The State of Things

Abstract

To the casual observer living in an anglophone country, the past decade has ushered in a new golden age of literature in translation. Yet, a closer look at the data reveals a bleaker picture. As we move away from the '3 per cent problem’ and start to address new, more complex elements of translation and commerce, we need to find new terms to discuss what we do, new business practices that are born from non-cutthroat capitalist strategies, and new forms of revenue that will allow all of us to achieve what we really want: more readers for more books by more voices from around the world.