Upcoming Translation Events April 2022
Friday, April 1:
Repackaging Contemporary Japanese Literature For The Anglophone Market | Reflections On The Mura-Ta-Kawa-Kami Phenomenon: The 2022 Boston University Lecture Series in Literary Translation presents David Karashima, Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Waseda University in Tokyo, for a conversation about contemporary Japanese literature and the Anglophone market. Karashima has translated Japanese authors such as Hitomi Kanehara, Hisaki Matsuura, and Shinji Ishii into English. Online and in-person event hosted by the Boston University Translation Seminar. More information here. 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. (ET)
Sunday, April 3:
I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To | A Dramatic Reading: Join Jewish Currents and The New Press for a celebration of Mikołaj Grynberg’s collection of stories I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To, excerpts of which were first published in Jewish Currents as Rejwach. The event will feature a conversation between Grynberg and translator Sean Gasper Bye, as well as readings by actor and playwright Wallace Shawn, short story writer Deborah Eisenberg, and translator Antonia Lloyd Jones. Online event. More information here. 2:00-3:00 p.m. (ET)
Translation as Invitation: Workshop and reading with Isabelle Garron, Eléna Rivera, and Sarah Riggs at Torn Page: a collaboration with Litmus Press. Online and in-person at Torn Page, New York. More information here. 2:00-5:00 p.m. (ET)
Tuesday, April 5:
Raquel Salas Rivera and Urayoán Noel: A conversation between poet, translator, and editor Raquel Salas Rivera and Urayoán Noel in celebration of Rivera's 6th book, antes que isla es volcán / before island is volcano. Written in both Spanish and English versions, antes que isla es volcán imagines a decolonial Puerto Rico. Online event hosted by McNally Jackson. More information here. 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Wednesday, April 6:
Irregular Readings | The Pine Islands: Author Marion Poschmann will read from her novel Die Kieferninseln (Suhrkamp, 2017) / The Pine Islands (Coach House Books, 2020). The reading will be followed by a conversation with Poschmann's literary translator, Jen Calleja, which will be moderated by Professor Ulrich Baer (NYU) and Professor Amir Eshel (Stanford University). Online event hosted by New York University's Deutsches Haus. More information here. 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. (ET)
Luis Chaves Reading from Equestrian Monuments: Word Up Community Bookshop celebrates the translation of monumentos ecuestres by Luis Chaves, with readings from Mary Jo Bang '98, Jay Deshpande '12, Luis Chaves, Julia Guez '11 and Samantha Zighelboim '11. Online event. More information here. 7 p.m. (ET)
Thursday, April 7:
Nelly Sachs | Metamorphoses of the Wor(l)d: A "trialogue" in celebration of Joshua Weiner's new translation of Nelly Sachs's Flight and Metamorphosis, featuring Leslie Morris, Aris Fioretos, and Joshua Weiner. Moderated by translator Brad Harmon. Online event hosted by Johns Hopkins University. More information here. 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. (ET)
Friday, April 8:
At A Glance | The Poems of Julia Nemirovskaya: The 2022 Boston University Lecture Series in Literary Translation presents Boris Dralyuk, a literary translator, a poet, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books, for a discussion on the poetry of Julia Nemirovskaya. Online and in-person event hosted by the Boston University Translation Seminar. More information here. 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. (ET)
Saturday, April 9:
Transnational Series | Ursula Andkjær Olsen and Katrine Øgaard Jensen: Join the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith for a virtual event with author Ursula Andkjær Olsen and translator Katrine Øgaard Jensen '17 to discuss and celebrate the release of My Jewel Box, the last book in Olsen's trilogy. They will be in conversation with poet Sohini Basak. Online event hosted by the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith. More information here. 12:00 p.m. (ET)
Monday, April 11:
