Unique Translation and Interpreting Jobs in Literature, Academia and the Arts

"[An] interesting piece I did was a script for a docudrama on Internet romance."- Yohanna Valdez, French Translator

Translators and Interpreters work in many different fields and industries, including business, culinary, marketing and public relations, science, education, academia, film, visual arts, music, history, engineering, health, legal, social sciences, and non-profit work. There are several unique areas of specialty. Often, these specialties will expand over time, meaning that one could become an expert in multiple fields. While one could easily imagine a translator working on a business contract or an interpreter assisting on a conference call, there are lots of other unique opportunities out there in literature and the arts.

Typically, literary translators work very closely with the author of the source text to make sure they are capturing the style and literary nuances as accurately as possible. Interestingly, many multilingual authors even prefer a third party to convert their work, since this is a very special skill set that many authors do not even possess. After an author has worked once with someone and the collaboration has been successful, it would be rare that the author would ever have anyone else translate his or her work.

There are many examples of literary translators working in pairs to complete a longer manuscript. This could be done in a variety of ways - each person could take one half of the manuscript, interpret it individually and then come back together to smooth out transitions, or one collaborator could simply act as a "second pair of eyes" on the text, checking for consistency, clarity, authenticity and tone. Typically, literary translators only specialize in one or two genres (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, etc.). Most people in this field translate into their native language. Interpreters are often used in conferences or interviews with famous authors.

For example, Janine Libbey, who started out doing business translations, had an interesting interpreting experience in the literary world. "I worked on an interview with William Kennedy, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Ironweed, for one of Spain's leading newspapers. To be honest, I find almost every job to be interesting because I learn something new with each project," says Janine Libbey, a Spanish specialist who operates her own company.

Jen Westmoreland Bouchard, a French translator and interpreter, has had some unique opportunities to use her skills within the film industry. The term "film translation" encompasses many types of work. It can include the conversion of articles or other written materials that will help in the making of the film, film subtitles, and synopses, reviews, or marketing materials.

"I have done all types of film translations - I've worked through interviews for documentary films, done subtitles (French to English), and even worked on publicity materials for a film that went to the Cannes film festival. It's exciting to be involved in the process. One of the most interesting projects I did was interpreting interviews and doing subtitles for a documentary on rap in Dakar, Senegal," says Bouchard.

Academic translation usually involves working on academic articles, abstracts, essays, and manuscripts. Many academic writers work exclusively with one or two specialists throughout their career, since the language interpreter becomes very comfortable with and efficient at translating that writer's particular style. While workers in this area of focus don't need to hold a degree specifically in the field in which they are working, some experience is necessary. It is more important for the interpreter to be a strong academic writer in the target language and to be familiar with the lexicon and general frameworks (theoretical, argumentative, etc.) of the field. Most academic translators translate into their native language.

"I've done quite a bit of academic translation - manuscripts, articles, abstracts, etc. Sometimes scholars of literature will contact me to work on previously un-translated texts (written by someone else) so that they can use this information in their research. The most interesting project like this I have done was a year-long project during which I translated articles from 1800s Parisian arts journals from French to English for an art history scholar," says Bouchard.

There are many types of translating jobs one may pursue, from literary translation jobs to subtitling films, document translation, and tour escort interpreting. Lisa Jenkins writes about working as a translator for JobMonkey, a free job board and career guide. Learn how to start your own business, what types of training and certifications are available, and how much you can earn doing translations.

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