# Sally Laird

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{{Short description|British editor and translator}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox person
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| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1956|05|02|df=y}}<ref name="Kellaway">{{cite news |last1=Kellaway |first1=Kate |title=Sally Laird obituary: Writer and translator of Russian literature |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/10/sally-laird-obituary |access-date=16 May 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=10 August 2010}}</ref>
| birth_place   = [Barnet](/source/London_Borough_of_Barnet)<ref name="Kellaway"/>
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|2010|07|15|1956|05|02|df=y}}<ref name="Kellaway"/>
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| occupation    = writer and translator
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}}
'''Sally Ann Laird''' (2 May 1956 – 15 July 2010) was a British editor and translator who specialised in Russian literature.

==Education==
Laird was born in the [London Borough of Barnet](/source/London_Borough_of_Barnet) and attended [Camden School for Girls](/source/Camden_School_for_Girls).<ref name="Kellaway"/><ref name="Prospect_Le_Fanu">{{cite news |last1=Le Fanu |first1=Mark |title=Sally Laird: a tribute |url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/uk/54359/sally-laird-a-tribute |access-date=16 May 2023 |work=Prospect |date=2 August 2010}}</ref> She was a student of Russian and philosophy at [St Anne's College, Oxford](/source/St_Anne's_College%2C_Oxford).<ref name="Kellaway"/><ref name="Sorokin 1988 p. 198">{{cite book | last=Sorokin | first=V. | title=The Queue | publisher=Readers International | year=1988 | isbn=978-0-930523-45-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEhRAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA198 | access-date=16 May 2023 | page=198}}</ref> She was editor of ''[The Isis Magazine](/source/The_Isis_Magazine)'' at Oxford.<ref name="Kellaway"/> Laird went on to [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University), on a [Harkness Fellowship](/source/Harkness_Fellowship), where she gained an MA in Soviet studies in 1981.<ref name="Kellaway"/><ref name="Sorokin 1988 p. 198"/> As part of her Oxford degree, she spent a year at [Voronezh State University](/source/Voronezh_State_University).<ref name="Kellaway"/><ref name="Prospect_Le_Fanu"/><ref name="Sorokin 1988 p. 198"/>

==Career==

Laird worked for [Amnesty International](/source/Amnesty_International) during the 1980s.<ref name="Kellaway"/><ref name="Prospect_Le_Fanu"/> She was USSR editor for the magazine [Index on Censorship](/source/Index_on_Censorship) between June 1986 and November 1988, when she became editor-in-chief.<ref name="Kellaway"/><ref name="Prospect_Le_Fanu"/><ref name="Index">{{cite web |last1=Chandler |first1=Robert |title=Sally Laird 1956 – 2010 |url=http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/07/sally-laird-obituary |publisher=Index on Censorship |access-date=16 May 2023 |date=19 July 2010}}</ref> She held the job until August 1989.

After leaving the magazine she worked as a translator and editor, and reviewed books for ''[The Observer](/source/The_Observer)''.<ref name="Prospect_Le_Fanu"/> She translated a series of Russian novels.<ref name="Index"/> ''[The Washington Post](/source/The_Washington_Post)'' reviewed her translation of [Lyudmila Petrushevskaya](/source/Lyudmila_Petrushevskaya)'s ''The Time: Night'': "Sally Laird's version, although a bit British and a bit bowdlerized, conveys the wonderful fluidity and occasional frenzy of the monologue "written" by Petrushevskaya's narrator".<ref name="Woll">{{cite news |last1=Woll |first1=Josephine |title=MOTHERING RUSSIA |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1994/12/25/mothering-russia/b188994d-8492-4ffb-8ae5-b679b5968b44 |access-date=16 May 2023 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=25 December 1994}}</ref>

Laird became project manager of the Central European Classics series, brought out by [Central European University Press](/source/Central_European_University).<ref name="Kellaway"/><ref name="Ash Dahrendorf Davy Winter 1995 p. 31">{{cite book | last1=Ash | first1=T.G. | last2=Dahrendorf | first2=R. | last3=Davy | first3=R. | last4=Winter | first4=E. | title=Freedom for Publishing, Publishing for Freedom: The Central and East European Publishing Project | publisher=Central European University Press | series=Central European University Press Books | year=1995 | isbn=978-1-85866-055-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ToMWB40FAtAC&pg=PA25 | access-date=16 May 2023 | page=31}}</ref>

She contributed to ''Till my Tale is Told: Women’s Memoirs of the Gulag'', and wrote ''Voices of Russian Literature: Interviews with Ten Contemporary Writers'', the latter based on interviews she carried out between 1987 and 1994.<ref name="Index"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Karen |title=Their Myths and Ours: Voices of Russian Literature |journal=Nation |date=18 October 1999 |volume=269 |issue=12 |pages=28–30}}</ref>

In 1993, Laird moved to [Denmark](/source/Denmark), living at [Ebeltoft](/source/Ebeltoft).<ref name="Kellaway"/><ref name="Index"/> She learnt Danish and worked as a translator between English and Danish.<ref name="Kellaway"/>

==Personal life==

Laird and her husband Mark Le Fanu had one daughter.<ref name="Kellaway"/><ref name="Index"/> Laird died in 2010.<ref name="Kellaway"/><ref name="Index"/>

==Writing==

* Translation of ''[The Queue](/source/The_Queue_(Sorokin_novel))'', by [Vladimir Sorokin](/source/Vladimir_Sorokin) (Readers International, 1988; New York Review Books, 2008; {{ISBN|9781590172742}})
* Translation of ''The Time: Night'', by Ludmila Petrushevskaya ([Pantheon Books](/source/Pantheon_Books), 1994)
* Translation of ''Immortal Love: Stories'', by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Pantheon Books, 1996)<ref>{{cite news |last1=Thomas |first1=D M |title=Tales out of Russia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/16/books/tales-out-of-russia.html |access-date=16 May 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=16 June 1996}}</ref>
* ''Voices of Russian Literature: Interviews with Ten Contemporary Writers'' ([Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press), 1999)
* ''Till my Tale is Told: Women’s Memoirs of the Gulag'', ed Simeon Vilensky, ([Indiana University Press](/source/Indiana_University_Press), 1999)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://nyrb.typepad.com/classics/2010/08/on-sorokin-translator-sally-laird.html A Different Stripe: On Sorokin translator Sally Laird]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laird, Sally}}
Category:1956 births
Category:2010 deaths
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:British editors
Category:British women editors
Category:Russian–English translators
Category:20th-century British translators
Category:British women writers
Category:20th-century women writers
Category:People from the London Borough of Barnet
Category:Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford
Category:Amnesty International people
Category:People from Ebeltoft
Category:People educated at Camden School for Girls
Category:Harkness Fellows

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Sally Laird](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Laird) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Laird?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.