Acting Upon the Literary Work: Esther Allen, Professor of Modern Languages & Comparative Literature, Baruch College & Graduate Center, CUNY, discusses revision, history, and translation in Antonio DiBenedetto’s Trilogy of Expectation. Online event hosted by Princeton University's Institute for International and Regional Studies and sponsored by the Program in Translation & Intercultural Communication. More information here. 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. (ET)
“Going Back in Time, Rub Your Eyes” | What Can Literature Do in the Time of War? Join the Harriman Institute at Columbia University for a hybrid literary symposium featuring 2022 Harriman Writer in Residence Maria Stepanova, organized by Mark Lipovetsky (Harriman Institute) and Irina Paperno (University of California-Berkeley), consisting of two panel discussions (in-person only) and a poetry reading (in person & virtual). Panel I: "Uses and Misuses of Historical Memory in Post-Soviet Culture and Politics" will feature Polina Barskova, Yuliya Ilchuk, Sophie Pinkham, Irina Shevelenko, Maria Stepanova, and will be moderated by Mark Lipovetsky. Panel II: "Publishing East European Writers in the West" will feature Polina Barskova, Edwin Frank, Ostap Kin, Katharina Raabe, Maria Stepanova, Matvei Yankelevich, and will be moderated by Irina Paperno. The symposium will conclude with readings by Polina Barskova/Ostap Kin and Maria Stepanova. Online (public) and in-person (for Columbia affiliates only). More information here. 11:00 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. (ET)
Thursday, April 14:
afikra Conversations: Mikey Muhanna interviews Omar Berrada, a writer, translator, curator and director of Dar al-Ma’mun library and artists residency in Marrakech. Online event hosted by afikra, a global media and educational platform. More information here. 12:00 p.m. (ET)
Federico García Lorca | Duende and Diversity in Love and Art - A Talk by Sarah Arvio: Sarah Arvio '83 will talk about the great Spanish poet, Federico García Lorca, and his practice of emulating poems and songs from other languages and traditions to create his passionately beautiful work. Arvio will read from her recent edition of Lorca’s poetry, Poet in Spain (Knopf 2017), and also talk about the act of translating his work from Spanish to English, ending with a period of audience Q & A. Presented by New York Writers Workshop and hosted by the New York Public Library. 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. (ET)
Friday, April 15:
The Book of Dreams: Arunava Sinha, translator and professor at Ashoka University, discusses the linguistic project of translating Khwabnama, Akhtaruzzaman Elias' Bangladeshi novel. Online event hosted by Princeton University's Institute for International and Regional Studies and sponsored by the Program in South Asian Studies and The Program in Translation & Intercultural Communication. More information here. 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. (ET)
Saturday, April 16:
Ursula Andkjær Olsen and translator Katrine Jensen: Danish author Ursula Andkjær Olsen celebrates the final installment of her trilogy which includes Third-Millennium Heart (Action Books, 2017), Outgoing Vessel (Action Books, 2021), and finally, My Jewel Box (Action Books, 2022). Olsen and series translator Katrine Øgaard Jensen '17 will be in conversation with Joseph Schreiber. Online event hosted by Brazos Bookstore. More information here. 2:00 p.m. (ET)
Wednesday, April 20:
Julia Sanches and Claudia Hernandez: Translator Julia Sanches will be in conversation with Salvadoran novelist and short story writer Claudia Hernandez. Hosted by Bennington Translates at Bennington College. More information here. 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Thursday, April 21:
Strangers I Know: Fitzcarraldo Editions presents Strangers I Know by Claudia Durastanti with translator Elizabeth Harris. Online event hosted by Borderless Book Club. More information here. 3:00 p.m. (ET)
Friday, April 22:
Sundial House | Latin American & Iberian Literature in Translation Inaugural Event Series: Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro (Puerto Rico) will join translator Alejandro Álvarez Nieves to present a new bilingual anthology that includes her short-story collection Negras and a selection of poems from Yo, Makandal. Professor Odette Casamayor Cisneros (University of Pennsylvania) will be the moderator. Hosted by Columbia University's Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures. More information here. Event time TBA.
