• Marian Schwartz is a prize-winning translator of Russian fiction, history, biography, criticism, and fine art. She is the principal English translator of the works of Nina Berberova and translated the New York Times bestseller The Last Tsar, by Edvard Radzinsky, as well as classics by Mikhail Bulgakov, Ivan Goncharov, Yuri Olesha, and Mikhail Lermontov. Her most recent book translations are Andrei Gelasimov's Thirst (AmazonCrossing), Valery Panyushkin's Twelve Who Don't Agree (Europa Editions), and Olga Slavnikova's 2017 (Overlook Press). Her translations of Mikhail Bulgakov's White Guard and Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov are now out in paperback from Yale University Press. She is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowships and is a past president of the American Literary Translators Association.

Oblomov “Sparkles with Contemporary Lyricism and Humor”

By mbs | Published: January 16, 2011

Karen Vanuska has published a very flattering review of my Oblomov translation in Russia, Past and Present—and even mentioned my White Guard translation to boot. This is a reviewer who understands my aspirations:

Here is why Schwartz makes such a fine translator: she brings the essence of the Russian text into English, letting us understand the narrative in its Russian context without drowning us in footnotes.

Once again, I am grateful to Seven Stories Press for taking a chance on this major undertaking and to Yale University Press for bringing it out in paperback.

Read the full text here.

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Cosmopolitan Lawyer Picks Oblomov

By mbs | Published: December 25, 2010

Cosmopolitan Lawyer has chosen my translation of Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov as one of its fiction picks! S/he quotes one of the great lines from Mikhail Shishkin’s afterword: “Forced to choose between an unworthy life and sleeping, Oblomov chooses sleep. Suicide by sofa.”

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Lobster & Canary Likes 2017 for 2010

By mbs | Published: December 21, 2010

Daniel A. Rabuzzi writes Lobster & Canary, a blog about speculative, fantastical and surreal fiction, poetry, and visual arts, fairy tales, oral epic, and children’s literature.  He’s included Olga Slavnikova’s 2017 among his favorite novels read in 2010:

Olga Slavnikova, 2017 (Overlook, 2010, trans. from Russian by Marian Schwartz). The "most difficult-to-classify book of the year." Enjoyed without grasping its entirety, which was part of the enjoyment. Michael Froggatt, in his review (Strange Horizons, October 1, 2010), gets it precisely right: "Olga Slavnikova’s 2017, the winner of the 2006 Russian Booker Prize, is a novel which confounds the reader at every turn: its prose style, characterization and narrative consistently refuse to conform to expectations. It stubbornly refuses to depict people or events in a way which recognizably reflects real life…"

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Catch Me Live

By mbs | Published: October 7, 2010

I’m excited about two speaking dates I have coming up later this month.

On Monday, October 26th, I’ll be giving a Russian Science Fiction Reading at Swarthmore College, reading from my translation of Olga Slavnikova’s 2017. For time and location, click here.

Later that same week, on Thursday, October 28th, I’ll be giving the 12th Annual Marilyn Gaddis Rose Lecture at the annual conference of the American Translators Association.  The Literary Division has asked me to speak about “The Literary Translator and U.S. Publishing”—a subject dear to my heart.  The conference is being held at the Hyatt Regency in Denver. For time and location, click here.

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Russian Science Fiction Reading at Swarthmore

By mbs | Published: September 14, 2010

If you happen to be in Philadelphia next month, please join me on October 25 at Swarthmore College when I do a reading, presented by the Russian section of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, from my translation of Olga Slavnikova’s novel, 2017. For details on where and when, click here.

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“Intense Lyricism” of Slavnikova’s 2017

By mbs | Published: July 5, 2010

Karen Vanuska, in her “writer’s journal of her reading and writing life,” has posted a flattering review of my translation of Olga Slavnikova’s 2017:

It wouldn’t be summer if I didn’t pick up a Russian novel.  Though I received my review copy of 2017 by Olga Slavnikova back in March, I decided to save it for summer.  Instead of dipping my brain into Lit  Light, I prefer the dark, soulfulness of Russian Lit during the blazing heat (or cool fog) of summer. (There must be a support group for people like me).
  
My favorite Russian translator, Marian Schwartz, did the translation for this 2006 Book prize winning novel.  True to form, she lets the Russian language penetrate each English line.  This leads to moments of intense lyricism …

To read the rest, click here.

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