Sally Laird

Sally Ann Laird (2 May 1956 – 15 July 2010) was a British editor and translator who specialised in Russian literature.

Sally Laird
Born	(1956-05-02)2 May 1956^[1] Barnet^[1]
Died	15 July 2010(2010-07-15) (aged 54)^[1]
Occupation(s)	writer and translator
Children	1^[1]

Education

Laird was born in the London Borough of Barnet and attended Camden School for Girls.^[1][2] She was a student of Russian and philosophy at St Anne's College, Oxford.^[1][3] She was editor of The Isis Magazine at Oxford.^[1] Laird went on to Harvard University, on a Harkness Fellowship, where she gained an MA in Soviet studies in 1981.^[1][3] As part of her Oxford degree, she spent a year at Voronezh State University.^[1][2][3]

Career

Laird worked for Amnesty International during the 1980s.^[1][2] She was USSR editor for the magazine Index on Censorship between June 1986 and November 1988, when she became editor-in-chief.^[1][2][4] She held the job until August 1989.

After leaving the magazine she worked as a translator and editor, and reviewed books for The Observer.^[2] She translated a series of Russian novels.^[4] The Washington Post reviewed her translation of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's The Time: Night: "Sally Laird's version, although a bit British and a bit bowdlerized, conveys the wonderful fluidity and occasional frenzy of the monologue "written" by Petrushevskaya's narrator".^[5]

Laird became project manager of the Central European Classics series, brought out by Central European University Press.^[1][6]

She contributed to Till my Tale is Told: Women’s Memoirs of the Gulag, and wrote Voices of Russian Literature: Interviews with Ten Contemporary Writers, the latter based on interviews she carried out between 1987 and 1994.^[4][7]

In 1993, Laird moved to Denmark, living at Ebeltoft.^[1][4] She learnt Danish and worked as a translator between English and Danish.^[1]

Personal life

Laird and her husband Mark Le Fanu had one daughter.^[1][4] Laird died in 2010.^[1][4]

Writing

• Translation of The Queue, by Vladimir Sorokin (Readers International, 1988; New York Review Books, 2008; ISBN 9781590172742)
• Translation of The Time: Night, by Ludmila Petrushevskaya (Pantheon Books, 1994)
• Translation of Immortal Love: Stories, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Pantheon Books, 1996)^[8]
• Voices of Russian Literature: Interviews with Ten Contemporary Writers (Oxford University Press, 1999)
• Till my Tale is Told: Women’s Memoirs of the Gulag, ed Simeon Vilensky, (Indiana University Press, 1999)

References

1. Kellaway, Kate (10 August 2010). "Sally Laird obituary: Writer and translator of Russian literature". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
2. Le Fanu, Mark (2 August 2010). "Sally Laird: a tribute". Prospect. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
3. Sorokin, V. (1988). The Queue. Readers International. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-930523-45-9. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
4. Chandler, Robert (19 July 2010). "Sally Laird 1956 – 2010". Index on Censorship. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
5. Woll, Josephine (25 December 1994). "MOTHERING RUSSIA". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
6. Ash, T.G.; Dahrendorf, R.; Davy, R.; Winter, E. (1995). Freedom for Publishing, Publishing for Freedom: The Central and East European Publishing Project. Central European University Press Books. Central European University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-85866-055-4. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
7. Rosenberg, Karen (18 October 1999). "Their Myths and Ours: Voices of Russian Literature". Nation. 269 (12): 28–30.
8. Thomas, D M (16 June 1996). "Tales out of Russia". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 May 2023.

External links

• A Different Stripe: On Sorokin translator Sally Laird