Friday, January 29, 2010  Gay Literature  In the February 1st
issue of Time is an article titled "From Europe with Love,"
about the release in America of an anthology of short stories,
Best European Fiction 2010, containing translations of stories
"from thirty-five nations and regions from Albania to Wales...."
 The columnist Radhika Jones writes, "Translations of  foreign-
language works make up a mere 3% to 5% of the books published in
the U.S. annually, and that includes new editions of classics
like Anna Karenina.  Except for a few recent
breakouts...translated authors tend to deliver anemic sales,
which makes mainstream American publishers loath to gamble on
them [p. 52]."  The United States isn't the only country to
avoid releasing translated versions of foreign writing; Canada's
pretty good at it too, although I think, in general, Canadian
publishers do a better job of importing this material,
especially from England, which makes sense given our connection
to the Commonwealth.  But it isn't just foreign