Bridging the divide between those who study translation and those who produce translations, through essays written by well-known translators talking about their own work as creative literary practice, this book aims at giving voice to silent translators and in so doing to move the attention back to the act of translating.

Introduction: Susan Bassnett and Peter Bush. PART I: EXPLORING THE ROLE OF THE TRANSLATOR; 1. The translator's visibility; Ros Schwartz, Chair of the European Council of Literary Translators Associations; 2. Translating the Literary: Genetic Criticism, Text Theory and Poetry; Clive Scott, University of East Anglia; 3. The alien made familiar; the compact between writer and translator; Anna Paterson; 4. Translation as Adventure; Peter Bush, Vice-President of the International Federation of Translators; 5. Translation: walking the tightrope of illusion; Anthea Bell; PART II: PERSPECTIVES ON TRANSLATION; 6. The translator as writer: a perspective from India; Lakshmi Holmstrom; 7. Translating Modern Chinese Literature; John Balcom, Monterey Institute of International Studies; 8. Saying the Unsayable: Classical Translation and Creative Expression; Josephine Balmer; 9. Translating from the Body; Carol Maier, Kent State University; 10. The requirements and limits of translator's creativity with respect to time, genre and media. Lexical accuracy versus functional faithfulness; Jiri Josek, Charles University, Prague; 11. The Writer as 'Translator': Translating-cum-versionizing Goldoni's Le; Baruffe Chiozzotte; Bill Findlay, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh; PART III: TASKS OF THE TRANSLATOR; 12. Translating fun: Don Quixote; John Rutherford, Queen's College Oxford; 13. Rewriting books for kids; Jakob Kenda; 14. The translator in Aliceland. The translation of Alice in Wonderland into Spanish; Juan Gabriel Lopez Guix, Universidad Autonoma, Barcelona; 15. Being Wildean: A Dialogue on the Importance of Style in Translation; Alberto Mira, Oxford Brookes University; 16. Conclusion; Susan Bassnett, Centre for Translation & Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick; Bibliography; Index.

"'...the very thing that the... Chinese translation researchers need and would like to read. For the last 20 years, translation theorists have been the favorites with the Chinese translation circles, and translators, in contrast, seem to have been marginal in the same field. There are too many translation theorists who theorise without solid background of translation practice. Translation theory in China is in the danger of being estranged more and more from studies of translation as an art. Now the proposed book... can be rightly a remedy to the unhealthy situation in which translators are slighted...' Professor Zhengkun Gu, Department of English, Peking University and Chairman of Peking University Society for Translation and Culture"

Now available in paperback, the editors of this book are internationally known in the field of literary translation and translation studies - particularly as promoters of the view that translation as a creative practice rather than a mechanical process.

All the translators contributing to the volume have a long experience of translating and an international reputation in the field including several prize-winning translators (John Rutherford, Anthea Bell and Anna Paterson) and the Slovenian translator of the Harry Potter books and His Dark Materials series.