Upcoming Translation Events December 2022

LTAC December poster - 3 book covers

Friday, December 2:

Voices from Sápmi: Translators in Conversation About New Writing from the Far North | This autumn, the online literary journal Words Without Borders has been publishing a series of new writing in translation, spanning poetry and queer YA fiction, by Indigenous writers from the Fenno-Scandinavian region known as Sápmi. Translators from the series — B.J. Epstein, Olivia Lasky, and Mathilde Magga — will read from their exciting new work and explore questions of translation practice and politics with Translator in Residence Saskia Vogel. Join us for a glimpse into a vital and vibrant literary culture. Virtual. Hosted by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. More info here. 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (ET)

The Subversive Pedagogy of Belgrade Surrealism | Please join the East Central European Center for a discussion with Ainsley Morse (Dartmouth College) and Aleksandar Bošković (Lecturer in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian). Moderated by Ronald Meyer. Morse and Bošković will present their collaborative work on translation and critical edition of The Fine Feats of the Five Cockerels Gang: A Yugoslav Marxist-Surrealist Epic Poem for Children, authored by Aleksander Vučo and accompanied by Dušan Matić’s photo collage illustrations and captions (Brill, 2022). The poem tracks the adventures of five scrappy, resourceful working-class boys who endeavor to free an equally plucky girl from the evil clutches of a convent school (and its fearsome nuns). The co-editors will discuss the historical context within which The Fine Feats came into being (originally published in 1933) along with the surrealist concepts it employs, in order to unpack the latent meanings and emancipatory potential of this societally meaningful pedagogical project. They will also read excerpts from the book and talk about the process of translation. Hybrid (in-person and virtual). This event is part of our Contemporary Culture Series. Hosted by the Harriman Institute. More info here. Register for the Zoom link here. 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. (ET)

 

Saturday, December 3:

Proust Weekend | Join Albertine for a festive weekend celebrating French author Marcel Proust’s remarkable body of work through performance art, live readings, creative workshops for kids, a patisserie tasting, and more. Discover, rediscover, and connect with Proust’s art and ideas as we mark 100 years since his passing at Villa Albertine’s headquarters, the landmarked Payne Whitney Mansion on Fifth Avenue. This gem of Gilded-Age architecture and design offers a portal into the era when the author lived. Works written and inspired by Proust will be available for purchase at Albertine Books, on the ground floor. All events are free and open to the public, but space will be limited. Eventbrite RSVP is required. In-person. Hosted by Albertine at Villa Albertine’s headquarters. More info here. Starts at 10 a.m. (ET) 

Proust Weekend - The Many Ways of Proust: Adaptations, Translations, and Reception | A roundtable discussion with scholar Rubén Gallo, playwright and theater director Mary Zimmerman, and translator Lydia Davis, moderated by Professor André Benhaïm. Rubén Gallo is a professor of Spanish Literature and Civilization at Princeton University and the author of Proust’s Latin Americans, a study of Marcel Proust’s friendships and love affairs with Latin Americans. Lydia Davis was awarded the 2003 French-American Foundation Translation Prize for her translation of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way. Mary Zimmerman is a professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University and an Ensemble Member at Lookingglass Theatre Company, where she adapted and directed Eleven Rooms of Proust for the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. André Benhaïm is a professor of French literature at Princeton University and Proust scholar, author of Visages de Proust, and editor of The Strange M. Proust. Together they will discuss Proust's lasting influence in the arts and society. In-person. Hosted by Albertine at Villa Albertine’s headquarters. Register here. 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. (ET)

“Translation Mixtape”: A Reading by Ainsley Morse | Ainsley Morse, preeminent translator of Russian verse (and prose), will read from her extensive catalog of translations. Selections from late Soviet poets, such as Nekrasov, Kholin, Satunovsky, Prigov, and Grigoriev; contemporary Russophone poets such as Vasyakina, Galina and Stepanova, and perhaps a few prose excerpts (from Egunov-Nikolev, Vaginov, and Sokolovsky). During the course of her reading, Morse will trace the “red thread” of these disparate strands of translation. This event is part of our Contemporary Culture Series. In-person. Hosted by the Harriman Institute. More info here. Reserve your seat here. 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. (ET)

