Susan Bernofsky's Blog, page 29

Apply Now for the 6th Biannual Graduate Student Translation Conference

Hooray, the Graduate Student Conference in Translation and Translation Studies  is back! And this time it’ll be hosted, for the second time in its history, at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, and is scheduled for April 21 – 23, 2017, with two keynotes: a lecture (April 22) by Ben Van Wyke on translation pedagogy, and a conversation (April 23) between Portuguese author Rosa Alice Branco and star translator Alexis Levitin (who has translated her work).

This year’s organizing team invites grad students everywhere with an interest in translation and translation studies to propose papers (submit an abstract and a bio note) by Jan. 31, 2017. The talks will then be sorted into panels and the conference program finalized. The organizers also write: “On the evening of Saturday, April 22, we plan to have a casual session of readings by students. Students are invited to bring in their translation works, past or current, and share their works with peers. Readings in other languages are welcome for this session.”

If you have any questions (including about first-come-first-served free local housing), please direct them to the conference organizers. And then get busy on your abstracts. This conference has consistently proven a great way to meet and exchange ideas with others working in your field – an excellent counterbalance to the exams-and-dissertation or thesis isolation chamber. Check it out!

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Translation on Tap in NYC, Jan. 1 – 15, 2017

Happy new year, everyone! There are various things to be less than thrilled about this month, but fortunately a new year in translation is kicking off, so maybe it’ll take our minds off the rest, at least for a little while. Here’s what’s coming up this January:

Friday, Jan. 13:

Us&Them: The Winter 2016 installment of this reading series featuring writers who are also translators reading both their own and translated work will present Bonnie Chau translating Anni Baobei (China), Elisa Wouk Almino translating Caio Fernando Abreu (Brazil), Jeremy Tiang translating Un Sio San (Macau), and Virginia Konchan translating Samuel Mercier (Quebec). More information here. In a gesture of support for freedom of expression, Molasses has pledged to donate 10% of proceeds from the evening to PEN America. Molasses Books, 770 Hart St. (Dekalb L), Brooklyn, 8:00 p.m.

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New Fellowship to Promote Diversity at University of Iowa

Those of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while are no doubt used to my periodic handwringing over the fact that Translationworld is just so darn white, to such an extent that it might make you wonder whether the translation community is somehow inhospitable to translators of color. (I’m speaking primarily, of course, of those language areas not linked to countries whose majority populations would be considered “of color” in the U.S.) Changing this landscape to be more in line with and representative of the general and literary populations of this country will take some time and sustained, intentional effort, and I’m always happy when I see individuals and institutions taking practical steps that lead in this direction. The American Literary Translators Association did so last year when it added a new annual travel fellowship (ALTA fellows receive support to attend the conference and present their work there) earmarked for “an emerging translator of color or a translator working from an underrepresented diaspora or stateless language,” guaranteeing that at least one of the 4-6 fellows selected each year will fall into this category. And now the MFA Program in Literary Translation at the University of Iowa has gone one step further by creating a fellowship for “U.S. citizens from an underrepresented minority population,” allowing one student per year to enter the program fully funded with a generous stipend. This is huge. For one thing, offering this fellowship is an acknowledgment that graduate study in a field not likely to lead immediately to a lucrative profession is a luxury and requires resources that many simply cannot afford; this fellowship removes a financial hurdle significant enough to exclude many potential students of translation. (I note also that the inclusive language “underrepresented minority population” allows for a wide interpretation each year, depending on which candidates apply for the fellowship. I assume this opportunity was created particularly with students of color in mind, but students with disabilities might also apply, or members of other underrepresented groups. Also good!) In any case, I am thrilled to see this opportunity being offered to students with an interest in becoming translators. I’m sure there would be more similar fellowships if they weren’t so difficult to fund. I’m not sure how Iowa has achieved this – I’m guessing there must be a kind, generous donor behind the scenes – because to endow such a fellowship surely requires a donation of nearly 1 million dollars. I’m not a financial genius, but as I understand it, usually around 5% can be drawn annually from an endowment sum without depleting it, and in this case a yearly draw of something like $47,000 would be needed (to cover tuition and the stipend itself). It’s difficult to find a donor willing and able to endow a fellowship like this, and when it happens, it’s definitely worth celebrating. So thank you, University of Iowa MFA program (and director Aron Aji) for creating this opportunity. Every new student who enters the program brings us closer to the goal of someday achieving a truly representative translation community translating a truly representative sampling of international literature – from which we all stand to benefit.

