Margaret Jull Costa

Margaret Elisabeth Jull Costa OBE[1](born 2 May 1949) is a British translator of Portuguese- and Spanish-language fiction and poetry, including the works of Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, Eça de Queiroz, Fernando Pessoa, Bernardo Atxaga, Carmen Martín Gaite, Javier Marías, and José Régio.

Writing career

In recent years she has been noted for her work in translating the novels of José Saramago for which she won a number of awards. Her translations include All the Names, and Death at Intervals, about a country where death ceases to exist, was published in 2008.[2]

As part of its 'Europe 1992–2004' programme, the UK publishers Dedalus embarked on a series of new translations by Jull Costa of some of the major classics of Portuguese literature. These include seven works by Eça de Queiroz: Cousin Bazilio (1878, translation published 2003, funded by the Arts Council of England), The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers, The Mandarin (and Other Stories), The Relic, The Crime of Father Amaro, The Maias and The City and the Mountains (2008).

In 2006, she published the translation of the first part of Javier Marías's trilogy, Your Face Tomorrow 1: Fever and Spear. The second part, 2: Dance and Dream, was published in 2006,[3] while the concluding part, 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell, appeared in November 2009.[4] This last volume won her the 2010 Premio Valle-Inclan.

Her English translation of The Accordionist's Son by the Basque author Bernardo Atxaga was published by Harvill Secker (2007)[5][6] while her previous translations of Atxaga's work include The Lone Man (1996) and The Lone Woman (1999).

Her translation of The Maias by Eça de Queiroz was published by Dedalus Books in 2007, the original book was described by José Saramago as "the greatest book by Portugal's greatest novelist".[7]

In 2008, as first of a new Dedalus Euro Shorts series, Jull Costa made the first-ever English translation of Helena, or The Sea in Summer, Julián Ayesta's enduring, pointillist novel, first published in Spain in 1952 as Hélena o el mar del verano, and for which he is most remembered. Her biographical introduction to the book provides English-language readers with a brief but essential portrait of Ayesta (1919–1996), author, Spanish diplomat and outspoken critic of Francoist Spain.

