It’s surprising how often writers, if you ask them about a particular passage, are unable to tell you what exactly they meant. I try to keep that in mind when writing in order to avoid unfortunate innuendo.Īnother thing is that when you translate other people’s texts, you really have to take the writing apart and know what they wanted to say. Basically, if it is possible to misinterpret something (possibly in a not-safe-for-work way) then people will. One of the most important things a translator has to ask is “how could this be misunderstood” and then try to eliminate all the possibilities. I believe it’s done only good things to my writing. Undoubtedly! I’d never have become such a perfectionist without translator training. Style and aesthetics also matter a great deal to me.ĭo you find that your translation work affects your own writing? Speculative fiction gives me the stage and the weapons I need to confront things I find unjust or hard to understand. Real world issues do find their way into my writing, too.

I like adventures and alternative histories as well as discovering meaning and humanity in strange circumstances. I want to create stories and worlds that will do that to people – set them free, let them think, make them see things they didn’t know they were capable of imagining. Not very original, I know, but reading his works was like discovering a missing piece of myself. Tell us a bit more about yourself and your writing – what first got you into speculative fiction? In the first of our contributor interviews, we’re delighted to be joined by author and translator Suvi Kauppila, who tells us more about her work and about what’s going on in Finnish speculative fiction.

Nokkosvallankumous by Siiri Enoranta