This year’s application deadline is Jan. 4, 2017. For more information, contact program director Aron Aji.

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Translation on Tap in NYC, Dec. 16 – 30, 2016

The time of year traditional for hibernation seems to have arrived, but not without one last translation event to finish off the season! Check it out (seriously, haven’t you had enough mistletoe yet?), and then maybe it’s time for a nice bear nap until the new year.

Saturday, Dec. 17:

Harlequin Creature Issue 9 launch party: Translators Elisa Wouk Almino, Ellen Elias-Bursac, Meghan Forbes, María José Giménez, and Anne Posten will be reading work from the new HC issue guest-edited by Posten along with Kristin Dickinson and Emily Goedde. More information here. Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop, 141 Front St., Brooklyn, 7:00 p.m. 

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PEN Translation Awards: 2017 Longlists Announced

This week PEN America (the institution formerly known as the PEN American Center) announced the longlists for the PEN Translation Prize (for a book-length translation of prose, judged this year by Jennifer Grotz, Kyoo Lee, and Rowan Ricardo Phillips) and the PEN Poetry in Translation Award (judged by Mara Faye Lethem, Jeremy Tiang, Elizabeth Lowe, Annie Tucker, and Dennis Washburn). The shortlists will be announced on Jan. 18, and the winners on Feb. 22. Have you got holiday shopping to do? How about a lovely translated book hand-selected by these expert judges for your enjoyment? Or maybe you just need a break from the horrific specter of (political) life in the United States. Again, international literature is your best friend. Check out these beautiful lists:

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation Longlist:

Pearl: A New Verse Translation, translated from the Middle English by Simon Armitage

Abyss by Ya Hsien, translated from the Chinese by John Balcom

Voronezh Notebooks by Osip Mandelstam, translated from the Russian by Andrew Davis

Building the Barricade by Anna Swir, translated from the Polish by Piotr Florczyk

Algaravias by Waly Salomao, translated from the Portuguese by Maryam Monalisa Gharavi

Preludes and Fugues by Emmanuel Moses, translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker

Tale of Ise, translated from the Japanese by Peter MacMillan

In Praise of Defeat: Poems by Abdellatif Laâbi, translated from the French by Donald Nicholson Smith

Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems by Dulce Maria Loynaz, translated from the Spanish by James O’Connor

Twenty Girls to Envy Me: Selected Poems from Orit Gidali, translated from the Hebrew by Marcela Sulak

PEN Translation Prize Longlist:

Confessions by Rabee Jaber, translated from the Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid

The Fox Was Ever the Hunter by Herta Muller, translated from the German by Philip Boehm

Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjón, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb

Between Life and Death by Yoram Kaniuk, translated from the Hebrew by Barbara Harshav

One Hundred and Twenty-One Days by Michèle Audin, translated from the French by Christiana Hills

Angel of Oblivion by Maja Haderlap, translated from the German by Tess Lewis

Justine by Iben Mondrup, translated from the Danish by Kerri A. Pierce

The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke, translated from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas

The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith

Limbo Beirut by Hilal Chouman, translated from the Arabic by Anna Ziajka Stanton

Congratulations to all the longlisted translators and their authors!

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Translation on Tap in NYC, Dec. 1 – 15, 2016

It’s starting to look a lot like winter; what better time to curl up with a great translated book, and when you get stir-crazy, to go to a translation event! Here’s what’s coming your way:

Thursday, Dec. 1:

Jägerstetter: The staged reading of this play by Felix Mitterer (based on the life of a real-life figure – Terrence Malick is at work on a biopic) will be followed by a conversation with the play’s translators, Gregor Thuswaldner and Robert Dassanowsky, director Guy Ben-Aharon, and screenwriter/producer Elisabeth Bentley, moderated by Carol Gilligan. Reservations recommended, more information here. Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E. 52nd St., 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 2:

Konundrum: translator Peter Wortsman reads and speaks about his new translations of Kafka, Konundrum: Selected Prose of Franz Kafka, with translator Tess Lewis. More information here. Deutsches Haus, 42 Washington Mews, 6:30 p.m.