No Other Beyond | On Translating Zuzanna Ginczanka: The 2022 Boston University Lecture Series in Literary Translation presents Joanna Trzeciak Huss, Associate Professor at Kent State University. Huss is the translator of Her Firebird: Collected Poems of Zuzanna Ginczanka, forthcoming in 2022 from Zephyr Press. Online and in-person event hosted by the Boston University Translation Seminar. More information here. 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. (ET)
Monday, April 25:
When the Source is a Moving Target: Jessica Cohen, an independent translator of contemporary Hebrew prose and other creative work, discusses the translation process and how a translator can approach a source text that is still evolving. Online event hosted by Princeton University's Institute for International and Regional Studies and sponsored by the Program in Translation & Intercultural Communication and the Program in Judaic Studies. More information here. 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. (ET)
Tuesday, April 26:
Jeremy Tiang presents Shuang Xuetao's Rouge Street, with Anton Hur: Translator Jeremy Tiang joins Community Bookstore to present Shuang Xuetao's collection of novellas Rouge Street, in conversation with Anton Hur. Online event. More information here. 7:30 p.m. (ET)
Thursday, April 28:
Translating Picture Books: Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, Daniel Hahn, Lawrence Schimel, and Helen Wang discuss the translation of picture books. Online event hosted by The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. More information here. 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. (ET)
Translating The End of the World: A Conversation with Dorothy Zinn and Jasmine Pisapia about translating Ernesto de Martino’s La fine del mondo. This event will take place in person at the Heyman Center at Columbia University and virtually over Zoom. All attendees must register on Zoom, even those who plan to attend in person. 4:00 p.m. (ET)
Translators Speak Out | Translating Contemporary French and Francophone Literature: This panel brings together a few active translators of French-language texts to talk about their recent work, in a variety of genres (including critical theory, prose fiction, graphic novels, poetry, etc.). Panelists Matt Smith (translator of authors Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Jacques Roubaud, and Frédéric Forte), Chris Clarke (member of the translation collective OuTransPo), Rachel Galvin (member of the translation collective OuTransPo), and Edward Gauvin (translator, writer, and independent scholar) will each discuss recent translations and the challenges they posed, before moving into a discussion about translation today: the art, the practice, and the industry. Online event hosted by Columbia Maison Française. More information here. 5:00 – 6:15 p.m. (ET)
Friday, April 29:
Celebrating Recent Work by Kate Zambreno: To Write As If Already Dead circles around Kate Zambreno’s failed attempts to write a study of Hervé Guibert’s To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life. In this diaristic, transgressive work, the first in a cycle written in the years preceding his death, Guibert documents with speed and intensity his diagnosis and disintegration from AIDS and elegizes a character based on Michel Foucault. The event features Kate Zambreno, Susan Bernofsky, Sofia Samatar, Jenny Davidson, and Leslie Jamison. This event will take place in person at the Heyman Center at Columbia University and virtually over Zoom. All attendees must register on Zoom, even those who plan to attend in person. More information here. 12:15 – 1:20 p.m. (ET)
Revenge of the Translator | How Subjectivity Can Strengthen the Translation of Unconventional French: The 2022 Boston University Lecture Series in Literary Translation presents Emma Ramadan, who will discuss how translating texts that exist outside the domain of classical French–specifically experimental literature and works from North Africa and the Arab World–often requires a subjective creativity, and how embracing the translator as an individual with their own reference points and understanding of the world can benefit the act of translation. Online and in-person event hosted by the Boston University Translation Seminar. More information here. 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. (ET)
Saturday, April 30:
The Translator’s Craft | Ani Gjika on Translating Albanian Literature: In this conversation with Ani Gjika, Suzana Vuljevic will discuss some of Gjika's most recent translations, including Julia Gjika’s Memories Pretend to Sleep (Laertes, 2020), and Luljeta Lleshanaku’s Negative Space (New Directions, 2018), and will address the particular considerations that go into Albanian-to-English translation, and the translator's role in making legible and advocating for “minor” cultures and languages in the global literary arena. The event will feature a Q&A session moderated by Gazmend Kapllani. Hosted by DePaul University. More information here. 12 p.m. (ET)
If you would like us to feature your upcoming translation event, you can send us an email via this link. Please note that we only publish events in which a literary translator is among the panelists/participants.