Corporate, military, governmental, traumatic translation experiences?
Hi there! I am a published writer currently working on a literary novel about a translator who does both literary and non-literary translation. I know a bit about the literary side but I would love to connect and potentially interview translators who work on documents such as corporate-legal (lawsuits?), translating medical documents about traumatic events, or even have experience translating military work or work for NGOs and/or the UN (similar to the translator in Katie Kitamura's Intimacies if anyone knows that novel)!
If you have any experience or knowledge of the above, I would really love to get to know your work, your daily routine, the ways you navigate a more bureaucratic and specialist register of language, any ethical issues that arise, or how to deal with translating negative/traumatic stories and events etc. I really would like "translation" to be a central theme for this book and want to do justice to different forms of work that translators might engage with.
Happy to compensate for a 1-2+ hour call/Zoom, and buy you a coffee IRL if you happen to be based in Scotland, London or Berlin (this summer) or NYC (in the Fall). Will also gladly send you a free copy of the novel once it's out if we have multiple discussions!
Ultimately I am just interested in speaking to translators and hope you might be interested in answering a bunch of genuine questions about your work and life.