Also Friday, Dec. 2:

Rediscovering Roger Dewinter: To celebrate the publication of Story of Love in Solitude and The Attraction of Things by Roger Lewinter, the book’s translator, Rachel Careau, will speak with author and translator Lydia Davis. More information here. Albertine, 972 Fifth Ave., 7:00 p.m.

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Translation on Tap in NYC, Nov. 16 – 30, 2016

The first half of this month was packed with events, but now the election has cast a pall over the entire planet, it seems, and I for one don’t even want to get up off the sofa, though I’d best make myself do so tomorrow if I don’t want to miss my own Nov. 15 event at the Austrian Cultural Forum. Fortunately the ever-resourceful AAWW has come up with a soul-soothing event for the end of the month that I expect will provide at least a little much-needed solace.

Wednesday, Nov. 30:

Diaspora, Migration and Translation: an event in the estimable Bridge series, this time featuring translators who are all first or second generation immigrants or who identify as belonging to a diaspora. This event celebrates the the spring 2017 issue of the journal Aster(ix) that will be devoted to immigrant and/or POC translators. Featuring Mona Kareem, Genya Turovskaya, Zohra Saed, and moderators Sal Robinson and Madhu Kaza. RSVP recommended, more information here. Asian American Writers’ Workshop, 110-112 W. 27th St., 6th Fl., 7:00 p.m.

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Postcards from Knut

Knut having a snooze, July 2007

Once upon a time there was a baby polar bear born in the Berlin Zoo. He was really cute, and everyone who saw him instantly fell in love with him. Because his mother had rejected him at birth, he was raised by a zookeeper, a man named Thomas Dörflein, and in July 2007, when he was half a year old, I went to visit him in the zoo together with Yoko Tawada, a favorite author of mine whom I’d been translating since the early 1990s. Knut had recently been separated from his foster parent, and we were both struck by how sad he looked: despondent Knut. We felt really bad for him. Imagine my surprise, one year later, when I opened my mailbox and found a postcard sent to me by Knut himself! He was now nearly one and a half years old, and had dictated the postcard to Yoko, since he hadn’t yet learned to write. “Hi, Susan!” he wrote, “How are you? I’ve gotten so big. I’m doing better than last year.” I was really relieved to hear this, and indeed, the photo he’d sent as his postcard showed a robust-looking young bear who was starting to grow his adult coat in. Half a year later, I heard from him again on the occasion of his second birthday. This time, his note (written on an Air Berlin postcard and no longer dictated, since he was now able to write all by himself) contained worrisome news, which he emphasized with a newspaper clipping: It was no longer certain whether or not he would be able to remain in Berlin for much longer. In this New Year’s message, he anxiously asks whether I can still come to visit him if he moves to Southern Germany or Sweden, and punningly plays – if I’m not reading too much into his words – on the German homonym weiß (which can be either the third-person-singular present-tense conjugation of the verb “to know” or the color “white”), writing that he just doesn’t know whether or not he’ll be able to stay in Berlin: “a polar bear knows/white not always!” I could see he’d sealed the letter himself because he used a paw print seal. But by the following April, everything was settled again: it had proved possible for him to remain in Berlin after all, and he wrote to let me know how fast he was growing up: “Dear Susan, you might think me still a child, but no! I‘m already a young man who gives his girlfriend a jacket as a birthday present (but first has to play with it a little…)” Of course, less than a year later, he was dead, felled by some sort of brain swelling. That was truly a sad day. But, as I later learned, Yoko had secretly returned to the zoo on her own (many times, it must have been), conducting numerous interviews with the juvenile bear. After his death, she wrote a book relating his story, and also that of his mother and grandmother (it turns out the young bear had an excellent memory). It was a great honor for me to translate her book into English for all the fans of Knut and polar bears who can’t read Yoko’s writing in Japanese or German. The book officially comes out next week, but I see that my local bookstore already has copies on the shelf, so yours might too. I can’t tell you what a pleasure it was to read the story of these astonishing bears (who knew that Knut’s forebears, so to speak, were famous writers and performers?) and to follow their adventures. If you have a chance to read their life stories, I hope you’ll love them as much as I do.

 

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Translation on Tap in NYC, Nov. 1 – 15, 2016

This is the month you were waiting for all summer during the annual summer drought. Time to enjoy a veritable deluge of great translation events!

