Much has been said about the concept of translators as artists, but far less has been said about translators as workers. What does it look like to organize from the understanding that translation is not only art but also labor? What have organizing translators been able to achieve thus far and what do they stand to achieve? This is a discussion between Mayada Ibrahim, Kira Josefsson, and Alex Zucker, three outstanding literary translators and members of the Translators Organizing Committee, a newly formed division of the National Writers Union (NWU) in the US. Moderated by Literary Translation at Columbia (LTAC) Director, Susan Bernofsky.
CUID is required to attend this event.
About the Speakers
Kira Josefsson is a writer, editor, and translator working between Swedish and English. Her translations have been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and the Bernard Shaw Prize. She lives in Queens, New York, and writes on US events and politics in the Swedish press.
Mayada Ibrahim is a translator and editor based in Queens, New York, with roots in Khartoum and London. She works between Arabic and English. Her translations have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and published by Willows House in South Sudan, Archipelago Books, Dolce Stil Criollo, and 128 Lit. She is the managing editor at Tilted Axis Press.
Alex Zucker lives in Brooklyn and translates Czech to English. In addition to novels, he has Englished plays, short stories, reportage, philosophy, art history, and once even an opera. His translation of The Lake, by Bianca Bellová, won the 2023 EBRD Literature Prize. More at linktr.ee/AlexZucker.
