What are you reading at the minute?
I I just bought Jenny Erpenbeck's Not a Novel and can't wait to dive in..
What is the best thing about going to international book fairs?
Being surrounded by book people from around the world, all coming together in agreement about one thing: that books and writers and translators and illustrators matter.
What was your first job in the book world?
Publicity assistant at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In my first six months on the job, books from the house won the trifecta: the National Book Award, the Pulitzer, and the Nobel. It was pretty exciting.
What has been your favourite book in translation, and who was the translator?
I read a lot of books in translation, so it'd be impossible to pick a favorite, but I just finished Liliana Corobca's third novel to appear in English, Too Great A Sky, translated from Romanian by Monica Cure. It's quite extraordinary--a novel about the deportation of Romanians from Bucovina to Siberia. Look for it from Seven Stories Press this Fall! And I'm always ready to give a shout out for Annie Ernaux.
What one thing would make your job significantly easier?
I’ve had the privilege of meeting quite a few, and some were awe-inspiring, but among my favourite experiences with children’s authors were getting to know Eoin Colfer of Artemis Fowl fame, and Australians Shaun Tan (The Arrival, The Lost Thing), and Leigh Hobbs, creator of Mr. Chicken and Horrible Harriet. Some of the nicest people I know (and all three are former Children’s Laureates in their home countries).
If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Having another of me as my assistant!
Biography
Ruth Weiner is Publicity Director, Seven Stories Press, and Associate Publisher, Triangle Square Books for Young Readers
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