Bio

Mari Laan is a PhD student at the University of Tallinn (Estonia) and is writing her monograph on the history of Spanish-Estonian literary translation. What especially interests her in translation history is the question what and who is behind the selection of the literary works to be translated, that is: how translation has been influenced by global trends; political, legal and economical conditions; the interests and tastes of specific persons like translators, editors, literary agents, etc.

Mari is envolved in translation processes not only as an investigator, but also as translator and editor. She has translated from Spanish authors like Pío Baroja, Felisberto Hernández, Javier Cercas, Julio Llamazares and Valeria Luiselli. As the editor of a small independent publishing house called Toledo, focusing mostly on Spanish and Latin-American literature, she is looking forward to including also Catalan authors in her catalogue.

Project

During my stay at Faber I am working on my PhD theses which I aim to be finished the next year. Currently I am focusing on the Spanish-Estonian literary translation during the last decade of the Soviet occupation.