Tuesday, Nov. 1:

The annual Words Without Borders gala celebrating literature in translation and the translators who get it there. This year’s Ottaway Award will go to Barbara Epler, publisher of New Directions, presented by Hilton Als. There’ll be lots of translators in attendance. Pricey, and advance reservations required, since it’s a fundraiser. To be followed by the easier-on-the-budget Globe Trot later in the evening. Three Sixty, 10 Desbrosses Street, 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Also Tuesday, Nov. 1:

Ferrante Night Fever: Ferrante translator Ann Goldstein celebrates the launch of two new Ferrante titles (!) with Roxana Robinson, Dayna Tortorici, Ayana Mathis, and Michael Reynolds. More information here. My advice is to get there early. McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St., 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 3:

Secrets, not Code: On Robert Walser’s Microscripts: Translationista will be speaking about Walser for the first time in a couple of years, this time in an illustrated lecture on Walser’s microscript technique and the stories he used it to tell. Registration required. Columbia University Library Book History Colloquium. Butler Library, Rm. 523, 6:00 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 4:

Bright Magic: Translator Damion Searls reads from Alfred Döblin’s collection of stories Bright Magic and is joined for a conversation by Eric Banks. More information here. NYU Deutsches Haus, 42 Washington Mews, 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 6:

How Did Kafka Become Kafka? Kafka biographer Reiner Stach speaks with the book’s translator Shelley Frisch. More information here. 92nd St. Y, Lexington Ave. at 92nd St., 11:00 a.m.

Monday, Nov. 7:

Kafka: The Early Years: Kafka biographer Reiner Stach speaks with novelist Daniel Kehlmann, moderated by the book’s translator, Shelley Frisch. More information here. Goethe Institut, 30 Irving Place, 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 9:

Kafka: The Early Years: Kafka biographer Reiner Stach speaks with the book’s translator, Shelley Frisch. Reservations required, more information here. Leon Levy Center for Biography, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave., Rm. 1201 (Elebash Recital Hall), 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 15:

Are We Nearly There Yet? Creative Writing and the Pursuit of Social Change. Translationista speaks with Sharon Dodua Otoo, the British writer who just won the 2016 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize (yes, a prize for German-language literature) on her writing and political engagement across borders. More information here. Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E. 52nd St., 7:30 p.m.

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Translation on Tap in NYC, Oct. 15 – 31, 2016

Halloween is coming up, and there’ll surely be more translation events happening in late October than I’ve heard about as of press time, so expect this list to expand. So far, all I have are bittersweet events, tributes to beloved members of our community who left us this year.

Wednesday, Oct. 19:

C.D. Wright

A Tribute to C.D. Wright. Wright was a poet rather than a translator per se (though she did do some translation, e.g. in this volume), but she was beloved to and supportive of so many translators that I’m including the event in her honor here, at which a number of translator-writers will be among the readers paying tribute to her friendship and legacy, including Lee Ann Brown, Peter Cole, Monica de la Torre, Carolyn Forché, Brecht Gander, Brenda Hillman, Ben Lerner, Deborah Luster, Frances Mayes, Jane Miller, Michael Ondaatje, Brenda Shaughnessy, Arthur Sze, Jean Valentine, Anne Waldman, and Michael Wiegers, each sharing a favorite poem and a few words about C.D. Wright. With musical performances by Richard Leo Johnson and Toni Hall and a dance performance by Eiko. More information here. CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave., Proshansky Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Gregory Rabassa in 1960, photo ©Bob Rabassa

Friday, Oct. 21:

Gregory Rabassa, A Celebration: Many translators and friends of translation will gather to pay tribute to Gregory Rabassa, who died earlier this year. Speakers include Edith Grossman, Peter Constantine, Earl Fitz, Ezra Fitz, Esther Allen, Ilan Stavans, Mauricio Font, Elizabeth Lowe, Harry Morales, Daniel Shapiro, Nora Glickman, Declan Spring, Ammiel Alcalay, Stanley Barkan, Catarina Cordeiro, David Draper Clark, and Rabassa’s daughters Clara Rabassa and Kate Rabassa Wallen. In addition, the recipients of the 2016 PEN/Heim Translation Fund grants will be announced and honored as part of the evening, in acknowledgement of Rabassa’s legacy now being carried on by this new generation of emerging translators. More information here. CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave., Rooms 9204-9206, 6:00 p.m.

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