Whether we're aware of it or not, we spend much of our time in this globalised world in the act of translation. Language is a big part of it, of course, as anyone who has fumbled with a phrasebook in a foreign country will know, but behind language is something far more challenging to translate: culture. As a traveller, a mistranslation might land you a bowl of who-knows-what when you think you asked for noodles, and mistranslations in international politics can be a few steps from serious trouble. But translation is also a way of entering new and exciting worlds, and forging links that never before existed.
Linda Jaivin has been translating from Chinese for more than thirty years. While her specialty is subtitles, she has also translated song lyrics, poetry and fiction, and interpreted for ABC film crews, Chinese artists and even the English singer Billy Bragg as he gave his take on socialism to some Beijing rockers. In Found in Translation she reveals the work of the translator and considers whether different worldviews can be bridged. She pays special attention to China and the English-speaking West, Australia in particular, but also discusses French, Japanese and even the odd phrase of Maori. This is a free-ranging essay, personal and informed, about translation in its narrowest and broadest senses, and the prism - occasionally prison - of culture.
"About six years ago, President George W. Bush was delivering a speech at a G8 summit, when, made impatient by the process of translation, he interrupted his German interpreter: 'Everybody speaks English, right?' ..." Linda Jaivin, Found in Translation
Linda Jaivin is the author of novels, stories, plays and essays. Her books include the China memoir The Monkey and the Dragon and the novels Eat Me and A Most Immoral Woman. In 1992 she co-edited the acclaimed anthology of translations New Ghosts, Old Dreams: Chinese Rebel Voices. She has also subtitled many films, including Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine, Zhang Yimou's Hero and Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster.

What do the three funniest, sexiest aliens in the universe want from Earthlings? Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, of course. Linda Jaivin, who staked her claim as the queen of close encounters with her bestseller Eat Me, introduces an even more eye-popping round of pleasure-seeking escapades with the extraterrestrials extraordinaire in Rock 'n' Roll Babes from Outer Space. Look out, because here come Baby Baby, the nymphomaniac and wannabe rock star; Doll Parts, the gutsy punk with an eye for Earth girls; and Lati, the turbo chick with a dangerous habit of mooning asteroids. Once they flee their dreary home planet to experience every hedonistic pleasure Earth can offer, their explosive misadventures become a cosmic tribute to Girl Power and a hilarious, unforgettable ride.

In this eye-popping first novel--a bestseller in both the United States and Australia--Linda Jaivin invites readers to overhear what women really talk about when they talk about sex.

When four bright, successful friends meet in Sydney's designer cafés and restaurants to gossip about their romantic exploits, the talk sizzles. Julia, Chantal, Helen, and Phillipa are the best of friends. Professionally, their lives could not be more different, but whenever they get together, there are always plenty of intimate revelations to dish up and devour. Julia is a spunky photographer with a penchant for Peking duck and younger men; Chantal is a fashion magazine editor whose sexual preferences give new meaning to the words "mixing and matching"; Helen is a feminist scholar whose outward wholesomeness belies her inner naughtiness; and Phillipa is a somewhat secretive writer who appears to be taking rather close notes on her friends' raunchy tales. This outrageous, irresistible, and utterly original debut, which led Entertainment Weekly to call Jaivin "one of the 100 most creative people in entertainment," is the juiciest book you will read this year.

The first of its kind, this timely anthology brings together six contemporary Australian plays that offer a range of narratives and perspectives on asylum seekers. A vexed issue within the Australian community -- particularly among politicians, who often use asylum seekers to further their own ends -- this collection contributes to Australias ongoing discourse on unauthorised asylum seekers, immigration detention, border control and the right to belong. This eclectic collection includes CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident) by version 1.0 , a smart, ironic verbatim work that deals with the Children Overboard Affair and the SIEV X disaster; The Rainbow Dark by Victoria Carless, a surreal domestic satire about immigration detention; The Pacific Solution by Ben Eltham, which takes armchair cricket commentary as a point of departure for a farce about the Howard governments excision of migration territory; Halal-el-Mashakel by Linda Jaivin, which looks at the friendship between two detained asylum seekers; Journey of Asylum -- Waiting devised by Catherine Simmonds, a series of vignettes based upon the personal experiences of asylum seekers and refugees living in Melbourne; and Nothing But Nothing by Towfiq Al-Qady, an autobiographical play about childhood and war. With a main Introduction as well as separate introductions to each play by Editor and Drama Lecturer Dr Emma Cox, Staging Asylum recognises the crucial role that theatre has played -- and continues to play -- in one of Australias most hotly debated and urgent contemporary issues.