Selected translations
  • Alberto Barrera Tyszka – Crimes
  • Alberto Barrera Tyszka – The Sickness
  • Alvaro Pombo – The Hero of the Big House
  • Ana Luísa Amaral – What's in a Name
  • Angela Vallvey – Happy Creatures
  • Angela Vallvey – Hunting the Last Wild Man
  • António Lobo Antunes – The Land at the End of the World
  • Antonio Tabucchi – Requiem: A Hallucination
  • Arturo Perez-Reverte – The Flanders Panel
  • Arturo Perez-Reverte – The Club Dumas
  • Arturo Perez-Reverte – The Fencing Master
  • Benito Perez Galdos – Tristana
  • Bernardo Atxaga – Obabakoak
  • Bernardo Atxaga – The Lone Man
  • Bernardo Atxaga – The Lone Woman
  • Bernardo Atxaga – The Adventures of Shola
  • Bernardo Atxaga – Shola and the Lions
  • Bernardo Atxaga – The Accordionist's Son
  • Carmen Martin Gaite – Variable Cloud
  • Carmen Martin Gaite – The Farewell Angel
  • Diogo Mainardi – The Fall: A Father's Memoir in 424 Steps
  • Fernando Pessoa – The Book of Disquiet
  • Helen Constantine (editor) – Madrid Tales
  • Javier Garcia Sanchez – The Others
  • Javier Marías – All Souls
  • Javier Marías – The Man of Feeling
  • Javier Marías – When I Was Mortal
  • Javier Marias – Tomorrow in the Battle Think On Me
  • Javier Marías – A Heart So White
  • Javier Marías – The Infatuations
  • Javier Marías - Thus the Bad Begins
  • Javier Marías – Your Face Tomorrow: Fever and Spear
  • Javier Marías – Your Face Tomorrow: Dance and Dream
  • Javier Marías – Your Face Tomorrow: Poison, Shadow, and Farewell
  • Javier Marías – While the Women Are Sleeping
  • Javier Marías – Written Lives
  • Jesús Carrasco – Out in the Open
  • Jorge de Sena – The Prodigious Physician
  • José Maria de Eça de Queirós – The Maias
  • José Maria de Eça de Queirós – The City and the Mountains
  • José Maria de Eça de Queirós – The Crime of Father Amaro
  • José Maria de Eça de Queirós – Alves & Co. and Other Stories
  • José Maria de Eça de Queirós – The Mandarin and other stories
  • Jose Maria Eca de Queiroz – Cousin Bazilio
  • Eca de Queiroz – The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers
  • Eca de Queiroz – The Mystery of the Sintra Road (with Nick Phillips)
  • Eca de Queiroz – The Relic
  • Eca de Queiroz – The Illustrious House of Ramires
  • Jose Regio – The Flame-Coloured Dress
  • Jose Saramago – Death with Interruptions
  • Jose Saramago – The Double
  • Jose Saramago – Skylight
  • Jose Saramago – The Elephant's Journey
  • Jose Saramago – Cain
  • Jose Saramago – All the Names
  • Jose Saramago – The Cave
  • José Saramago – Raised from the Ground
  • Jose Saramago – Small Memories
  • Jose Saramago – The Tale of the Unknown Island
  • Jose Saramago – Seeing
  • Jose Saramago – Blindness
  • Juan Jose Saer – The Witness
  • Julian Ayesta – Helena, or the Sea in Summer
  • Julio Llamazares – The Yellow Rain
  • Lidia Jorge – The Painter of Birds
  • Luis Cardoso – The Crossing: A Story of East Timor
  • Luis Fernando Verissimo – Borges and the Eternal Orangutans
  • Luis Fernando Verissimo – The Spies
  • Luis Fernando Verissimo – The Club of Angels
  • Luisa Valenzuela – Bedside Manners
  • Luisa Valenzuela – Symmetries
  • Manuel Rivas – Butterfly's Tongue
  • Marcos Giralt Torrente – Paris
  • Mario de Sa-Carneiro – Lucio's Confession
  • Mario De Sa-Carneiro – The Great Shadow And Other Stories
  • Michel Laub – Diary of the Fall
  • Paulo Coelho – Eleven Minutes
  • Paulo Coelho – Like the Flowing River
  • Paulo Coelho – The Zahir
  • Paulo Coelho – Manuscript Found in Accra
  • Paulo Coelho – Aleph
  • Paulo Coelho – Adultery
  • Paulo Coelho – Brida
  • Paulo Coelho – Veronika Decides to Die
  • Paulo Coelho – The Witch of Portobello
  • Rafael Chirbes – On the Edge
  • Rafael Sanchez Ferlosio – The Adventures of the Ingenious Alfanhi
  • Rafael Sanchez Ferlosio – The River: El Jarama
  • Ramon Valle-Inclan – Spring and Summer Sonatas: The Memoirs of the Marquis of Bradomin
  • Ramon Del Valle-Inclan – Autumn & Winter Sonatas: The Memoirs of Marquis of Bradomin
  • Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen – The Perfect Hour (co-translator: Colin Rorrison)
  • Teolinda Gersao – The Word Tree
  • The Dedalus Book of Portuguese Fantasy
  • The Dedalus Book of Spanish Fantasy

Awards and honours

References
  1. "Queen's Birthday Honours List". Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  3. "Arts and Entertainment". Entertainment.timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved 9 March 2016. (subscription required)
  4. "Arts and Entertainment". Entertainment.timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved 9 March 2016. (subscription required)
  5. "Culture". The Telegraph. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2018 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  6. "Culture". The Telegraph. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2018 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  7. "Dedalus News & Blog :: Dedalus Books, Publishers of Literary Fiction". Dedalusbooks.com. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  8. https://web.archive.org/web/20080617154744/http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/about/translationprize.html. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. The Times, Found in Translation page 2, 11 January 2010
  10. https://web.archive.org/web/20120423101105/http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/about/oxford-weidenfeld-translation-prize/prevwinners.html. Archived from the original on 23 April 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. "No. 60895". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2014. p. b11.
  12. Jackman, Josh (20 April 2015). "Michel Laub and Thomas Harding win JQ-Wingate Prize for books on the Holocaust". The Jewish Chronicle.
  13. From the judges' citation: ‘Chirbes’ anguished, bleak view, interspersed with moments of lyrical beauty, sets a translator enormous challenges, for sentences and paragraphs extend for pages, often with abrupt changes in narrative voice and chronology. Margaret Jull Costa’s translation meets all these challenges most admirably, capturing every rhythm and cadence of description and of the myriad voices with sustained brilliance.’
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