Upcoming Translation Events October 2020

Thursday, October 1:

Virtual Book Talk: The Bell in the Lake. Launch of author Lars Mytting’s (Norway) English translation of The Bell in the Lake from The Overlook Press, moderated by translator Deborah Dawkin (UK). Hosted on Zoom by Scandinavia House. More information here. 6:00 p.m. (EDT)

The Ferrante Effect: The Role and Visibility of Translators and Translation in Contemporary Literature. Translators Jennifer Croft and Sam Bett join Elena Ferrante translator Ann Goldstein to discuss the increasingly visible role of translation in contemporary literary culture, moderated by Europa editor Michael Reynolds. Hosted on Zoom by Brooklyn’s Community Bookstore. More information here. 7:30 p.m. (EDT)

Friday, October 2:

Us & Them: Fall 2020 Writer-Translator reading series. With translators Jennifer Croft (on writing the translator), Francisco Cantú (on Selena), Cecilia Weddell (on Mexican writer Rosario Castellanos), and Barbara Ofosu-Somuah and Candice Whitney (on Italian writers Addes Tesfamariam and Marie Moïse). Hosted on Zoom. More information here. 5:00 p.m. (EDT)

Rarámuri Dreams: Columbia University’s School of the Arts International Playreading Festival presents Rarámuri Dreams, written by Camilla Vellegas (Mexico) and translated from the Spanish by Daniel Jáquez. 8:00 p.m. (EDT)

Saturday, October 3:

BIPOC Heritage Speaker Caucus: Part of the 2020 American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), a caucus for translators who identify as BIPOC heritage speakers. Free and open to the public, whether or not you are registered for the ALTA conference. Hosted on Zoom. More information here. 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m (EDT)  

Event repeated on October 24th, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m (EDT) 

Monday, October 5:

The Translator’s Personal Experience: Part of the 2020 American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). Free and open to the public, whether or not you are registered for the ALTA conference. More information here. 12:30 p.m. - 1:15 p.m (EDT)  

Tuesday, October 6:

Virtual Panel: Icelandic Authors You Should Know. Featuring members of the Icelandic poetry collective The Imposter Poets: Thórdís Helgadóttir, Thora Hjörleifsdóttir, Fríða Ísberg, Ragnheiður Harpa Leifsdóttir, Sunna Dís Másdóttir, and Melkorka Ólafsdóttir, moderated by author and translator Larissa Kyzer. Hosted by Scandinavia House. More information here. 2:00 p.m. (EDT)

Thursday, October 8:

2020 Virtual Travel Fellows Audio Chapbook: Part of the 2020 American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). ALTA will celebrate this year’s nine Virtual Travel Fellows with a downloadable audio chapbook of the Fellows reading selections from their winning translations. The chapbook will be released on SoundCloud. Free and open to the public, whether or not you are registered for the ALTA conference. More information here. 2:00 p.m. (EDT)  

Friday, October 9:

POC Caucus: Part of the 2020 American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), a caucus for translators who identify as POC. Free and open to the public, whether or not you are registered for the ALTA conference. Hosted on Zoom. More information here. 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 (EDT)

Saturday, October 10:

Taxi Radio: A play by Nophand (Thailand), translated from Thai by the playwright, and directed by Aya Ogawa. Presented as part of Columbia University’s School of the Arts International Playreading Festival. 8:00 p.m. (EDT)

Monday, October 12:

Children’s Literature in Translation: Beyond Three Percent. Part of the 2020 American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). Free and open to the public, whether or not you are registered for the ALTA conference. More information here. 200 p.m. - 2:45 (EDT)

Queering Translation Caucus: Part of the 2020 American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), a caucus for translators (LGBTQIA+ and allies) who practice queer(ing) translation, broadly described. The QT caucus potentially offers sustained conversation about how queerness informs translation practices. Previous ALTA discussions (2017) suggest re-starting points: Deriving from author identity, textual subject matter, or resistance to normativity, does queerness grant interpretive space? Demand greater commitment to advocacy? How is queerness encoded in different languages? How can translators convey queer texts and contexts directly (but not straight)? Free and open to the public, whether or not you are registered for the ALTA conference. Hosted on Zoom. More information here. 300 p.m. - 4:00 (EDT)

Tuesday, October 13: 

Virtual Panel: Finnish Authors You Should Know. Featuring authors Selja Ahava, Rosa Liksom, Johanna Sinisalo, and Antti Tuomainen, moderated by author and translator Lola Rogers. Hosted by Scandinavia House. More information here. 2:00 p.m. (EDT)

Wednesday, October 14: 

Translating Hong Kong: A City In Between: Part of the 2020 American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). Free and open to the public, whether or not you are registered for the ALTA conference. More information here. 2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m (EDT)  

Equity Caucus: Part of the 2020 American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), a caucus co-facilitated by ALTA’s current Equity Advocates, Bonnie Chau '15 and Jen Zoble, the caucus will provide both an overview of the DEI initiatives being considered by ALTA’s standing committees and an open forum for people to express their DEI-related concerns, share ideas for future initiatives, and discuss DEI-related issues both specific to ALTA and also generally present in the larger translation/publishing world. Free and open to the public, whether or not you are registered for the ALTA conference. Hosted on Zoom. More information here. 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 (EDT)

Thursday, October 15: 

2020 ALTA Awards Ceremony: Tune in to find out this year’s winners of the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, the Italian Prose in Translation Award, and the National Translation Awards in Prose and Poetry. Judges will highlight the works on each prize’s shortlist before announcing the winners and engaging them in a short conversation about their winning translations. Free and open to the public, whether or not you are registered for the ALTA conference. More information here. 2:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m (EDT)  

Saturday, October 17: 

Life in Space: Presentation of new book Life in Space by Galina Rymbu, translated by Joan Brooks, and with a foreword by Eugene Ostahevsky, forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Press. Rymbu will read her poetry and take part in a discussion, along with translators, poets and publishers Eric Amling of After Hours, Charles Bernstein, Ida Börjel, Eugene Ostashevsky, and Matvei Yankelevich. This event is in Russian and English. Hosted on Zoom by Globus Books. More information here. 1:00 p.m. (EDT)

Saturday, October 24: 

Translator Panel Discussion: How Do You Translate For The Stage?  Presented as part of Columbia University’s School of the Arts International Playreading Festival. With translators Daniel Jáquez (Rarámuri Dreams) and Nophand (Taxi Radio) and moderated by Susan Bernofsky. Hosted on Zoom. More information here. 10:00 a.m. (EDT)

Tuesday, October 27: 

Virtual Panel: Norwegian Authors You Should Know. Featuring authors Jan Grue, Roy Jacobsen, Kaja Kvernbakken, and Ruth Lillegraven, moderated by author and translator Karen Havelin (2013). Hosted by Scandinavia House. More information here. 2:00 p.m. (EDT)

Crossing Borders: Stories and Essays About Translation. Author Lynne Sharon Schwartz in discussion with Cheryl Pearl Sucher about her new collection of stories and essays on translating and translators. Hosted on Zoom by McNally Jackson. More information here. 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. (EDT)

Thursday, October 29:

Translation as Storytelling: In this talk, Susan Bernofsky discusses her approach to the translation of several masterpieces from the German canon, including her current project: Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain). Hosted by the American Academy in Berlin. More information here. 2:30 p.m. (EDT)