from the February 2010 issue
from "Waiting for an Island"
by Marc Legendre
Translated by David Colmer
Click image below to enlarge
From Wachten op een eiland. Copyright 2009 by Marc Legendre. By arrangement with Uitgeverij Atlas. Translation copyright 2009 by David Colmer. All rights reserved. We thank the Flemish Literature Fund.
Marc Legendre
Marc Legendre (1956) lives and works on El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands, which forms the setting for Waiting for an Island. Legendre studied Applied Art and was editor of the weekly cartoon magazine Kuifje for a number of years. He then moved to Robbedoes magazine, where his comic strip Biebel became a great favorite with readers. Biebel is a little boy with his own, unusual view of the world who constantly charms readers and makes them laugh. Twenty-eight albums and publications later, Legendre finally brought this successful series to a close. 2005 saw the publication of his first graphic novel, Finisterre, which was commended for its innovative approach. His second graphic novel, Verder (2007), was also showered with praise and was the first picture story ever to appear on the shortlist for the Libris Literature Prize. Waiting for an Island (2009) is the third part of this trilogy about futility.
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Translated from Dutch by David Colmer
David Colmer is an Australian writer and translator who lives in Amsterdam. He is the author of a novel and a collection of short stories, both published in Dutch translation in the Netherlands, and the translator of more than twenty books: novels, children's literature, and poetry. He is a four-time winner of the David Reid Poetry Translation Prize and won the 2009 Biennial NSW Premier and PEN Translation Prize for his body of work. In 2010 his translation of Gerbrand Bakker's Boven is het stil (The Twin) won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
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