Penny Hueston on the art of translation, her life in publishing and making a book sing.

Penny Hueston is the co-owner with Michael Heyward of Text Publishing, one of Australia’s great independent houses. Text publishes some of the world’s most loved writers including Helen Garner, Graeme Simsion, Elena Ferrante and J.M. Coetzee. They’ve done a lot for Australian writing in general, championing books internationally and their Text Classics series has brought back many important Australian books into print, including those by Elizabeth Harrower. Penny herself is an incredibly skilled editor and translator. Her translations are by authors such as Nobel prize-winning Patrick Modiano, Sarah Cohen-Scali, Emmanuelle Pagano and Marie Darrieussecq. She’s translated six books of Marie’s including Being Here: The Life of Paula Modersohn-Becker for which she just received the 2020 Medal for Excellence in Translation.