April 21, 2025 • 7 mins
Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcome
Today's guest is Victoria Kielland, Norwegian author of My Men, which was translated to English by Damion Searls. Follow Victoria on Instagram @vkielland.
The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Instagram @courtneykocak and Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.
Courtney is teaching some upcoming workshops you might be interested in:
Today's guest is Victoria Kielland, Norwegian author of My Men, which was translated to English by Damion Searls. Follow Victoria on Instagram @vkielland.
The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Instagram @courtneykocak and Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.
Courtney is teaching some upcoming workshops you might be interested in:
- Land Big Bylines by Writing for Columns: https://writingworkshops.com/products/land-big-bylines-by-writing-for-columns-zoom-seminar
- The Multi-Passionate Writer's Life: https://writingworkshops.com/products/the-multi-passionate-writers-life-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocak
- How to Build a “Platform” for Writers Who Shudder at the Thought: https://writingworkshops.com/products/how-to-build-a-platform-for-writers-who-shudder-at-the-thought-zoom-seminar
- Podcasting for Writers: How to Start, Sustain & Grow Your Podcast: https://writingworkshops.com/products/podcasting-for-writers-how-to-start-sustain-grow-your-podcast-4-week-zoom-workshop
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down
at a typewriter.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And bleed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Welcome to the Bleeders, a podcast and support group about
book writing and publishing. I'm writer and podcaster Courtney Coosak,
and each week I'll bring you new conversations with authors,
agents and publishers about how to write.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And sell books.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Today's guest is Norwegian author Victoria Kieland, talking about the
experience of turning her novel My Men over to a translator.
I'm currently taking a translation class for my MFA and
it's bringing up all kinds of questions about what I
would want in a translator, and it reminded me so
much of this conversation.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Hi, my name is Victoria Killen and I'm a Norwegian
writer and I'm the author of My Men.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It's been translated, but you speak English, so I'm very
curious about Was that weird for you to give up
that control to someone else? And did you get a
say and who was going to do the translation? How
does that work? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, for the yeah chance your first qersion. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
It's really strange and really a weird experience, experience everything
that has happened the last two years. It's really strange
because now it's been like it's going to be translated
into fourteen different languages. So for me, who's been just
writing for the same hundred people, uh huh, this is
(01:46):
like yeah, yeah, quite steep hill.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So what inspired like when it was published in Norway?
Was it like insanely popular? How did people find it
and discover it for these translations?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I think I had like a really good, like post
COVID wind with me. So when the book was published,
it was no other books were coming out sort of yeah,
roughly said, and my book came out in June, so
the different newspapers and magazines were and they like they
didn't have anything to write about, so they've picked up
(02:20):
my book quite fast. And then there it came a
lot of reviews, and that has sort of been like
the main like how do you say it? The muscles
that could make this book travel? Yeah, And then I
got an agent because my publishing house is so small,
so I was contacted by an independent agent, a literary agent,
(02:43):
and she was the one who was sort of like, Okay,
this book will travel, this is a good book. We
need to get it out in the world, so she
is the one who has done the job. And as
for the translation into English, we first like did a
sample a translation sample from one translator, and that didn't
(03:06):
work because there was some of the sort of I
don't know, the rhythm or the poetry or the tactility
in the language didn't sit at the first sample. So
it changed the translator. And then we got Damiensurus, who
has translated it into English now and he sort of
like took the rhythm right away, and he has been
(03:29):
translating a Norwegian poets called Unfossa, so he has like
the rhythm of poetry within him. So that's a quite
big deal for.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
All my books.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Actually, you need to sort of think as a poet,
not as a novelist, sort of you need to have
like the metaphors and the rhythm and the yeah. I
sort of for me as myself, I connect more to
the poetry the world of poetry than I do to
like normal sort of I think it's more interesting to
be in the world of Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
I can definitely see that in the in the book.
So and I was curious if because I imagine it
would be incredibly hard to let someone else take over
the driving your baby basically like would you because you
don't know fourteen languages, like if you have to just
(04:26):
trust right for some of them, you have to just
be like, well, I guess if they picked this person,
it's going to be fine.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
It has to be yeah, yeah, it's a it's a gay. Yeah,
it's a game of trust. And it's hard. For me.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I can read the Danish and the Swedish, so that
has been like a nice experience because I also read
a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Of Danish and Swedish literature.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
And for myself, like for me private, I had to
have this sort of like setishizing relationship towards Sweden. So say, yeah,
so I've been quite working quite close with the translator
in Swedish.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
But yeah, it's really hard. It's hard, and.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I'm I'm I was in Paris and in Brussels last
month with the book, and yeah, it is. It is
quite hard, not getting if the people or the translator
actually has like made it or being as precise as
I want to, or being like as verbal or yeah,
(05:28):
because I've understood that when I was working with the
translators that my language in the book is quite it's
more of like a spoken word than a written word,
and it's more of like how you would talk Norwegian
rather than write Norwegian. Some places, it's probably more dialectical,
and I don't know how the translator even can even
(05:50):
try to get that into another language with the connotations,
and actually like I don't know how.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, it's magic that they can do it.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah. Yeah. On one hand, it's like amazing, you know,
it's like, yes, my book is going to all these
different places.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And then on the other hand, there's like this like
filter on yeah, yeah, sort of yeah, and you sort
of I sort of.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
My agents actually told me that the translator themselves often
see themselves as artists, and I kind of get that
because they are sort of writing a new book, they
are making a new artwork. They have to take some
decisions which will make this another book, and that is like, yeah,
(06:38):
they are artists in some way, and I have to
trust that.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
All right, Bleaders. That was just a little preview. The
whole interview is so good and it's over on YouTube.
The channel is YouTube dot com slash app Bleeders podcast.
