J’ai dit au revoir à tout le monde. Il y avait de la brume et de la brume et de la brume.
The Chronicles
An extensive showcasing of young, exciting, international writing talent – that’s our goal at The Chronicles. And so we invite four authors to be our writers-in-residence at Crossing Border festival. What we also do, is invite six young and talented translators. They rarely experience being in the spotlight, yet they are essential for the worldwide enjoyment of beautiful literature. To underline their importance, The Chronicles presents them alongside the authors.
Columns
Each author writes a daily column during Crossing Border, which will be available in two or three languages thanks to our translators (two languages if the mother tongue is Dutch or English, three if any other language). All the versions can be found on this blog and will be posted during the festival, where they will be available fresh from the press for a large, international audience.
The authors and translators will also provide a prologue and an epilogue; you can find the prologues here early in November. After the festival, a selection of the columns will be published in the The Chronicles magazine.
Live
All The Chronicles participants can be seen live at Crossing Border as well, where they will take to the stage.
Participants
The Chronicles is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, and will be in the good company of the authors Ben Brooks, Sacha Sperling, Pola Oloixarac and Peter Zantingh. The participating translators are: Anne Roetman, Katinka Staals, Laura Williams, Vivien Doornekamp-Glass, Beth Fowler and Astrid Huisman.
Click the portraits on the left for more information about them and for their individual contributions to The Chronicles.
No puedo dibujar estas maravillas, como Rudy a su padre, o como el padre de Crossing Borders, pero sé que se quedan conmigo para siempre.
Ik zag hoe iemand mijn boek van de stapel pakte en ermee naar de kassa liep. Ik liep erachteraan, enigszins gespannen over de brutale vraag die ik zou stellen.
Everything’s fine. I’d like to be back in Den Haag though.
A La Haye, la nuit, j’étais un cowboy qui flottait sur la lumière diffuse des réverbères.
Hamburguesa en Mcdonalds, saboreando la extraña, deliciosa mayonnaise holandesa de 50 centavos de euro.
‘This totally takes care of all your needs and problems’, zei de vrouw op televisie, maar ik was nog steeds niet goed wakker.
I couldn’t sleep last night because I felt like several humans were dancing flamenco in my stomach.
En rentrant à l’hôtel, après le dernier concert, dans les rues tranquilles de La Haye, la brume est revenue. Elle enveloppe tout, comme dans une ville fantôme d’un roman de Poe.
No solo habla el argentino de la manera más juguetona; todo el universo argentino parece conspirar para meterse en su cabeza y salir alucinado de ahí.
De goede luisteraar hoorde misschien desalniettemin dat er een paar bladzijden verderop een film speelde en dat er muziek tussen de woorden lag.
I wish that every time I looked at someone, I instantly knew everything about their life.
Il y a les frontières que j’ai traversées ce matin, assis dans l’avion (la française, la belge…).
Me entero que en Holanda ya no es kosher fumar; me dicen que, en general, la tradición de tolerancia con las libertades individuales está en declive.
In essentie bedoelen ze het goed, bedacht ik, zoals elk menselijk instinct goedbedoeld zou moeten zijn.
Journeys aren’t always fun and you don’t always have to do them. I would run away quickly. As quickly as my tiny feet would let me.
Cette histoire qui n’était rien qu’à moi, eh bien, elle se raconte aujourd’hui dans des langues que je ne comprends pas. Et c’est incroyable quand j’y pense.
¿pero quién me va a rescatar si me caigo a la piscina en Holanda?
Want zoals met alles is ook dit land veelzijdiger dan het zich aan de oppervlakte wellicht laat aanzien.
Finding old, lost, or unused ones and using them when you can seems like a positive thing to do.