Upcoming Translation Events (Virtual & In-Person): April 2024

Tuesday, April 2:

The Doublespeak of Georgian Literature and Translation, Uncovered American-Georgian Relations of 1975, and a Trilingual Book of Ukrainian War Poetry | Please join the Harriman Institute for a discussion with Khatuna Beridze and Bela Tsipuria. Moderated by Valentina Izmirlieva. In-person. Hosted by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. More info here. 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. (ET)

Colloquy: Translators in Conversation with Kalpana Raina, Jacob Rogers, and Jennifer Shyue | Please join World Poetry Books, Montez Press Radio and BPL Presents for the latest installment of Colloquy: Translators in Conversation, with readings and discussion from Kalpana Raina, Jacob Rogers, and Jennifer Shyue on their recent translations for Archipelago. The event will be introduced and moderated by C. Francis Fisher. Raina, Rogers and Shyue will read from their translations, respectively, of the work of Hari Krishna Kaul, Manuel Rivas, and Augusto Higa Oshiro—followed by a conversation conducted by Fisher. In-person. Hosted by the Brooklyn Public Library. More info here and here. 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. (ET)

Eliot Weinberger in conversation with Madeleine Thien | Join 192 Books and Paula Cooper Gallery in celebrating the launch of The Life of Tu Fu (New Directions). Eliot Weinberger will be in conversation with Madeleine Thien. Hybrid (In-person and Virtual). Hosted by 192 Books. More info here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)

Wednesday, April 3:

Occasional Evenings: Translation is Art — a Presentation and Panel Discussion | Join us Wednesday, April 3rd, as BISR, in partnership with Ugly Duckling Presse and Barricade Journal, welcomes the Leipzig/Vienna-based collective Transletting for an evening of presentations and panel discussion. With a comparative look at Walter Benjamin’s “Task of the Translator” and Sawako Nakayasu’s Say Translation Is Art (Ugly Duckling Presse) as our jumping off point, alongside an exploration of poets Uljana Wolf and Christian Hawkey’s translation of Austrian writer Ilse Aichinger’s Bad Words (Seagull), we will ask: What does infidelity in translation entail—socially, politically, and in practice? What is the position of the translator in relation to the work to be translated, and in relation to other discourses and fields of activity? How does translation, taken as an autonomous mode of aesthetic production, bring into focus asymmetries in power and value and, then, undertake to redress them? Beer, wine, seltzer, and snacks will be served. In-person; RSVP required. Hosted by BISR. More info here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)

Monday, April 8:

I Just Let Life Rain Down on Me: An Evening About Rahel Levin Varnhagen with Peter Wortsman and Tess Lewis | The Leo Baeck Institute and Deutsches Haus at NYU present a reading and conversation on I Just Let Life Rain Down on Me, Selected Letters and Reflections of Rahel Levin Varnhagen (Seagull Books, 2024) with the book’s editor and translator Peter Wortsman and the author and translator Tess Lewis. In-person. Hosted by Deutsches Haus at NYU. More info here. 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. (ET)

Tuesday, April 9:

(Re)discovering Vladimir Jankélévitch | This great twentieth-century thinker, born of Russian Jewish parents and hidden under the Occupation, attracted crowds during his lifetime. But he was in the shadow of French Theory. His extraordinary work has been commented on and translated for the past decade. His work is devoted to philosophical questions such as Time, Death, and Freedom. A committed philosopher, he developed moral thought and reflected on forgiveness. Four specialists will present this exceptional thinker, including Andrew Kelley, the translator of Jankélévitch’s Forgiveness (University of Chicago Press, 2005), The Bad Conscience (University of Chicago Press, 2014) and The Paradox of Morality (Yale University Press, [forthcoming] January 2025). Hybrid (In-person and Virtual). Hosted by La Maison Française. More info here. 4:00 - 7:30 p.m. (ET)

Thursday, April 11:

Teaching With/In Translation: The Example of Isaac Babel | A Professional Development Seminar with Sasha Senderovich, Associate Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Washington. Virtual. Hosted by the Yiddish Book Center. More info here. 4:30-5:30 p.m. (ET)

Another Room to Live In Book Launch with Omar Berrada, Sarah Riggs, Mirene Arsanios, Safaa Fathy, Marilyn Hacker, Pierre Joris, and Yasmine Seale | Join us on Thursday, April 11 for the launch of Another Room to Live In: 15 Contemporary Arab Poets, edited by Omar Berrada and Sarah Riggs, and published by Litmus Press. Editors Berrada and Riggs will be joined for readings by contributors Mirene Arsanios, Safaa Fathy, Marilyn Hacker, Pierre Joris, and Yasmine Seale. In-person. Hosted by the Center for Art, Research and Alliances. More info here. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. (ET) 

Transnational Literature Series: Fady Joudah with Hala Alyan | Join the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith, Milkweed Editions, and AGNI for a virtual event with poet Fady Joudah to discuss and celebrate the release of [...]. He will be in conversation with writer Hala Alyan. Virtual. Hosted by the Brookline Booksmith. More info here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)

Monday, April 15: 

What Lies Between: A Celebration of Translation and Collaboration | Upon the publication of Aftab Ahmad's Urdu translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Hindi novel Ret Samadhi (Tomb of Sand). Featuring Aftab Ahmad (MESAAS); and Daisy Rockwell and Geetanjali Shree, co-winners of 2022 International Booker Prize. Moderated by Isabel Huacuja Alonso (Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies). Co-sponsored by the Barnard College Translation Studies Program, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, the Literary Translation Program at the School of the Arts, the South Asia Institute, and the Society of Fellows and the Heyman Institute for the Humanities. In-person. More info here. 4:15 - 6:00 p.m. (ET). 