There is a link in the episode description that will
take you right to thiscific video and make sure you're
signed up for the Bleeders Companion substack for all kinds
(07:05):
of newsletter exclusives.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
There's also a link for that in the episode description.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
It is free to subscribe, and there's all kinds of
great stuff for free subscribers, but I actually launched a
paid subscription where I take you behind the scenes of
all my best bylines. I published a post about my
return to stand up comedy and how.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I got ready for my first show.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
I talk about my MFA and whether or not I
think it's worth it, and there's also a free workshop
on there behind the paywall. Join me again next time
for another instructive episode.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
In the meantime, happy Bleeding
There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down
at a typewriter.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And bleed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Welcome to the Bleeders, a podcast and support group about
book writing and publishing. I'm writer and podcaster Courtney Coosak,
and each week I'll bring you new conversations with authors,
agents and publishers about how to write.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And sell books.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Today's guest is Norwegian author Victoria Kieland, talking about the
experience of turning her novel My Men over to a translator.
I'm currently taking a translation class for my MFA and
it's bringing up all kinds of questions about what I
would want in a translator, and it reminded me so
much of this conversation.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Hi, my name is Victoria Killen and I'm a Norwegian
writer and I'm the author of My Men.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It's been translated, but you speak English, so I'm very
curious about Was that weird for you to give up
that control to someone else? And did you get a
say and who was going to do the translation? How
does that work? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, for the yeah chance your first qersion. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
It's really strange and really a weird experience, experience everything
that has happened the last two years. It's really strange
because now it's been like it's going to be translated
into fourteen different languages. So for me, who's been just
writing for the same hundred people, uh huh, this is
(01:46):
like yeah, yeah, quite steep hill.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So what inspired like when it was published in Norway?
Was it like insanely popular? How did people find it
and discover it for these translations?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I think I had like a really good, like post
COVID wind with me. So when the book was published,
it was no other books were coming out sort of yeah,
roughly said, and my book came out in June, so
the different newspapers and magazines were and they like they
didn't have anything to write about, so they've picked up
(02:20):
my book quite fast. And then there it came a
lot of reviews, and that has sort of been like
the main like how do you say it? The muscles
that could make this book travel? Yeah, And then I
got an agent because my publishing house is so small,
so I was contacted by an independent agent, a literary agent,
(02:43):
and she was the one who was sort of like, Okay,
this book will travel, this is a good book. We
need to get it out in the world, so she
is the one who has done the job. And as
for the translation into English, we first like did a
sample a translation sample from one translator, and that didn't
(03:06):
work because there was some of the sort of I
don't know, the rhythm or the poetry or the tactility
in the language didn't sit at the first sample. So
it changed the translator. And then we got Damiensurus, who
has translated it into English now and he sort of
like took the rhythm right away, and he has been
(03:29):
translating a Norwegian poets called Unfossa, so he has like
the rhythm of poetry within him. So that's a quite
big deal for.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
All my books.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Actually, you need to sort of think as a poet,
not as a novelist, sort of you need to have
like the metaphors and the rhythm and the yeah. I
sort of for me as myself, I connect more to
the poetry the world of poetry than I do to
like normal sort of I think it's more interesting to
be in the world of Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
I can definitely see that in the in the book.
So and I was curious if because I imagine it
would be incredibly hard to let someone else take over
the driving your baby basically like would you because you
don't know fourteen languages, like if you have to just
(04:26):
trust right for some of them, you have to just
be like, well, I guess if they picked this person,
it's going to be fine.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
It has to be yeah, yeah, it's a it's a gay. Yeah,
it's a game of trust. And it's hard. For me.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I can read the Danish and the Swedish, so that
has been like a nice experience because I also read
a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Of Danish and Swedish literature.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
And for myself, like for me private, I had to
have this sort of like setishizing relationship towards Sweden. So say, yeah,
so I've been quite working quite close with the translator
in Swedish.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
But yeah, it's really hard. It's hard, and.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I'm I'm I was in Paris and in Brussels last
month with the book, and yeah, it is. It is
quite hard, not getting if the people or the translator
actually has like made it or being as precise as
I want to, or being like as verbal or yeah,
(05:28):
because I've understood that when I was working with the
translators that my language in the book is quite it's
more of like a spoken word than a written word,
and it's more of like how you would talk Norwegian
rather than write Norwegian. Some places, it's probably more dialectical,
and I don't know how the translator even can even
(05:50):
try to get that into another language with the connotations,
and actually like I don't know how.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, it's magic that they can do it.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah. Yeah. On one hand, it's like amazing, you know,
it's like, yes, my book is going to all these
different places.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And then on the other hand, there's like this like
filter on yeah, yeah, sort of yeah, and you sort
of I sort of.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
My agents actually told me that the translator themselves often
see themselves as artists, and I kind of get that
because they are sort of writing a new book, they
are making a new artwork. They have to take some
decisions which will make this another book, and that is like, yeah,
(06:38):
they are artists in some way, and I have to
trust that.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
All right, Bleaders. That was just a little preview. The
whole interview is so good and it's over on YouTube.
The channel is YouTube dot com slash app Bleeders podcast.
There is a link in the episode description that will
take you right to thiscific video and make sure you're
signed up for the Bleeders Companion substack for all kinds
(07:05):
of newsletter exclusives.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
There's also a link for that in the episode description.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
It is free to subscribe, and there's all kinds of
great stuff for free subscribers, but I actually launched a
paid subscription where I take you behind the scenes of
all my best bylines. I published a post about my
return to stand up comedy and how.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I got ready for my first show.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
I talk about my MFA and whether or not I
think it's worth it, and there's also a free workshop
on there behind the paywall. Join me again next time
for another instructive episode.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
In the meantime, happy Bleeding
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