In my fruitless efforts to work in literary translation, I have attended conferences and had conversations with translators, read blogs and books to learn what the secret formula is. To my immense frustration, the advice always seems to be the following: #xl8 #literarytranslation

1) Make connections: these connections are usually made by paying to attend courses, conferences, etc. which many of us simply cannot afford

2) Have an elite education: see previous point about money and also access to elite institutions for people from a working class background. If you only accept Oxford and Cambridge graduates, you’re denying opportunities to people based on how much money they have.

3) Prepare samples and proposals for free, i.e. invest months of unpaid time into something you might not get paid for. Again for those of us who have to the choice between work for money or live under a bridge, this advice is unhelpful.

I want to clarify what I mean by working class. I don’t mean parents who have a house and can afford a holiday once per year and have barely any debt. I mean coming from a family who own nothing and who have survived on the charity of family members, friends and refuges.

I mean having literally worked a minimum of 25 hours per week alongside full time studies since it was legal to do so, and since leaving education working full time, because not doing so would mean I simply couldn’t survive.

With that out of the way, I’d really like to know, should I just call it a day before I’ve even got anywhere? I’m really tired of being told that to be successful in something I love I have to be able to pay for opportunities to meet people and to work for free.

If this is the case, tell students or emerging translators that from day 1 in explicit terms. Don’t wait for them to have spent a decade dreaming about and working towards something that isn’t possible for them.

Please, for the sake of my mental health, do not respond to this thread saying I should combine it with other types of translation (I already do) or solutions that you can only access if you have financially comfortable people willing around you to support you.

And yes, numerous mistakes in this thread because I'm sick of it.