: Re: Will publishers accept bilingual or multilingual works? Let's say an author is fluent in three different languages. And now, let's say this author wants to create a trilingual story. The narration

@Reiling826

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I would say there's no harm in trying.

While I do not know of any works that are really equally split between more than one language, the number of successful books that make use of non-English jokes, idioms, and dialogue shows people are willing to perhaps work or think a little harder (e.g. online dictionaries for words/phrases) to enjoy something good. I also think the bi- and trilingual audience is there and would probably appreciate uniquely engaging literature. Additionally, if done right, you don't only have to aim for those who are fluent in your languages.

There are two prominent examples of authors who have incorporated a second language into their writing: Junot Díaz and (to a lesser extent) David Foster Wallace.

If you've not read any of Díaz's work yet, I'd suggest you do so in order to see the way he masterfully incorporates Spanish language and Dominican culture into his dialogue and narration. I don't speak any Spanish, though I know a moderate amount of French, and I often have enough of a feel for a line or word through context that I don't need to look it up. Because the narrator is always fluent in Spanish and in a community where he speaks it daily, it makes complete sense that it is such an integral part of Díaz's writing.

I really haven't read enough Foster Wallace to know if this is a trend—and I suspect it's not— but there are a fair amount of references to Québécois French in Infinite Jest, mostly in the end-/footnotes and as throwaway jokes. A group of characters are from Quebec, one man has some unfortunate circumstances where his incomprehension of the (untranslated—so it is the reader's perhaps incomprehension as well) French dialogue poses a, er, fatal problem, and there is one particular instance where a non-French speaker mishears a French word. I forget what that specific word was, or what it was misheard as, but I remember having to repeat the botched English phonetic pronunciation aloud a few times fast before I realized what the original word was and had a good smile.

Above all, I think the most important piece of advice is to make sure the writing is good! Even if the publisher doesn't specialize in multilingual text, if the work is objectively good, they will probably try to figure something out. I would also recommend sending inline translations to your readers if meaning won't be clear from context.

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