Keyan Bowes

Some months ago, Dawid Wiktorski contacted me on Facebook to ask if they could translate one of my stories into Polish for their Speculative Fiction site, Szortal. They'd found Chick Lit on Daily Science Fiction, and liked it.

Not knowing Polish, I wasn't sure what to make of it. But he'd sent me a link to the site, and I asked the writing community on Codex if anyone could check it out. Several did, and they said it looked entirely legitimate. So I gave the go-ahead, after some clarifying exchanges about the terms. (They're an entirely free site, there's no payment involved.)

Chick Lit is a very short Flash, written in class at Clarion and still one of my favorites. But I have to say I was a bit surprised at the choice. The "voice" of this story (which is mostly dialogue) is to my ear very American. How would they make it work in another language? I guess they did, because Dawid Wiktorski was complimentary about the story.

The story in English is here: Chick Lit by Keyan Bowes (Daily Science Fiction)
Here's Chick Lit in its Polish translation (Koleżanki po piórze).