The Best Feeling in the World: Translator Shelley Fairweather-Vega on What It Takes to Bring a Book to a Publisher

We continue our coverage of the acquisition of  Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup written by Zira Naurzbayeva (l.) and Lilya Kalaus (c.), and translated from Russian by Shelley Fairweather-Vega by Marilyn Brigham at Amazon Crossing Kids. Publishers Weekly describes the book as a “middle grade fantasy novel” that “weaves the unique mythology of Kazakhstan into a story of friendship and courage as a group of kids embarks on an adventure through both current-day Kazakhstan and a fantasy world.” Publication is slated for spring 2023.

Interview by Ksenia Rogozhnikova

KR: It is a pleasure to speak to you, Shelley! To begin, could you tell me more about yourself and how you became a translator. Where did you study Russian and what made you want to translate? Which authors do you translate?

Shelley Fairweather-Vega: I began studying Russian at university in the 1990s, with the goal of studying history and politics. But the more Russian language I learned, the more I wanted to delve into Russian film and literature. And the more of that I discovered, the more I wanted to share it with people who couldn’t read Russian… so I started translating. I also wanted to learn more about the particular cultures and politics of Central Asia, and started studying the Uzbek language in graduate school. With my background in political science, my first long-term translation job was in journalism. I’ve also translated lots of legal documents, business correspondence, marketing materials… but lately I’ve been concentrating on stories, novels, and poetry. My translation of Evgeny Vodolazkin’s coronavirus play was published in 2020, and I’m working on my third novel by the Uzbek writer in exile, Hamid Ismailov. I’ve also translated some lovely Russian-language books for children, a fascinating book by the Russian-Israeli neuroscientist Anna Sverdlik, a mystery thriller by Daria Desombre, a sci-fi comedy and fantasy stories by Olga Gromyko, and, most recently, lots of stories and poetry and a couple books from Kazakhstan. 

KR: Was there a particular moment when you became interested in authors from Kazakhstan? You recently translated Olga Mark’s short story “The Lighter” to be included in an anthology of women’s writing from Kazakhstan, to be published by Gaudy Boy this year. Could you tell us more about that project, Amanat?

SFV: Yes, I’m thrilled that the Amanat anthology will be coming out this July! Olga Mark’s story, “The Lighter,” is one of my favorites in the collection. Her work is there alongside that of 12 other Kazakhstani women. One of them is Zaure Batayeva, who is the author (and I’d call her an activist) who first brought me into the Kazakh literary world. She and I worked together to translate stories by Zira Naurzbayeva, Aigul Kemelbayeva, and Zaure herself, which were published in the big American online journal Words Without Borders in 2018. That was such a good experience that Zaure and I decided to keep working together. Eventually, we ended up with the collection that is becoming Amanat. Along the way, I’ve published translations of work by some other authors in the anthology (Oral Arukenova, Lilya Kalaus) and translated books by Serikbol Qondybai and Talasbek Asemqulov, thanks to Zira Naurzbayeva, and, of course, I’m now working on Zira’s and Lilya’s book about Batu and his friends.

KR: For an author these days, it is an extremely fortunate (and uncommon) thing to meet a great translator who is interested in their stories or poems. How did you meet Lilya and Zira? Tell us more about how you began to work together.

SFV: Lilya and Zira decided to tell me about their children’s adventure story several years ago, when we had just started working together. At that time, there was only one Batu book in the series, and it only existed in Russian. They were both a little doubtful that English-language readers would find the story interesting, but I was optimistic. The characters are so engaging, there’s an exciting plot full of magic and folklore, and there’s a mystery to solve. Finally, late last year, I found an American publisher who agreed with me – Marilyn Brigham at AmazonCrossing Kids.

KR: I’ve often heard it said that a literary translator today also has to be their author’s agent. Have you found this to be true in your experience?

SFV: Yes, this is often true, and I’ve been doing this work for the authors I translate for several years now. In some parts of the world, every published author has a literary agent, and in that case, the agent can “sell” the book for translation. But that’s not the case in Central Asia. I’ve found publishers for four of my books in translation now, and am still looking for willing publishers for a few more.

Every translation of a poem or short story or essay I manage to have published in a journal also requires this “agenting” work. It’s a different type of labor. Rather than merely being a smart, careful, creative translator, which is difficult enough, you have to also spend time and energy on marketing, networking, researching the book industry….

