High-Profile Novelists Warm Up to Children’s Picture Books
當紅小說家 轉攻兒童繪本
By Alexandra Alter

At a reading in New York last month, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley faced an unruly crowd as she read from her new book, “Twenty Yawns.” Audience members squirmed and fidgeted, shouted out questions, and seemed to get distracted.
普立茲獎得主、小說家珍．史麥利上個月在紐約一場朗誦會上朗讀自己的新書「20個呵欠」時，面對一群難以管束的聽眾，他們動來動去，坐立不安，扯著嗓子問問題，而且顯得心不在焉。

“The beach umbrella was flapping in the breeze,” she read. “Flap, flap, flap.”
史麥利讀道：「海灘上的遮陽傘傘布在微風裡啪啦啪啦飄動，啪啦，啪啦，啪啦。」

“Look, a fly!” a little boy in a Spider-Man T-shirt yelled, swatting at a buzzing insect.
「看，有隻蒼蠅！」一個穿著蜘蛛人圖案上衣的小男孩大叫，並拍打一隻嗡嗡作響的蟲蟲。

Smiley took the outbursts in stride and tried to engage an audience that consisted mostly of toddlers and their minders as she read the story, about a girl who struggles to fall asleep after a day at the beach. “Do you know how to look sleepy?” she asked. The children flopped over and pretended to snore.
史麥利對這突發事件安之若素，並試著引起聽眾的興趣。聽眾絕大多數是小小孩及其照顧者。當時她朗讀的是一個女孩在海灘玩了一天後努力想進入夢鄉的故事。史麥利問：「你們知道不知道怎樣才能看起來很愛睏？」這群孩子便側過身去，假裝打鼾。

For most of her career, Smiley, 66, has tried to avoid putting readers to sleep. Now, with her first picture book, she is joining a handful of well-known novelists who are aiming to reach readers so young that they probably appreciate the pictures more than the prose. A cluster of new picture books from famous writers will hit bookstores in coming months, including a lighthearted poetry collection by Calvin Trillin and a creepy, fairy-tale-like picture book in translation from the mysterious, pseudonymous Italian author Elena Ferrante, who is best known for her four-part Neapolitan series.
66歲的史麥利在大部分職業生涯中，都極力避免讓讀者想睡覺。現在，她出了第一本繪本，跟少數名氣響亮的作家一樣，瞄準那些年幼到也許愛看圖畫勝過文字的讀者。未來數月會有一連串名作家創作的新繪本上市，包括崔林輕鬆有趣的詩集，以及從義大利作家愛蓮那．費蘭特作品翻譯過來的恐怖童話式繪本。費蘭特身分神秘，只用筆名而從不公布真名，最有名的作品是拿坡里四部曲。

“Every year there are adult writers and celebrities who choose to write in the genre, but this is a particularly high-caliber group,” said Megan Tingley, the executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
「小布朗出版社」執行副總裁兼發行人梅根．廷利說：「每年都有原本為成年人寫作的作家和名流創作繪本，這種創作者素質特別高。」

The current crop of picture books from literary writers is arriving at a moment when children’s literature has become a vibrant and often lucrative niche for novelists. Revenue from children’s books sales ballooned to $1.7 billion in 2015 from $1.5 billion in 2011, according to the Association of American Publishers, which tracks sales from more 1,200 publishers. Sales of adult books, by comparison, remained stagnant.
時下這些文學作家創作繪本，是因為對小說家而言，兒童文學已成蓬勃發展且往往獲利豐厚的小眾市場。追蹤1200多家出版商銷售額的「美國出版商協會」的資料顯示，2011年童書銷售額為15億美元，2015年大增到17億美元，相較之下，成人讀物銷售額則停滯不前。

Following the blockbuster success of series like “Twilight” and “Harry Potter,” a growing number of best-selling authors have migrated into the booming market for young adult and middle-grade fiction, including James Patterson, John Grisham, Smiley and Jennifer Weiner.
在「暮光之城」、「哈利波特」等系列小說轟動全球後，愈來愈多暢銷作家轉攻國小學童與青少年小說這個急速發展的市場，包括彼得森、葛里遜、史麥利和珍妮佛．懷納。

Picture books, typically written for 3- to 7-year-olds, could represent the next frontier for writers seeking to further expand their audiences by reaching an even younger demographic. It also may help them hook impressionable young readers – sometimes before they can even read.
繪本通常瞄準3到7歲兒童，對想要接觸更幼小的讀者以進一步拓展讀者群的作家而言，是下一個有待開拓的領域。繪本還能讓這些作家牢牢抓住易受影響的年輕讀者—有時甚至在他們學會閱讀之前。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/business/masters-of-prose-warm-up-to-childrens-picture-books.html

