT what it said!"

But have you looked at an English dictionary? No, really, have you? Does it look like a J>E dictionary?
August 27, 2025 at 10:27 PM
cctranslates.bsky.social
“I am worried that a reliance on ChatGPT will erode people’s ability to use their brains. I do believe that the creative imagination in particular is a muscle, and one that is rewarding to exercise.”
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
ChatGPT has its uses, but I still hate it – and I’ll tell you why | Imogen West-Knights
It’s bad for the planet and could make many jobs – including mine – obsolete. But my loathing runs deeper than that, says writer Imogen West-Knights
www.theguardian.com
August 27, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
alexzucker.bsky.social
Zdena Salivarová, deceased at age 91, is underappreciated in the general public. But literary circles are well aware of her accomplishments. Her novel Honzlová [Summer in Prague, tr. Marie Winn] is one of the best works of 20th-century Czech literature.

english.radio.cz/without-her-...
“Without her, 68 Publishers would not exist”: On writer and translator Zdena Salivarová’s legacy
Writer Zdena Salivarová has died at the age of 91. Together with her husband, Škvorecký, she wrote books and published authors via their publishing house, 68 Publishers.
english.radio.cz
August 26, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Collins
bcltuea.bsky.social
This year’s Sebald Lecture on literary translation will be given by Elif Shafak 📣 Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist with 21 published books, 13 of which are novels translated into 58 languages. Presented in association with @britishlibrary.bsky.social

events.bl.uk/events/the-w...
August 26, 2025 at 11:02 AM