Upcoming Translation Events March 2023
Thursday, March 2:
Daniel Levin Becker presents Laurent Mauvignier's The Birthday Party with Merve Emre | Translator Daniel Levin Becker joins us to present French author Laurent Mauvignier's novel The Birthday Party, in conversation with critic, scholar and author Merve Emre. Virtual. Hosted by Community Bookstore. More info here. Register for the Zoom link here. 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. (ET)
Colloquy #4 World Poetry Books Presents: Translating Constraint | P&T Knitwear, in partnership with World Poetry Books, is pleased to welcome Emma Ramadan, Eugene Ostashevsky, & Chris Clarke for a panel discussion on translating constraint-based writing! After the talk, Emma, Eugene, and Chris will sign copies of their books. This event is part of Colloquy, a new event series presented by World Poetry Books in collaboration with Montez Press Radio and partnering event spaces, which invites translators to engage with live audiences in an exploration of the art of translation. In-person. Hosted by World Poetry Books. More info here. 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Friday, March 3:
Framing Heimat in Translation: Peyman Azhari in Conversation with Kristin Dickinson | In this conversation, Kristin Dickinson and Peyman Azhari will take up questions of translation from multiple angles. Starting with a series of portraits and interviews in the second half of Heimat 132, they will consider multilingual residents’ attempts to translate Heimat both out of and back into German, thus encouraging us to approach this term relationally rather than as inherently German. Moving on to a series of streetscapes, we will ask: Might photographs engender a similar form of translation capable of forging collaborative modes of belonging? What role does the viewer play vis-à-vis this process? And what new meanings does a collection like Heimat 132 accrue through its travels to the United States? Virtual. Hosted by the Department of German at UC Berkeley and the Department of German and Russian at UC Davis. Register for the Zoom link here. 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. (ET)
The Café & Bar Presents Poetry/in Translation | Join us Friday evening at The Center for Fiction Café & Bar as award-winning poets and translators come together to read poetry, in and out of translation, for a night that celebrates the poem's power to bring the living and the dead, the near and the far, into close and convivial communion. Featuring Conor Bracken, Tess Lewis, David Tomas Martinez, Yerra Sugarman, and Lynette Yetter. In-person. Hosted by the Center for Fiction. More info here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Saturday, March 4:
The Uses of Translation | Translators Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda (Ryunosuke Akutagawa), Emma Ramadan (Marguerite Duras), and Natasha Wimmer (Roberto Bolaño) read from their favorite translations and answer questions about their processes, in conversation with Bonnie Chau. Free and open to all. Vaccination required. Mask optional. Registration recommended. In-person. Hosted by the Evergreen Review and Singapore Unbound. More info here. 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. (ET)
Monday, March 6:
Julie Otsuka and Chantal Thomas: Portrait of The Mother as A Swimmer | In Memories of Low Tides, Chantal Thomas’s memoir of growing up on the Atlantic coast of France, the author seeks to understand Jackie, her often inscrutable mother — luminous in the water and dark on the days when the weather made swimming impossible. In Julie Otsuka’s latest novel, The Swimmers, Alice, “a retired lab technician now in the early stages of dementia,” swims laps everyday at the nearby swimming center, until it closes due to an enlarged crack in the pool. Untethered from the practice of those repetitive daily laps, Alice’s mind floats free. On Monday, March 6, at 6pm, join Chantal Thomas, member of the illustrious Académie Française, and internationally acclaimed and laureate of the Femina Prize, Julie Otsuka as they discuss their respective exploration of the practice of swimming, of the figure of the mother, and the challenges of evoking one’s past. In-person. Hosted by Albertine Books. More info here. RSVP here. 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Translation Conversation Series: Sam Bett Presents his translation of The Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai, in conversation with Allison Markin Powell | The Flowers of Buffoonery opens in a seaside sanitarium where Yozo Oba—the narrator of No Longer Human at a younger age—is being kept after a failed suicide attempt. While he is convalescing, his friends and family visit him, and other patients and nurses drift in and out of his room. Against this dispiriting backdrop, everyone tries to maintain a lighthearted, even clownish atmosphere: playing cards, smoking cigarettes, vying for attention, cracking jokes, and trying to make each other laugh. While No Longer Human delves into the darkest corners of human consciousness, The Flowers of Buffoonery pokes fun at these same emotions: the follies and hardships of youth, of love, and of self-hatred and depression. A glimpse into the lives of a group of outsiders in prewar Japan, The Flowers of Buffoonery is a darkly humorous and fresh addition to Osamu Dazai’s masterful and intoxicating oeuvre. In-person. Hosted by McNally Jackson. More info here. RSVP required. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)