2016-05-29．聯合報．D2．紐約時報賞析．李京倫譯

說文解字看新聞 李京倫

「繪本」一詞從日文來，日本人把picture book（圖畫書）譯為「繪本」，繪本其實就是圖畫書。

profile指人的側臉輪廓，可引申為「個人基本資料」，例如臉書個人檔案就是Facebook profile，進一步可引申為「受社會大眾矚目的程度」，如：We need to increase our company’s profile in Asia.（我們必須提高本公司在亞洲的知名度。）high-profile就是「高知名度的、獲得許多關注與報導的」，如：There is a growing number of women in high-profile positions in the government.（愈來愈多女性在這個政府裡取得要職。）

niche原指牆上用來放置雕像或藝術品的凹洞，引申為「適合的位置（工作）」，如：John quickly found his niche as a freelance translator.（約翰很快找到適合自己的工作，成為自由譯者。）又可引申為「有利可圖的缺口、商機」，如niche market（利基市場）就是乏人問津但有利可圖的市場，如果企業懂得開拓就能壯大。niche diplomacy（利基外交）就是把外交資源集中在最能贏得國際影響力的領域，例如挪威僻處北歐，不是歐盟一員，但靠著頒發諾貝爾和平獎，並且積極調停他國的紛爭，成為和平談判領域的大國。

At Cornell, the College Daily Will No Longer Be Daily
康乃爾大學報 不再天天出報
By Daniel Victor

When your on-campus audience is more likely to look at the phone between classes than pick up a newspaper, what’s a student publication to do? For a steadily increasing number of student-led papers, the answer has been doing away with print.
當你的校園讀者在兩堂課之間的空檔更常看手機，而不是拿起報紙時，學生刊物該怎麼做？對一些學生報紙來說，答案就是放棄紙本。這種學生報數量正在穩定增加之中。

The Cornell Daily Sun, one of the country’s leading student newspapers, announced Monday that it would decrease its print production to three days a week from five, joining a growing list of college and professional newspapers forced to adapt to financial challenges and the changing habits of readers.
美國最知名的學生報紙之一「康乃爾太陽日報」5月16日宣布，將把紙本報紙從每周出報5天減為3天。被迫自我調適以因應財務挑戰和讀者習慣改變的大學和專業報紙不斷增加，如今康乃爾太陽日報也加入了。

In an email to alumni, Sun editors acknowledged that rocky finances contributed to the decision. The newspaper had operated at a loss for seven years and was dipping into its “rainy day” fund, the editors said.
太陽日報編輯群在寫給校友的電子郵件中承認，因為財務不穩而做出這個決定。編輯群說，該報連續7年虧損，已動用「雨天基金」（應急備用金）。

But on the newspaper’s website, editors described the cutback as a chance to focus more on digital journalism.
但編輯們在該報網站上說，縮減出報天數是更專注於數位新聞報導的一個契機。

“By freeing ourselves from the constraints of a daily print model, we are pushing ourselves further to pursue top-quality, around-the-clock journalism,” the editors wrote.
編輯們寫道：「藉由擺脫每天出報模式的限制，我們正鞭策自己進一步追求最高品質，全天不間斷的新聞報導。」

In a telephone interview, Sofia Hu, the newspaper’s editor, said the time saved from not having to produce a print edition would be invested in developing multimedia stories and investigations, and in training writers. To produce the newspaper’s design and layout, two news editors, along with several other staffers, would work daily from 6 p.m. to at least midnight, she said.
該報總編輯胡絮飛接受電話訪問時表示，不必出紙本報紙省下的時間，將投入發展多媒體報導和調查報導，以及訓練撰稿人。她說，為了報紙的設計與版型，兩名新聞編輯，以及幾名工作人員，每天從下午6點至少工作到午夜。

The staff, meanwhile, would race to post articles online as fast as possible during the day – and oh, by the way, also attend class and find time for their homework.
這些工作人員在白天還要盡快把報導貼上網，喔，對了，他們還要上課和找時間做家庭作業。

“Our editors and writers are basically putting out two papers a day,” she said.
她說：「我們的編輯和撰稿人基本上一天出兩份報紙。」

For all that effort, print circulation declined to 3,000 a day from 5,100 in 2011, Hu said. But the paper edition remains important, she said; the less-frequent publications will focus more on in-depth articles, investigations and long magazine-style articles.
胡絮飛說，即便這麼努力，紙本報紙發行量還是從2011年的每天5100份，減到目前的3000份。她說，然而紙本版仍很重要；發行天數減少的報紙將更聚焦於深度報導、調查報導，以及雜誌形式的長篇報導。

The Cornell Daily Sun is far from alone in its decision. In the professional ranks, newspapers in New Orleans; Syracuse, New York; and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, are among those that no longer print daily editions. The list of college newspapers that have reduced their print editions or moved online only is long, including those at Ohio University, the University of Georgia, the University of Missouri and Columbia University.
康乃爾太陽日報的決定絕非個案。在專業報紙方面，紐奧良、紐約州雪城、賓州哈里斯堡的報紙，都不再每天印紙本報紙。縮減紙本報紙或改成只有網路版的大學報紙名單更長，包括俄亥俄大學、喬治亞大學、密蘇里大學和哥倫比亞大學的學生報。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/business/media/cornell-university-daily-sun.html

2016-05-29．聯合報．D2．紐約時報賞析．田思怡譯