What makes a good book review on translation studies? An interview with Reviews Editor Anna Strowe

Abstract

ABSTRACT This interview was conducted face-to-face at the University of Manchester. The focus of the interview between Hua Tan and Dr. Anna Strowe, the Book Reviews Editor for Translation Studies, was on how to write good academic book reviews, especially for translation studies. Academic book reviews play an important role in academic communication. They introduce and evaluate newly published academic works and provide a forum for academics to evaluate each other’s research. In the eyes of many scholars, book reviews are easy to write and publish. Yet, a good academic book review is not that easy to write. Dr. Anna Strowe held that academic book reviews are not confined to fixed structures, but vary from text to text and reviewer to reviewer. In her opinion, the evaluation of the book reviewed or the critical comment on it, or in a different term, the intellectual engagement, is the most important for a good book review. She suggested that young scholars build up their networks and read many book reviews first before starting to write one.