International Literature Book Club: Television by Jean-Philippe Toussaint | On Monday, March 6th, at 7 p.m, join us to discuss Television by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, translated by Jordan Stump (Dalkey Archive Press). You can attend in person at our Nolita location, 52 Prince Street, or RSVP above to join via Zoom. There is no RSVP required to join in person. Hybrid (in-person or virtual). Hosted by McNally Jackson. More info here. Register for the Zoom link here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Tuesday, March 7:
Nordic Book Club: W. A Novel by Steve Sem-Sandberg | 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 March 7, we’ll be discussing On March 7, we’ll be discussing W. A Novel by Steve Sem-Sandberg, who discussed the novel with us last September in a virtual book talk streaming here. Virtual. Hosted by Scandinavia House. More info here. Register for the Zoom link here. Starts at 6:00 p.m. (ET)
Wednesday, March 8:
Book Club: The Easy Life by Marguerite Duras | Join us in-person at Community Bookstore for a book club discussion of The Easy Life, the newly-translated second novel by celebrated French author Marguerite Duras. For the first time in English, literary icon Marguerite Duras's foundational masterpiece about a young woman's existential breakdown in the deceptively peaceful French countryside. In-person; masks are required. Hosted by Community Bookstore. More info here. 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Thursday, March 9:
Hannah Zuffall’s “Danish Sushi” | The NYU Department of German, Deutsches Haus at NYU, and Poetics and Theory at NYU present a reading of "Danish Sushi," a play by Hannah Zufall with Joscelyne Wilmouth, Ulrich Baer, Marlene Hoffmann, Shanga Parker, Jeff Hughes. Excerpts translated and directed by Raymond Blankenhorn.The reading of selected excerpts will be followed by a discussion on themes and questions in contemporary German theatre featuring among Hannah von Sass (aka Hannah Zufall), Brandon Woolf, and Florian Fischer, which will be moderated by Raymond Blankenhorn. In-person. Co-sponsored by the NYU German Department, Deutsches Haus at NYU, and Poetics and Theory at NYU. More info here. 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. (ET)
A Launch for the Collected Poems of Meret Oppenheim | Please join us at Karma Bookstore for the launch of Meret Oppenheim's The Loveliest Vowel Empties (World Poetry, 2023), the first English-language translation of the collected poems of the legendary Swiss Surrealist. A key figure of the Paris art scene in the 1930s, Oppenheim moved in a circle that included André Breton, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and Elsa Schiaparelli. Oppenheim’s poetry—49 poems written between 1933 and 1980—moves beyond Surrealism to inhabit a voice all her own. Following a reading from the book, the translator Kathleen Heil will be joined by Wayne Koestenbaum and Lee Colón for a conversation about Oppenheim's life and poems. In-person. Hosted by World Poetry Books. More info here. 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. (ET)
Friday, March 10:
Mountain and Flower: Selected Poems by Mykola Vorobiov | Published by Lost Horse Press’s Ukrainian Contemporary Poetry Series, Mountain and Flower is Mykola Vorobiov’s second book in English translation, presenting a selection of poems spanning more than fifty years of his writing craft. Vorobiov is noted for his preoccupation with metaphor and surreal imagery evocative of the natural world and represents some of the finest examples in Ukrainian literature of what could be called “pure poetry.” Readers are confronted with a fresh perspective on objects, natural phenomena, and human emotions—a lyrical reflection on perception, intuition, and knowledge. Mountain and Flower attempts to penetrate the invisible that has no beginning and no end, and invites the beholder to plunge into this mysterious unknown. There will be an in-person presentation and readings by Mykola Vorobiov and Maria G. Rewakowicz. In-person. Hosted by the Ukrainian Institute of America, with Books at the Institute and Lost Horse Press. More info here. Get tickets here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Saturday, March 11:
