Emma Carter, 29

Three days in the mountains with a manuscript I had already read twice. Snow kept coming, so I stayed in the lodge and went through chapter nine again. Altitude makes you slow and honest. I came home with four pages of notes and very cold hands.译带着一份已经读过两遍的稿子在山里待了三天。雪一直下，我索性留在旅舍，把第九章又过了一遍。高处的空气让人慢下来，也让人诚实。回来时带着四页笔记和一双冻僵的手。

Camille LaurentDiego FerrerEnkh BatbayarLukas GruberLazar Stankovic

I edit at the kitchen table because the desk is where the bills live. Proofs left, tea right, the good lamp dragged over from the bedroom. I read sentences aloud here; anything that survives being spoken usually survives the page as well. By ten there are two mugs, one cold.译我一般在厨房桌上改稿，书桌是放账单的地方。左边校样，右边茶，好台灯从卧室拖过来。我在这里把句子读出声——能经得起念的句子，通常也经得起放在纸上。到十点，桌上已有两只杯子，一只是凉的。

Matilda HargraveMehmet Ali YurtMariana Costa

My mother knits when she worries, so I own a great deal of wool. This one is cream, a little too warm for the office, and I wear it anyway on days when sleet comes down and the submission pile stands taller than my mug. Comfort, as a working condition.译我妈一操心就织东西，所以我毛衣多得穿不完。这件是奶白色的，在办公室穿略热，可只要天上下起雨夹雪、投稿堆得比杯子还高，我还是会套上它。舒服也是一种工作条件。

Farid KarimiYassine BelkacemFranziska GruberLukas GruberIsabella Moretti

Our roof is flat and unremarkable, and every summer we pretend it is a terrace. Last night I carried a manuscript I had turned down up there and read it again in the last light. I was wrong about it. I will write to the author in the morning and say so.译我们这栋楼的屋顶平坦无奇，可每到夏天，大家都当它是露台。昨晚我把一份退掉的稿子带上去，借着最后一点天光重读。我看错了它。明天一早我就给作者写信，把话说清楚。

Matilda HargraveAlben KelmendiSato Sakura

Launch night for a first novel. Black turtleneck, the one reserved for evenings that require nerve, and a glass of something cheap and cold. I stood at the back while the author read the passage we fought over for three weeks. She was right. Losing has rarely felt this good.译一位新作者的首作发布夜。黑色高领毛衣，专为需要胆量的场合留着；手里一杯便宜又冰的酒。作者朗读那段我们争了三周的段落时，我站在最后面。她是对的。输得这么痛快，不常有。

Anton SkakunDesislava PetkovaPriya NairMbark Ould AhmedBojan Petrovic

The window boxes are doing better than I deserve. Rosemary has come through the winter, mint is quietly planning a coup, and the thyme looks pleased with itself. I water them before I open my inbox. Something alive and uncomplicated, before the day turns complicated.译窗台上的几盆比我有出息。迷迭香熬过了冬天，薄荷正不动声色地谋划扩张，百里香一副自鸣得意的样子。我总在打开邮箱之前先浇水。让一天从一件活着又不复杂的事开始。

Camille LaurentMaria Fernanda QuispeAnush HakobyanLukas GruberMarkus Weber

Editing on the Northern line is an act of faith. The pencil moves, the carriage lurches, the mark slides off the margin. Still, three chapters a week, done standing up between two strangers. Nobody at the press quite knows how much of this job happens underground.译在地铁北线上改稿，靠的是信念。笔在动，车厢一晃，记号就滑出页边。可一周三章还是能改完，站在两个陌生人中间。社里没人确切知道，这份工作有多大一部分是在地底下完成的。

Alben KelmendiJoana ManuelMariana CostaIsabella Moretti

Nine rejections this afternoon, none of them the flat kind, I hope. Each takes twenty minutes: what the writer almost did, where it came apart, and one sentence that is both true and kind. Then tea, then the window boxes. The good ones always write back.译今天下午写了九封退稿信，但愿没有一封是敷衍的。每封要花二十分钟：作者差点做到什么，哪里散了架，再加上一句既真又善的话。然后喝茶，去看窗台。好作者总会回信的。

Diego FerrerSophie van de VeldeAisha RahmaniJoana ManuelMariana Costa