Peter Bush was born in Spalding, Lincolnshire.[1] His father, from a large rural working-class family, was a print worker and trade unionist; his mother grew up in an urban working-class family in Sheffield.[2] He studied French and Spanish at Cambridge University before gaining a DPhil in Spanish history and fiction from Oxford University.
Though Bush translated various Marxist economic and political analyses between 1967 and 1972, since then he has only translated literary texts. He has spoken of the crucial importance in his life of translating Juan Goytisolo:
"I suppose my first Goytisolo translations brought something of a decisive change in my life. The translation of his work has been inseparable from the way my life has developed."[2]
Bush has been active not only as a literary translator, but also in developing literary translation as an academic discipline – by working in the academic world; serving in key literary translation organisations; serving on the editorial boards of literary translation publications; and organising international events and projects.
After teaching in London schools he joined Middlesex University where he was Associate Senior Lecturer in Spanish (1993–1995), Reader in Literary Translation (1995–1997) and Professor of Literary Translation (1997–1998). He then moved to the University of East Anglia, where he was Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) (1998–2003), and Professor of Literary Translation at the School of English and American Studies.[3] He has been a visiting professor at University of São Paulo (1996), Boston University (1996, 1999) and Beijing University (2001).
Bush has held key positions in important literary translation organisations: Literary Translation Committee (Chair); International Translators Federation (Vice-President, 1996–2003); American Literary Translators Association (board of directors, 1999–2002); Committee for Literary Translation in Higher Education (Convenor, 1993–1999); In Other Words (Executive Committee, Founder and editor, 1995–2003); The European Network of Literary Translation Centres (RECIT) (2000–2003).
Bush has also served on several editorial boards: Mediterraneans, a journal of literature, culture and politics (Paris), published by The Mediterranean Study Group (since 1993); Middlesex University Press (1996–2001); The Encyclopaedia of Literary Translation, Fitzroy Dearbourne (1997–2000); Pretexts, Pen & Ink, University of East Anglia (2002–2004); The Massachusetts Review (since 2014).
2015 Awarded the La Creu de Sant Jordi, most distinguished award given by the Generalitat of Catalonia, for the translation and promotion of Catalan literature[4]
2015 His translation of The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla was shortlisted for the 2015 PEN USA Translated Fiction Award
2014 Awarded the Premi Ramon Llull for Literary Translation from Catalan, for his translation of The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla
2014 His translation of The Sound of One Hand Killing by Teresa Solana was shortlisted for the 2014 Goldboro Last Laugh Award[5]
Juan Goytisolo: Cinema Eden Essays on the Muslim Mediterranean (Sickle Moon Press, 2005).
Juan Goytisolo: A cock-eyed comedy: starring friar Bugeo Montesino and other fairies of motley feather and fortune (City Lights Books, San Francisco, 2005).
Luis Sepúlveda: The old man who read love stories (Harcourt Brace, New York, 1994).
Narcís Serra: The Military Transition (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Ramon Valle-Inclan: Tyrant Banderas (NYRB, 2012).
(ed.) The voice of the turtle: an anthology of Cuban stories (Quartet Books, London, 1997).
(ed. with Lisa Dillman) Spain (Whereabouts Press, Berkeley, CA, 2003). Anthology of translated Spanish literature in the Travelers' literary companion series.
Rimbaud's Rainbow: literary translation in higher education, ed. with Kirsten Malkkjaer (J. Benjamins, Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 1998).
The Translator as Writer, ed. with Susan Bassnett (Continuum, 2006).
'Memory, War and Translation: Mercè Rodoreda's In Diamond Square, in Brian Nelson and Brigid Maher (eds) Perspectives on Literature and Translation Creation, Circulation, Reception (Routledge, 2013) Chapter 2, pp.31–46.
‘Toil, trouble and jouissance: a case study – editing Juan the Landless’, in Rita Wilson and Leah Gerber (eds) Creative Constraints Translation and Authorship (Monash University Publishing, Melbourne) Chapter 8, pp.119–131.