Tuesday, April 16:

Author Talks: Yun Ko-eun with Lizzie Buehler | In the first short-story collection of hers to be translated into and published in English, South Korean author Yun Ko-eun conjures up slightly off-kilter worlds tucked away in the corners of everyday life. Table for One is bursting with images that toe the line between realism and the fantastic, comedy and an element of the surreal, interwoven with the hopelessness and loneliness that pervades the protagonists’ decidedly mundane lives. One of South Korea’s breakout young writers, Yun Ko-eun and her English translator Lizzie Buehler discusses her career and writings. Hosted by The Korea Society. Sign up here to receive the viewing link. More info here. 

Wednesday, April 17:

Literature from the Faroe Islands | Presented by Scandinavia House and FarLit-Literature from the Faroe Islands in Fog Swept Islands: Faroe Islands Culture Days, join us for a Faroese literary event highlighting poetry, children’s books and the importance of translation, with bilingual readings, author talks and translator insights! In this program, four esteemed Faroese authors — Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs, Kim Simonsen, Rannvá Holm Mortensen and Bárður Oskarsson — will be joined by translators Matthew Landrum and Randi Ward to read from their works (either currently available in English translation or forthcoming) and will discuss their shared existential themes and how they prompt reflection on our impact on the world. They will ask the question: do we leave any trace at all? In-person. Hosted by Scandinavia House. More info here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET) 

Love Through All Five Senses | The NY Browning Society will present a book launch, talk, and reading of Love Through All Five Senses, a collection of poems by the innovative German poet Max Dauthendey, in English verse translations by Robert Kramer. In-person at the Mae West Room, 3rd Floor, Jefferson Market Library. Starts at 6:00 p.m. (ET)

Friday, April 19:

Akutagawa Ryunosuke's Kappa: A 21st Century Translation with translator Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda | In this event, translator Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda will discuss the process of retranslating Akutagawa’s 1927 novella, Kappa. She will focus on how she updated the language for a 21st-century audience and show why the work is still relevant today. In-person. Hosted by the Department of East Asian Studies at NYU. More info here. Non-NYU attendees must register for this event. Non-NYU attendees that have not RSVP'd will not be able to enter the building. 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. (ET)

Pedro Cabiya's Reinbou with Jessica Powell and Francis Mateo | Join Word Up in celebrating the English translation of Pedro Cabiya’s Reinbou with the author and translator Jessica Powell. The pair will discuss the work of historical fiction about U.S. intervention and corruption in the Dominican Republic with Dominican actor & writer Francis Mateo. In-person. Hosted by Word Up Books. More info here. 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. (ET)

Us&Them: A Writer/Translator Reading Series Spring 2024 | Us&Them gives literary translators with parallel careers as writers a place to showcase both sides of their work. For Spring 2024, Michael Lipkin, Wendy Call, Noor Habib & Khadeeja Majoka, and Matt Reeck will be reading. In-person. Hosted by Molasses Books. More info here. Starts at 8:00 p.m. (ET) 

Saturday, April 20:

Translation and Displacement: Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi and friends | Lyra Poetry Festival's annual multilingual events showcase the power of poetry across different languages and cultures, with the poems being performed in both their original language and their English translated versions. This event, in partnership with the Poetry Translation Centre in its 20th year, will feature Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi with poet and friend Stephen Watts, Italian-Palestinian writer Sabrin Hasbun, Somali poet Ibrahim Hirsi, and Girasol Press reading the works of imprisoned Argentine poets. Virtual (Livestream). Hosted by the Poetry Translation Centre. More info here. Starts at 10:00 a.m. (ET) 

Wednesday, April 24:

Translationship: Examining the Creative Process Between Authors & Translators | Join us on Wednesday, April 24 at 6 PM at Jefferson Market Street and online for a conversation on creative processes and the role of translation in enhancing cultural awareness and representation. The panel features Annelise Finegan, Director of Graduate Studies in Translation and Interpreting at NYU; Antonina W. Bouis, award-winning translator and cultural strategy advisor; and Ernesto Mestre-Reed, Guggenheim Fiction Fellow, moderated by Karen Phillips, Executive Director of Words Without Borders. Hybrid (In-person and Virtual). Hosted by the New York Public Library as part of the World Literature Festival. More info here. Starts at 6:00 p.m. (ET) 

Thursday, April 25:

Herostories | Join us for a book talk with Icelandic poet and historian Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir and translator and ASF Translation Prizewinner K.B. Thors on Herostories! With moderator Larissa Kyzer (also an ASF Translation Prizewinner), Tómasdóttir and Thors will discuss this new work, out now from Vellum Press, revealing tales untold by most history books: the harrowing journeys and vital triumphs of 19th- and 20th-century midwifery in the vast landscape of Iceland. In-person. Hosted by Scandinavia House. More info here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)

Friday, April 26:

Rescue, Restore, Redeem: On Translating I Promessi Sposi with Michael F. Moore | Join us at the 2024 Calandra Annual Conference: Translating Italian Mobilities, where Michael F. Moore will be part of the keynote discussion about translating I Promessi Sposi. In-person. Hosted by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute. More info here. 11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. (ET)

If you have an upcoming literary translation event and you'd like us to feature it on our website, please fill out this form.