Guest post by Emily Debenham
Deseret Book has published an LDS historical fiction title in both English and Italian. ONE CANDLE by Whitney Award-winning author Gale Sears is about the 1849 mission of Lorenzo Snow in northern Italy. Exploring the online catalog of Deseret Book’s foreign language titles reveals how rare it is for Deseret Book to produce foreign language editions of their fiction. There are only two other fiction titles in their catalog. Gerald Lund’s FISHERS OF MEN and COME UNTO ME from his KINGDOM AND THE CROWN trilogy are available in Hungarian.
It appears the Italian version UNA CANDELA will be released only in ebook format. The story falls into the market when excitement is high about the announcement of the open house and dedication for the temple in Rome, Italy. Indeed, in an email interview with the Deseret Book Marketing and Media department, my contact Haley Lundberg confirmed that the temple construction in Rome was the main motivation behind the Italian edition. “With the impending dedication of the LDS Temple in Rome, we and the author thought it would be interesting to publish this title into Italian to make it more accessible for our Italian-speaking customers and members of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in Italy.”
Gale Sears’ Novel LETTERS IN THE JADE DRAGON BOX was the Whitney Award winner in Historical Fiction for 2011. Her last novel BELONGING TO HEAVEN was a Whitney finalist for 2013. Sears has also written LDS themed historical novel set in Russia called the SILENCE OF GOD. Lundberg reported that there are currently no plans to produce any of Sears’ other titles into a foreign language. Perhaps, when more details are provided about the construction of a temple in Russia this stance will change. Lundberg stated, “We do our best to meet the needs of our international customers, and we are always interested in making foreign language editions available as widely as possible whenever the demand supports the time and effort required for translation, publication, and distribution.”
Another recent translation of Mormon literature is the French translation of Rachel Hunt Steenblik’s poetry collection Mother’s Milk, entitled Lait Maternel: Poemes a la recherche de la Mere Celeste.
There are quite a few non-fiction works translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages sold on the Deseret Book website. For example, a Spanish translation of The Other Side of Heaven, by John H. Groberg.
Does anyone know of any other translations of Mormon literature into second languages?
Emily Debenham graduated from BYU with a double degree in Latin and History teaching. She taught high school Latin for two years in Houston, Texas. She helped her husband launch seven indie titles, the most popular of which was Wolfhound. She is a three-time finalist in the Mormon Lit Blitz. She maintained a book review blog, Gamila’s Review, for five years. She launched the LDS Picture Book Project, where she spotlighted and sometimes interviewed LDS authors of picture books. She wrote web content for Odesk and Fiverr for several years. She currently writes content for Voxxy marketing.
Here are some more I thought of:
Two Spanish-speaking Mormons have been translating a few pieces of literature on their own blogs. Mario Montani, from Argentina, has translated short stories by Roger Terry and Ryan Shoemaker that appeared in Dialogue. https://mormosofia.wordpress.com/category/arte-y-religion/literatura/ficcion-mormona/ Gabriel Gonzalez Núñez, from Uruguay, who writes for this blog and teaches at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, has translated poems by James Goldberg and William C. Harrison as well as other pieces. https://gabrielgonzaleznunez.wordpress.com/traducciones/ Also, I have written about Japanese translations of Orson Scott Card’s books, including Mormon-heavy books like “Folk of the Fringe”, here: https://www.associationmormonletters.org/2015/06/mormon-literature-japanese/
Of course, LDS authors who do well in the general market get translated and published in Spanish as a matter of course. I don’t really have a comprehensive list, but off the top of my head I can point to Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, and Brandon Mull who can be read in Spanish.
Annalisa Hall has several LDS themed picture books that have foreign language editions. The Holy Ghost is like a blanket is published in both Portuguese and Spanish.
I can think of a few off the top of my head:
Josep Carles Laínez’ unusual book of poetry “La Piedra Ente La Ñeve”, which not only includes original Mormon poetry written in Valencian (readable to those who can read Spanish), but also has them written in the Deseret Alphabet. I haven’t followed Laínez’ output, so it is possible that he has other books that also have Mormon content.
Josefina Febres Cordero published a fictionalized account of her conversion to Mormonism in 1976 under the title “La Puerta Azul” — the Lee Library has a copy.
I published “Aquilo que nos move” in 2010 — a compilation of the best of a short story contest among Mormon Portuguese speakers. I wanted to hold the contest every few years, but other obligations have kept me from doing so.
I’m fairly sure that some of those who participated are getting published in their respective countries, and I remember running into a few others who are being published.
I have to add that I am pessimistic when seeing Deseret Book’s publications in other languages. Its hard to see how these efforts could be successful when DB has no ability to distribute these books to places where the languages are spoken, and doesn’t even have a version of its website in any language other than English (how exactly are those who read other languages to get these books??). In the past DB has printed thousands of copies of books in other languages, left them rotting in warehouses and ended up deciding that the time isn’t right for publishing in those languages without actually doing anything to sell the books in other languages.
The most likely source of Mormon literature in other languages will be small presses in the countries where the language is spoken — and it could take decades for them to develop markets for these books.