The problem is that there’s no other way, right now, for publishers to discover good work from places like Kazakhstan. (Maybe blogs like The Alma Review can help!-Thank you! A. R.). They mostly rely on translators to teach them what is available. It’s a very slow process, and not always successful, but when I do find a good publisher for a good book, it’s the best feeling in the world.

KR: Do you find there’s a particular curiosity about literature from Central Asia, and specifically Kazakhstan, right now? In other words, it it worth anyone’s effort to translate writing from Kazakhstan into English? And – as long as it’s not a professional secret – could you share how you establish contacts with American publishers, and AmazonCrossing specifically?

SFV: Yes, I think the interest is growing. There are more translators working on Central Asian literature all the time, and we’re doing our best to demand attention from readers and publishers! Certainly, there is some amazing writing being produced in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries right now, and writers in the region are telling stories that we English-speakers won’t hear anywhere else. 

When I approached Amazon Publishing about Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup, they had already published one novel from Kazakhstan: Rollan Seisenbayev’s The Dead Wander In the Desert, translated by John Farndon and Olga Nakston. And I had worked with them before, when they commissioned a translation of Daria Desombre’s The Sin Collector. They turned Batu down at first because they weren’t publishing middle-grade books at the time. But that policy changed, and when I brought up Batu with Marilyn this autumn, she showed interest immediately.

KR: Have you started your work on the first book, In Search of the Golden Cup? Are there plans to translate and publish the other two books in the series?

SFV: Yes, Book 1 is about two-thirds translated at the moment, and the translation will be finished by early April. I hope that it will be a great hit in English and the publisher will want to continue with the rest of the books in the series. If they do, I’ll be ready to translate them. I find that the books that are the most fun to read are always a pleasure to translate, and that’s certainly true of this series.

KR: What advice would you give Kazakhstani authors who would like to have their work translated into English and other languages? How do they find translators?

SFV: I think the most important thing is to write the way you want to write. Don’t compose with a foreign audience in mind; just write honestly and authentically, in your own style, and tell your most compelling story. Then you have to do the hard work of getting published in your own language. If your poetry or your stories are being published and read in Kazakhstan, that makes them much more appealing to publishers elsewhere. Try to be on social media, attend writing events, meet other authors. As you meet authors, you’ll also meet translators, whether in real life or online. 

Sadly, there are many more excellent writers in Kazakhstan than translators ready to work with them. I wish I could translate twice as fast as I do, so I could translate twice as many good books. But, as I mentioned, there are more translators interested in the region now than ever before. I believe that the perfect translator can always be found, with time. So my final piece of advice is: Don’t give up!

Photo: Shelley Fairweather-Vega

Shelley Fairweather-Vega is a professional translator of Russian and Uzbek in Seattle, Washington. She translates poetry, fiction, screenplays and more for authors around the world, with a special focus on the contemporary literature of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Fairweather-Vega holds degrees in International Relations and Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies. As a translator, she is most interested in the intersection of culture and politics in modern history. Her published projects and work in progress are at fairvega.com/translation.

The Adventures of Batu and his Friends – all the way to Amazon (Crossing)

The announcement as it appeared in Publishers Weekly: Marilyn Brigham at Amazon Crossing Kids has acquired Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup written by Zira Naurzbayeva (l.) and Lilya Kalaus (c.), and translated from Russian by Shelley Fairweather-Vega. The middle grade fantasy novel weaves the unique mythology of Kazakhstan into a story of friendship and courage as a group of kids embarks on an adventure through both current-day Kazakhstan and a fantasy world. Publication is slated for spring 2023; the authors represented themselves in the deal for world rights excluding Russian and Kazakh.

Interview by Ksenia Rogozhnikova, translated by Nina Murray

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Ksenia Rogozhnikova: First of all, I want to thank you, Lilia and Zira: you inspired me and my co-author, Elena Klepikova, to write together. Many years ago, I heard Lilia speak about your process of co-writing—you just finished your first Batu book at the time. I was so captivated by the idea of writing with a partner that I think the very next day I asked my colleague Elena Klepikova if she would like to give it a try. The rest, as they say, is history in Kazakhstan’s children’s literature. 

Lilia Kalaus: Thank you, Ksenia! I am so happy to hear that our book inspired you and Elena to collaborate! May you write many more books!

