[…] Translated novels by female writers are the palomino unicorns of the publishing world – not just unusual, but a small subset within a subset. Not only do translations make up a tiny fraction of the books brought out in the UK and US, but only about a quarter of them are by women.

Various recent counts have found that about 26 % of English translations are female-authored books (although the gender balance among their translators is roughly equal). With such a small pool to choose from in any one year, it may not be surprising that women have rarely won prizes for translated titles in the past. The Man Booker International’s forerunner, the Independent foreign fiction prize, went to two women and 19 men over its lifetime, only shortlisting six women in its last five years. On the other hand, America’s younger equivalent, the Best Translated Book awards, have managed to honour Dorothea Dieckmann, Gail Hareven, Tove Jansson and Can Xue in eight years. More.

See: The Guardian

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