Session

“Translation" can be viewed as incorporating editing, copyediting, and writing; indeed, it must. Approaching translation as a cross-professional endeavor greatly expands a wordsmith’s horizons, earning power, and staying power.

In conversation with lawyer turned audiovisual translator and editor Julianne Long, Riggs will share how a translator with training and experience in writing, editing, and copyediting can become a "professional wordsmith" whose career may extend over multiple decades and genres of work. Her involvement in the updating of SWET’s Japan Style Sheet for the second and third editions, in the compilation of the Monumenta Nipponica Style Sheet, and in the development of the Japan Tourism Agency’s Writing and Style Manual have made her a staunch advocate of style guides. New tools may come and go, but diverse opportunities, collaboration with like-minded professionals, mentorship of senior editors and translators, and reliable style manuals are our steadiest guides.

From scholarly and other non-fiction books, periodicals, and culture-related documents, to texts for the sightseeing industry, Riggs draws on a wide variety of experiences over a span of fifty years. Long has been a beneficiary of many of the tools and initiatives that Riggs will discuss. She will share the perspective of a slightly more recent entrant into the profession and how shifting the focus from translation to editing in her career made one long-held dream come true.

Interviewer: Julianne Long