International Science Fiction Writers?

April 16th, 2009

I got an email request for suggestions for hard science fiction writers who are “international.”   That is, they’re not American (or British, Canadian, Austrailian, etc.), and write in a foreign language, but have been translated into English.   Specifically:

But I would also like to explore science fiction from other countries like Germany, Japan, and   Russia. Do you know of any authors who have translated their novels?

The short answer is, no, I don’t know writers of this type.   There are a few famous historical science fiction writers like Stanislaw Lem (Poland).   There do seem to be some webpages out there, like this one for Russian Science Fiction & Fantasy, as well as this compilation of science fiction in different countries (authors, magazines, etc.).   Jay Lake just blogged about science fiction in China.   Amazon.com apparently sells a collection of The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories (translated into English).   I’m also aware of some Brazilian science fiction writers and have seen some of the magazines in Portuguese.

And I’ve read none of it.   I barely keep up with the English writers, and I wouldn’t say I do that well.

I can suggest one of the stories from my anthology Diamonds in the Sky, by a science fiction writer who is also an astronomer:

How I Saved the World (Valentin Ivanov)

The movies Armageddon and Deep Impact featured nuclear bombs to divert asteroids headed for Earth, but this is really not the best way to deal with this threat.   This story was originally published in Bulgaria, in the annual almanac “Fantastika”, the 2007 issue. Publisher: “Human Library Foundation”, Sofia. ISSN 1313-3632. Editors: Atanas P. Slavov and Kalin Nenov. Keywords: Killer asteroids

Are there some science fiction writers who write in languages other than English, available in translation?   Stanislaw Lem comes to mind, and he’s not exactly contemporary these days.   I also get the impression than a lot of native-speaking writers have a tough time in the marketplace because foreign publishers do buy a lot of American/British books and have them translated.   I have some friends that couldn’t make livings as writers without the foreign sales.

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