Thursday: A Celebration of the International Graphic Novel
Please join us this Thursday in DUMBO at Melville House Publishers, 7pm. We’ll have drinks, music, and our favorite graphic novel artwork adorning the walls, including work from Charles Berberian (Iraq and France), Philippe Dupuy (France), Miriam Katin (Hungary, Israel and U.S.), Gonzalo Martinez (Chile), Rutu Modan (Israel), Diane Obomsawin (Canada and France), R. Sikoryak (U.S), Belle Yang (Taiwan and U.S.), the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, and many more, some of which will be available to the highest bidder through a silent auction, details below. Join us to meet and mingle with fellow WWBers.
Melville House Publishers, 145 Plymouth Street, Brooklyn, NY. Full details here.
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Also on Thursday:
Mahfouz’s Metamorphoses: Bringing the Egyptian World to the English Language
A conversation among writers and translators of Arabic and English about journeys and adventures across the gaps between two global languages. Co-sponsored by the Office of Government and Community Affairs, as part of The Big Read: Egypt, and by the Center for Literary Translation and the Middle East Institute. Moderated by Robyn Creswell, with Miral El-Tahawy, Sonallah Ibrahim, Iman Mersal, and Anna Swank.
March 12, 2009, 6:00 p.m. Columbia University Deutches Haus, 420 W. 116th St. More info here.
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Two new Bolaño novels have been found in Spain, according to today’s La Vanguardia (the Guardian reports from Madrid). Their titles are Diorama and The Troubles of the Real Police Officer, and they will be put on the market for English translation by Wylie, adding to the seven books that New Directions plans to roll out on a quarterly basis beginning this summer.
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This month, PEN is featuring an incredible collection of translated fiction and poetry, and each piece includes a note from the translator and/or the author. Many of the authors chosen have also been published here, and a few also have books coming out.
Yoko Tawada’s novel The Naked Eye, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky, is forthcoming from New Directions, and Jerzy Pilch’s novel The Mighty Angel has been translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston and is forthcoming from Open Letter. Mercè Rodoreda’s Death in Spring, translated from the Catalan by Martha Tennant, is also forthcoming from Open Letter; and Dunya Mikhail, whose Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea, translated by Elizabeth Winslow and the author, is also forthcoming from New Directions.
In addition, Guillermo Fadanelli‘s story, íQuestioning Samantha,ë translated by Dick Cluster, is forthcoming in Dalkey’s Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction anthology, and two poems by Coral Bracho, translated from the Spanish by Forrest Gander.
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Matei Calinescu’s memoir is out this week, titled Matthew’s Enigma: A Father’s Portrait of his Autistic Son, from Indiana. Reviewed in this week’s PW.
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Later in the month:
The Queens College MFA Program in Creative and Literary Translation is proud to host From Ghazal to Zuihitsu: A Conference on Translating Asian Languages and Cultures. This event—from Thursday, March 26-Saturday March 28—features panels on translators of East and South Asian languages, translation in performance, cultural variance between American and Asian literatures, creative writing workshops on forms from different poetic traditions, translation pedagogy in the writing classroom, and presentations of translation projects from Queens College MFA students. The acclaimed poet Li-Young Lee will deliver the keynote reading.
Full details here.