'The Centrality of a Translator’s Culture: Fernando de Rojas’s Celestina and the Creation of Style in Translation', The AALITRA Review: A Journal of Literary Translation, No.2, 2009 (Melbourne: Monash University), pp.21–36.
‘Writing Translations’, in Susan Bassnett and Peter Bush (eds), The Translator as Writer, Continuum, 2005.
‘Intertextuality and the Translator as Story Teller’, Traduire l’intertextualité, Palimpsestes 18, 2005, pp.213–229.
‘The Political Interventions of a Literary Translator: the case of Strawberry and Chocolate’, Traduire (SFT), 2005.
‘The Act of Translation’, Translations Studies Working Papers (UMIST), 2002.
‘Reviewing Translations: Barcelona, London and Paris’, Entretext, University of Brunel, 2000.
‘Latin American fiction in translation’, in Peter France (ed), Encyclopedia of Literature in English Translation, OUP, 2000.
‘On Translating Lawrence Norfolk, Or Dialecting the Dialectics of Name’, The Barcelona Review, 20, September 2000.
‘Translating Onetti for Anglo-Saxon Others’, in Gustavo San Román (ed), Juan Carlos Onetti and others, SUNY, 1999.
‘The Translator as Arbiter’, in Pilar Orerro and Juan Sager (eds) The Translator’s Dialogue: Giovanni Pontiero, John Benjamin (Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 1996)
‘The Translator as Reader and Writer’, Donaire, 8, 1996, pp.20–26.
‘It doesn’t sound like English’, Times Literary Supplement, no. 4875, 1996, p.11.
2010 FIT Symposium ‘Jean Genet, Translation and Censorship’, Salle Roger Blin, Théâtre de l’Odéon, Paris.
2009 Salzburg Global Seminar ‘Traduttore Traditore? Recognizing and Promoting the Critical Role of Translation in Global Culture.’
2006 FIT Symposium ‘Translating Harry Potter: The Art and the Economics’, UNESCO, Paris.
2002 ‘Territories of Life and Writing: autobiography and fiction in the work of Juan Goytisolo’, University of East Anglia.
2002 BCLT Third International Literary Translation Summer School, Cambridge.
2001 FIT International Seminar on Literary Translation and research, University of East Anglia (UEA).
2001 BCLT Second International Literary Translation Summer School, Cambridge.
2000 ‘Translation, Knowledges and Cultures’ symposium, jointly with the British Academy, London.
2000 BCLT First International Literary Translation Summer School, UEA.
2000 Young Writers and Translators seminar, Tarazona, Spain.
1999 Hispanic & English Literatures in Professional Partnership: Strategies for Translation – two seminars organised with the Spanish Translator’s Centre for the British Council, UEA and Valencia UIMP.
1999 BCLT Symposium on Literary Translation and Gender, UEA.
1999 ITI Symposium on the EC Culture 2000 Framework, UEA.
1999 New translation of Don Quijote, organised with TRIO, Oxford University
1998 Co-organiser, ITI International Colloquium, ‘Translating and Community’, Sheffield University.
1998 Project Leader European Community Second ARIANE network ‘The Translator as Reader and Writer’ with the following seminars: ‘Translation in Eastern Europe’, Prague; ‘Translating Poetry’, Amsterdam; ‘Theatre in Translation’, Brussels; ‘Libraries and Literary translation’, Finedon
1997 Project leader European Community First ARIANE with the following seminars: ‘Translation and Power’, Frankfurt Book Fair; ‘Literary translation in the Bilingual Context’, Barcelona; ‘Research, Publishing and Literary Translation’, Middlesex University.
1997 ‘The Politics of Translation’ (India, Africa and the USA), International Centre, Frankfurt Bookfair.
1996 Co-organiser of three-day ITI International Colloquium, The Practices of Literary Translation, University of East Anglia.
1996 Co-organiser with the Director of the Cervantes Institute, International Conference, Literary Translation: To and From the Languages of Spain, Middlesex University.
1995 Co-organiser, Conference on the Translation of Philosophy, Middlesex University.
1995 Co-organiser of the three-day ITI International Colloquium, Warwick University on Literary Translation in Higher Education.
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