Segue Reading Series: Robert Fitterman and David Rothenberg | Robert Fitterman is a poet and a teacher. He is the author of 14 books including: No Wait, Yep. Definitely Still Hate Myself, Nevermind, and Rob the Plagiarist. He is the founding member of Collective Task, a poets and artists collective. He teaches writing at NYU. David Rothenberg wrote Why Birds Sing, Bug Music, & many other books, published in at least eleven languages. He has thirty recordings out, including One Dark Night I Left My Silent on ECM. He has performed or recorded with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Gabriel, & Iva Bittová. Nightingales in Berlin is his latest book and film. Rothenberg is Distinguished Professor at NJIT. Hybrid (in-person and virtual). Hosted by the Segue Foundation. More info here and here. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and readings start at 5 p.m. (ET) 

 

Sunday, December 4:

Proust Weekend | Join Albertine for a festive weekend celebrating French author Marcel Proust’s remarkable body of work through performance art, live readings, creative workshops for kids, a patisserie tasting, and more. Discover, rediscover, and connect with Proust’s art and ideas as we mark 100 years since his passing at Villa Albertine’s headquarters, the landmarked Payne Whitney Mansion on Fifth Avenue. This gem of Gilded-Age architecture and design offers a portal into the era when the author lived. Works written and inspired by Proust will be available for purchase at Albertine Books, on the ground floor. All events are free and open to the public, but space will be limited. Eventbrite RSVP is required. In-person. Hosted by Albertine at Villa Albertine’s headquarters. More info here. Starts at 10 a.m. (ET)

 

Monday, December 5:

The Weight of the Island: The poetry of Virgilio Piñera | On the 110th anniversary year of the birth of the great Cuban writer Virgilio Piñera, this presentation celebrates his work—his poetry in particular—with a view toward the embodiment of Cubanness, the absurd and daily life in Cuban literature of the 20th century. The program will feature Cuban writer Pablo Medina, translator of Piñera’s poetry, collected in The Weight of the Island: Selected Poems of Virgilio Piñera, as well as Anna Kushner, the noted translator of Norberto Fuentes, Guillermo Rosales, Leonardo Padura, and others. This event is part of the CreateNYC Language Access Series on Cuban History, Art, and Literature. In-person. Hosted by the Centro Cultural Cubano de Nueva York and co-sponsored by Instituto Cervantes. More info here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)

 

Tuesday, December 6:

Nordic Book Club: Red Milk by Sjón | Read and discuss Scandinavian literature in translation as part of our Nordic Book Club, now online! Each month we select a novel from some of the best Nordic literary voices. On December 6, we’ll be discussing Red Milk by Icelandic author Sjón, out now in translation by Victoria Cribb. Virtual. Hosted by Scandinavia House. More info here. Register for the Zoom link here. Starts at 6:00 p.m. (ET) 

 

Wednesday, December 7:

Gold by Rumi: Lecture and Reading with translator Haleh Liza Gafori | Haleh Liza Gafori will present a reading and lecture on her recent book, Gold (published by NYRB Classics) with The Writer's Foundry MFA program at St. Joseph's University. Gold features Gafori's translations of poems by Rumi, the 13th-century sage and mystic. Gafori is a translator, vocalist, poet, and educator of Persian descent born in New York City. In-person. Hosted by St. Joseph’s University. More info here. All-day event.

Community Bookstore Book Club: Happening by Annie Ernaux | Join us for an in-person book club discussion of Happening, the true and timely story of an illegal abortion in 1960's France, recounted by the 2022 Nobel Laureate in Literature Annie Ernaux. In-person. Hosted by the Community Bookstore. More info here. 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. (ET)

Emma Ramadan and Olivia Baes with Elissa Gabbert: The Easy Life by Marguerite Duras | Third Place Books is thrilled to partner with Community Bookstore (Brooklyn) and the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith (Boston) to present translators Emma Ramadan and Olivia Baes, discussing a new translation of Marguerite Duras with poet, essayist, and critic Elisa Gabbert. Co-translated by Ramadan and Baes, The Easy Life is Marguerite Duras's novel about a young woman's existential breakdown in the deceptively peaceful French countryside. An extraordinary examination of a young woman’s estrangement from the world that only Marguerite Duras could have written, The Easy Life is a work of unsettling beauty and insight, and a bold, spellbinding journey into the depths of the human heart. Virtual. Hosted by Third Place Books, Community Bookstore, and the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith.More info here and here. Register for the Zoom link here. 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. (ET)