On a Woman’s Madness: A Conversation with Astrid Roemer | Join the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith and Brazos Bookstore for a virtual event with author Astrid Roemer to discuss and celebrate the release of her new book On a Woman’s Madness. A classic of queer literature that’s as electrifying today as it was when it originally appeared in 1982, On a Woman’s Madness tells the story of Noenka, a courageous Black woman trying to live a life of her choosing. When her abusive husband of just nine days refuses her request for divorce, Noenka flees her hometown in Suriname, on South America’s tropical northeastern coast, for the capital city of Paramaribo. Unsettled and unsupported, her life in this new place is illuminated by the passionate romances of the present but haunted by society’s expectations and her ancestral past. Virtual. Hosted by Brookline Booksmith and Brazos Bookstore. More info here. Register here. Starts at 12:00 p.m. (ET)
Tuesday, March 14:
David Stromberg presents Isaac Bashevis Singer's Simple Gimpl with Hannah Tinti | We are thrilled to partner with Brooklyn Jews and Restless Books to bring writer and scholar David Stromberg to Park Slope in celebration of the new edition of Isaac Bashevis Singer's Simple Gimpl. Stromberg will be in conversation with Hannah Tinti. Copies of Simple Gimpl will be available for purchase. This in-person event will take place at Congregation Beth Elohim, 274 Garfield Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11215. One of the most influential stories of the 20th century, Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer's Simple Gimpl is the story about a hapless yet charmingly resilient baker named Gimpl, who resists taking revenge on the town that makes him the butt of every joke. Yet, unlike every other major work of Singer’s published in his lifetime, the author had no involvement in the English translation. In this new, gorgeously produced, bilingual edition of Singer’s classic, literary scholar David Stromberg has completed Singer’s previously unpublished partial translation, allowing readers to see another dimension of the original. Beautifully illustrated by New Yorker contributor and Instagram sensation Liana Finck, this unique take on Singer's classic is a treat for literature lovers. In-person. More info here. 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. (ET)
Thursday, March 16:
Fum d'Estampa: Deranged As I Am | Fum d’Estampa Press presents Deranged As I Am by Ali Zamir with translator Alice Banks. Virtual. Hosted by Borderless Book Club. More info here. Register for the Zoom link here. 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. (ET)
Bashō: Where Now? | Hunter College's Japanese Program and the Japan Foundation, New York invite you to a talk event Bashō: Where Now? to mark the publication by the University of California Press of Bashō: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō. The author, Andrew Fitzsimons, will be in conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Paul Muldoon, about the work and legacy of one of the greatest figures in the history of Japanese literature, the master of haiku, Matsuo Bashō. In-person. Hosted by the Japan Foundation, New York & Hunter College. More info here. 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Friday, March 17:
Guillermo Parra at Unnameable Books | Join Señal 20: Outside Texts translator Guillermo Parra for a special book presentation and bilingual reading of his recent work The Portable Gerbasi: Selected Early and Late Poems of Vicente Gerbasi, one of Venezuela’s most important poets of the 20th Century. In-person. Hosted by Ugly Duckling Presse. More info here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Monday, March 20:
Hidden Hybridities: The Eccentric and Creole Nature of the English Language | Join John McWhorter, Associate Professor of Linguistics in Columbia University's Slavic Department, in Part I of his 2023 Leonard Hastings Schoff Memorial Lecture Series. His first lecture, "The Eccentric and Creole Nature of the English Language," will argue that English, based on its history of significant structural mixture from Celtic languages after the fifth century, C.E. and extreme simplification due to use by adult Vikings after the eighth century, C.E., qualifies as a creole language in the same sense that languages like Haitian and Cape Verdean do. In-person. Sponsored by Columbia University Press and The University Seminars. More info here. Starts at 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Tuesday, March 21:
In Translation Book Club by Third Place Books: The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante | Launched at the beginning of 2020, the In Translation Book Club meets on the third Tuesday of every month to discuss translated books from around the globe. Virtual. Hosted by Third Place Books. More info here and here. Register for the Zoom link here. Starts at 4:00 p.m. (ET)