Zira Naurzbayeva: I find writing with a partner to be an excellent cure for procrastination. It really gives you discipline. If we agree to get something done by a certain deadline, I am accountable for it. And, of course, talking to you writing partner does wonders for you when you’re in a bad mood. 

KR: You have written three books about Batu, a Kazakh boy. How do you come up with stories that you want to tell? What inspired you to create this character? And are you planning a fourth book? 

LK: We work out the storylines together—it’s the most important part of our process and the one that can take the longest. We talk a lot, recall things from when we were children, and of course, make things up. Zira has all the crucial knowledge at her fingertips: she is the expert in our culture and mythology in addition to being incredibly well read. We pull storylines from myths and then talk them over and develop them by adding our characters, their backgrounds, dreams and aspirations. So, in every book, the main plot line is based on a Turkic myth—but that mythical seed has been rethought, modernized, and resolved the way we want. 

Personally, I find the idea of a novel in stories really inspiring. It’s so cool to follow the same characters’ adventures from book to book, to watch them change and grow. Plus, in today’s children’s literature, such series are the mainstream. 

I hope and believe that there will be a fourth book. As well as the fifth, sixth, and seventh…

ZN: Yes, we are working on the next installment. And I definitely agree with Lilia about the plot being the most difficult part of the process. Especially when you have many characters and several plot-lines with different adventures. Plus, you have to make sure you don’t contradict what you had done in the earlier books. When we begin working on a new installment, we spend some time thinking about the overall philosophy of the book, its concept, if you will, and then construct the plot that can express our ideas. Then, if our ideas change in the process of actually writing the book, the plot changes too. Several times, usually. And, of course, sometimes our characters “refuse” to act the way we need them to. So we change things again. 

KR: We are all painfully aware of the many challenges of publishing in Kazakhstan, including for children’s books. What keeps you motivated to keep fighting for each book? For the first one, I believe you found government funding, and the second and third had private sponsors, didn’t they? 

LK: We also had a private sponsor for the first book, Batu and the Search for the Golden Goblet. We have not yet had any support from the government. What keeps us motivated… I guess, it’s the sense that someone has to do this. Zira and I have stories to tell, so we have to make things happen. The first book was an experiment—neither one of us had written for children before. We wanted to know if our young readers would like our story in the first place. Would they want to know what happens next? Turned out, they liked the story very much and looked forward to the next installment. So we kept writing. 

Finding funding is a challenge. I am tremendously grateful to Zira: she leads a very public life online and offline, and is super-prolific with her blog posts, essays, and scholarly articles.  The private individuals who supported our books financially come from her circle. 

ZN: We did (sort of) have government funding for the Kazakh translation of the first book. At the end of that fiscal year, there were unspent budget funds, and the government asked publishers to try to add another children’s title or two to their lists. Our publisher already had the manuscript of the Kazakh translation, so they published it. What we were paid as authors for the Russian original did not even cover the cost of a good translation, which we commissioned ourselves, a few years prior. Last year, the book was included in the “One Country, One Book” program, and we hoped that there would be funding for another edition, or for translating the second and third installments into Kazakh. Some library orders at least. But none of that materialized. 

KR: As you mentioned, before the Batu books, you wrote for adults. Zira is a scholar of Kazakh mythology, and Lilia edits and teaches creative writing. What prompted you to try writing for children? 

LK: We wrote our first book for our own kids. Our domestic market has virtually no books for middle-grade and young-adult readers written by people from Kazakhstan about and for people of Kazakhstan. We wanted to share our national mythology and traditions, but not in a way that kids read about them in textbooks. We wanted to write a good fantasy adventure—and we were thrilled that our readers liked it. Our first readers have by now grown up (as did our own children), but new generations of readers seem to be just as interested in our characters’ adventures. The anticipation in our young readers’ eyes is the best motivation. So we keep writing. 

ZN: I am a scholar first, and I am passionate about sharing my knowledge with the wider audience. I want to influence young people’s minds, but I can’t expect them to read my 700-page tome The Eternal Sky of Kazakhs. Instead, we engage them by writing captivating stories that rely on our traditional culture and mythology. You could say we are raising future readers for our adult books. That’s our sneaky plan!

KR: How did you meet Shelley (Fairweather-Vega) and managed to get Amazon Crossing interested in your book? 

ZN: My friend Zaure Batayeva, who is also a writer and translator and works in four languages, introduced us to Shelley. Zaure lives in Brussels and does as much as she can to support Kazakh literature and literature from Kazakhstan more broadly. She translates works herself and commissions work from other translators and places pieces in western publications. Shelley and I then worked together on translating my husband, Talasbek Asemkulov’s, novel A Life at Noon (Slavica, 2019). Shelley not only translated the novel, but also found a publisher for it in the U.S. In this context, I asked her whether our children’s project might be of interest to an American publisher. I personally thought it was a hyper-local product, but Lilia disagreed. 

LK: And I always believed that our books, rooted in Kazakh realities, culture and traditions, could appeal to readers in other countries. Western publics know so little about our country… Kids in Kazakhstan are thrilled when each new book in the series comes out—so I hope kids in other countries enjoy our stories as well. 

KR: As the saying goes, no prophet is accepted in her hometown. In the time since Amazon Crossing acquired the rights to your first book about Batu, has publishing become easier for you in Kazakhstan? 

LK: I really want to believe that our next books will get both government and new private funding. But so far, I’ve no progress to report. 

ZN: Yes, when the news first came out, there was a burst of interest and lots of news sites reposted the story. We were invited to speak on TV a couple of times. But so far, that’s all. 

KR:  Could you tell us how you financed the translation of your first book from Russian into Kazakh? What are the chances of the next two books in the series being translated? 

ZN: We used the revenue from the sales of the Russian text to finance the translation. I am also a translator from Kazakh to Russian, so I know all the challenges in the translation field first-hand. We did not look to economize on this and commissioned one of our best and most expensive translators Ainash Sadyk. 

KR: What are your plans? Have you considered entering the market in Russia? Or having your books translated into another European language? 

LK: Our contract with Amazon Crossing leaves us the rights to the Russian texts and translations into Kazakh while the publisher owns the rights of translation into other languages. So that’s up to them. As far as the Russian market goes… a writer can dream. But the reality is that you don’t take your own samovar to Tula. Still, if the book does well in English and appeals to Western readers, Russian readers will notice. Time will show. Time is a very honest person, as Pierre de Beaumarchais once said. 

As far as our plans go, they are the same as for all creatives, I think: to keep writing about the adventures of Batu and his friends. We still have so many ideas, so many stories to tell, so many interesting twists to explore! At the end of the third book, a few characters disappear—they fall into another world. We can’t just leave them in such dire straits, can we? We absolutely have to rescue them. So there will definitely be book number four. 

ZN: We want the American edition to be a success, of course. Having our books translated into other languages depends on that. Shelley has just started the translation. I am very grateful to her and wish her the best of luck. The contract with Amazon Crossing also stipulated that the text of the book might be altered in order to be adapted for the American audience—and that stands to reason. Our Russian text is full of phrases in Kazakh and Kazakh cultural phenomena, because it is an explicit goal of ours to get young Russian speakers interested in the Kazakh language. For an American edition, that’s not so important. 

Zira Naurzbayeva is a native of Almaty. Dr. Naurzbayeva is a scholar of Kazakh mythology, screen-writer, translator, book author and the founder and moderator of otuken.kz, a site dedicated to Kazakh mythology, traditional culture, and music. Her books include The Eternal Sky of Kazakhs / «Вечное небо казахов» (2013, 2020); Four Clouds / «Четыре облака» (2017); and The Contender / «Соперница» (2020) which was included in the anthology Best Asian Short Stories 2019 (Kitaab International). With Lilia Kalaus, she is the co-author of The Adventures of Batu and his Friends series: In Search of the Golden Cup / «Приключения Бату и его друзей в поисках Золотой чаши» (Russian edition 2014, Kazakh 2018, English forthcoming in 2022); In the Land of Barsakelmes / «Приключения Бату и его друзей в стране Барсакелмес» (2019); In the Star Land of Aidala / «Приключения Бату и его друзей в звездной стране Айдала» (2021).

Lilya Kalaus is a native of Almaty. She is a linguist, writer, editor, critic, screen-writer, painter, and radio anchor. In 2011-2014 she served as the Editor-in-chief of the literary journal “Booklover” / «Книголюб». Her books include novels “Bestiary” (Almaty, Iskander, 1999) and “The Last Hope Fund. A Post-Colonial Novel”, longlisted for Russkaya Premiya in 2010, as well as several collections of short stories and essays. Lilya Kalaus is a member of the Kazakhstan PEN-Club.