 

Thursday, December 8: 

Bora Chung and Anton Hur with E.J. Koh | Join the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith for a virtual event with author Bora Chung and translator Anton Hur to discuss and celebrate the release of their new collection of stories, Cursed Bunny. They will be in conversation with writer E.J. Koh. Virtual. Hosted by the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith. More info here. Register here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)

 

Friday, December 9:

Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion Book Launch: Conversation & Celebration | Bushra Rehman discusses her new novel Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion, with Rajiv Mohabir, author of Antiman. Punctuated by both joy and loss, full of ’80s music and beloved novels, Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is an unforgettable story about female friendship and queer desire in a Pakistani-American community in Queens. DJ Rekha will play an intro and closing set at the event. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street. In-person. Co-presented by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and the Strand, with sponsors Asian/Pacific/American (A/P/A) Institute at NYU and South Asian Womxn’s Creative Collective. More info here. 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. (ET)

Karen Emmerich, Mark Polizzotti, and Jacob Rogers together in person | We’re delighted to invite you to a reading and discussion by brilliant translators Karen Emmerich, Mark Polizzotti, and Jacob Rogers. This event is a part of Another Way to Say reading series, dedicated to translations, multilingual writing and polyglot experience. All three translators will read excerpts from the titles they have translated for Archipelago Books from Greek, French, and Galician respectively. In-person. Organized by Archipelago Books, Another Way to Say, and Molasses Books. More info here. 8:00 - 9:30 p.m. (ET)  

 

Saturday, December 10: 

Circumference Reading: Issue 10 | Join Circumference and Black Spring Books celebrate Issue 10: Summer/Fall 2022, with readings by Mayada Ibrahim, Eunice Lee, Ostap Kin, John Hennessy, Matvei Yankelevich, and more. Drinks and snacks provided, discounted copies for sale! In-person. Hosted by Black Spring Books. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)

 

Thursday, December 15:

The Poetry of Rumi with Haleh Liza Gafori | Haleh Liza Gafori will join Watkins Books to present Gold—Gafori's translations of poems by Rumi, the 13th-century sage and mystic. Gafori is a translator, vocalist, poet, and educator of Persian descent born in New York City. Virtual. Hosted by Watkins Books. More info here. Register for the Zoom link here. 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. (GMT) 

 

Friday, December 16:

Volkmar and Margret Sander Prize Ceremony | Deutsches Haus at NYU will proudly award the ninth annual Volkmar and Margret Sander Prize to Dr. Sabine von Mering, the director of the Center for German and European Studies (CGES) and Professor of German and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University. Dr. Sultan Doughan will hold the laudatory speech in honor of Sabine von Mering. Recorded remarks by Margret Sander will be shared during the event and additional (live) remarks will be provided by the Friends of Volkmar and Margret Sander. A musical performance by the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Uta Habbig will conclude the award ceremony. In-person. More info here. 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. (ET)

 

Saturday, December 17:

Segue Reading Series: Sue Landers and Mónica de la Torre | Sue Landers rode every NYC subway line end-to-end and wants to tell you about it. She also knows the names of many street trees. She’s the author of 3 books of poetry and lives in Brooklyn with her wife and their Bassett-Hound-Shar-Pei-Poodle mutt. Mónica de la Torre’s books include Repetition Nineteen, The Happy End/All Welcome, and Public Domain. She co-edited Women in Concrete Poetry 1959–79 and received a 2022 Creative Capital grant and the 2022 FCA C.D. Wright Award for Poetry. She teaches at Brooklyn College. Hybrid (in-person and virtual). Hosted by the Segue Foundation. More info here and here. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and readings start at 5 p.m. (ET) 

 

Tuesday, December 20:

The Albertine Book Club will discuss The Vagabond by Colette, translated by Stanley Applebaum.

The Vagabond, one of the first and best feminist novels ever written, is that rare thing: a great book which is also inspiring,” declared Erica Jong. This vivid portrait of life in the Parisian music halls of the early twentieth century was drawn from the author’s personal experiences. Albertine Members will receive a Zoom invitation to join this book club session via email. Virtual. More information here. Hosted by Albertine. Starts at 6:00 p.m.