Silent Revolutions in Ada's Room: A Reading by Sharon Dodua Otoo (Lafayette, Max Kade Center) and Conversation with David Gramling (UBC) and Priscilla Layne (UNC) | To celebrate the publication of the U.S. English translation Ada's Room (Riverhead Books), the event will begin with Sharon Dodua Otoo reading from Adas Raum, accompanied by the passages from the new translation. The reading will be followed by an open discussion and Q&A (in English) with Dr. David Gramling, Professor and Head of the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies at the University of British Columbia, and Dr. Priscilla Layne, Associate Professor of German and Adjunct Assistant Professor of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Virtual. Hosted by the Lafayette College and sponsored by the Max Kade Center for German Studies and co-sponsored by Africana Studies, International Affairs, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Register for the Zoom link here. 4:30 - 5:45 p.m. (ET)
The Albertine Book Club on Kim Lefèvre’s White Métisse | In March, the Albertine Book Club will discuss White Métisse by Kim Lefèvre, translated by Jack A. Yeager, and published by University of Hawai’i Press. In this evocative memoir, Kim Lefèvre recounts her childhood and adolescence growing up in colonial Viet Nam. As a little girl living with her Vietnamese mother, she doesn’t understand the reactions of others toward her, their open mistrust, contempt, and rejection. Though she feels no different from those around her, she comes to understand that to Vietnamese she is living proof of her mother’s moral downfall, a constant and unwelcome reminder of a child conceived with a French soldier out of wedlock. As anti-colonial sentiment grows in an atmosphere of rising nationalism, Lefèvre’s situation becomes increasingly precarious. Albertine Members will receive a Zoom invitation to join this book club session via email. Virtual. Hosted by Albertine Books. More info here. Starts at 6:00 p.m. (ET)
Wednesday, March 22:
The Language of Nature: Anna Badkhen, Eliane Brum, Diane Grosklaus Whitty | This event celebrates Orion’s spring 2023 issue, “The Language of Nature,” with readings from authors Eliane Brum and Anna Badkhen and translator Diane Grosklaus Whitty, followed by a discussion moderated by Karen M. Phillips, executive director at Words Without Borders. "The Language of Nature" features exclusively works in or about translation, engaging with over twenty-five languages across six continents. Arriving at a time when the written word feels inadequate to capture the enormity of the climate crisis, the work in this issue will examine how languages are informed by the environments in which they evolved and how our understanding of nature is changed by the words we use to describe it. Virtual. Co-presented by Orion and Words Without Borders. More info here. Register here. 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. (ET)
Thursday, March 23:
W.G. Sebald Lecture 2023 with Alberto Manguel | The Sebald Lecture 2023 is presented by the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT), in association with the National Centre for Writing and the British Library. This year’s lecture is given by Alberto Manguel, writer, translator and editor and acclaimed author of The Library at Night and A History of Reading. The lecture will consist of a series of notes or thoughts on the art of translation, on translation as a form of reading, of writing, of thinking. The translator is the secret sharer in the creation of a text, providing the original with what Borges called “a draft in another language.” Translation allows a text to come of age, generation after generation, and to enter a culture different from that of the original creator. We can’t wait to share in that tradition. The event will include a presentation, followed by a live Q&A session. Virtual. More info here. Advance registration required. Register here. Presented by the British Centre for Literary Translation with the National Centre for Writing and the British LIbrary. 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (ET)
Friday, March 24:
Greg Nissan, Sara Khalili, and Sam Bett | We’re delighted to invite you to a reading by brilliant translators Greg Nissan, Sara Khalili, and Sam Bett. This event is a part of Another Way to Say reading series, dedicated to translations, multilingual writing and polyglot experience. In-person. Hosted by Molasses Books. Starts at 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Monday, March 27:
Hidden Hybridities: The Afrogenesis Hypothesis of Creole Language Origins | Join John McWhorter, Associate Professor of Linguistics in Columbia University's Slavic Department, in Part II of his 2023 Leonard Hastings Schoff Memorial Lecture Series. His second lecture, "The Afrogenesis Hypothesis of Creole Language Origins," seeks a solution to the mystery of why there are so few Spanish creole languages, recruiting a wide range of evidence to locate the origin of today’s Atlantic creole languages on the west coast of Africa around the castle forts established there by leading colonial powers starting in the seventeenth century. In-person. Sponsored by Columbia University Press and The University Seminars. More info here. Starts at 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Tuesday, March 28:
Stênio Gardel Presents The Words That Remain, in Conversation with Translator Bruna Dantas Lobato | Join us online as Stênio Gardel and translator Bruna Dantas Lobato discuss the novel, writing, translating, reading, and everything in between. This virtual event starts at 8:00 and will include a brief reading, a conversation between author and translator, and some audience Q&A. Virtual. Hosted by Subtext Books. More info here. Register for the Crowdcast link here. Starts at 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Wednesday, March 29:
Kilometer 101: Maxim Osipov in Conversation with Robert Chandler | Join Maxim Osipov in conversation with Robert Chandler about his new book, Kilometer 101, a collection of eleven short stories and non-fiction essays written over fifteen years which demonstrate Osipov’s penetrating insight, fearless realism and stoic humanism in his approach to life in modern Russia. The publication has been edited by Boris Dralyuk and translated from Russian by Boris Dralyuk, Nicolas Pasternak Slater, and Alex Fleming. Hybrid (Virtual and in-person). Hosted by Pushkin House. More info here. Purchase online tickets here. 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. (ET)
Thursday, March 30:
Meet the Future of Literary Translation | Join us to celebrate another successful year of the Emerging Translator Mentorships programme, championing new literary translators into English, and experience fresh work from the finest new literary translators working today. The Emerging Literary Translators programme aims to develop successive new cohorts of literary translators into English, particularly for languages whose literature is currently under-represented in English translation. Since its inception the programme has supported 108 mentees working in 35 languages, including International Book Prize long-and-shortlistees Nicky Smalley and Sophie Hughes. Read more about the translators here. The event is pre-recorded, please register in advance for a streaming link. You can engage with our literary translators via live chat during the showcase premiere. Virtual. Hosted by the National Centre for Writing, with the support of the Supported by Arts Council England, the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the Danish Arts Foundation, The Saroj Lal Mentorship, Harvill Secker, the Italian Cultural Institute, Tadashi Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities at UCLA and Waseda University, the Literary Translation Institute of Korea, The Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Polish Cultural Institute, the Québec Government Office in London, Society of Authors, the Swedish Arts Council, the British Centre for Literary Translation, the British Council and the Visible Communities programme. More info here. 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. (ET)
Davis Center Reads: Lucky Breaks | Yevgenia Belorusets's short story collection, Lucky Breaks, translated into English by Eugene Ostashevsky, tells the stories of Ukrainian women from the Donbass region, fleeing war and ruin. Described in the New Yorker as "ethnographic in perspective but Gogolian in register," Lucky Breaks presents narratives that too often go untold and unnoticed: the stories of ordinary women living in extraordinary circumstances. Yevgenia Belorusets will join Davis Center Outreach for a conversation about her collection, the power of stories in wartime, and the unusual narrative decisions she made in writing this book. Virtual. More info here. Register for the Zoom link here. Hosted by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. (ET)
Book Launch: ΑΛΛΩΝΩΝ/LIFTED | The Program in Hellenic Studies at Columbia University invites you to celebrate the launch of the bilingual collection ΑΛΛΩΝΩΝ/LIFTED. Karen Van Dyck and Eleni Bourou will talk about their collaboration followed by authors and translators reading “their” poems. Also participating are Maureen Freely, Toby Lee, Mark Mazower, Jennifer Van Dyck, and Lawrence Venuti. In-person. Sponsored by the Columbia University Department of Classics, the Program in Hellenic Studies, and Book Culture. More info here. 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Friday, March 31:
Translation Conversation Series: Stênio Gardel and Bruna Dantas Lobato | Join Brazillian author Stênio Gardel and, Bruna Dantas Lobato, the translator of his highly anticipated debut novel, The Words That Remain. In-person. Hosted by McNally Jackson. RSVP required. More info here. Starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET)