F174.
Beyond the Limits of Loss: Translation as Generative Practice, Sponsored by ALTA
Friday, February 9, 2024
12:10 pm to 1:25 pm
The craft of translation is more than a merely faithful replication—it has potential as an originary form. We ask how translation can spark the writing process, prompt revision of the source, and trouble the concept of authorial genius, while also bearing in mind the practical and ethical pitfalls that a disruption of originality can bring. Current practitioners of "generative translation" share how their work seeks to transcend the limitations of loss by focusing on what can be gained.
Participants
Derick Mattern studies comparative literature on the PhD track for international writers at Washington University in St Louis. He has MFAs from UW-Madison and the Iowa Translation Workshop. His translations of contemporary Turkish poety have received support from the NEA, BILTC, and BCLT.
Rebecca Hanssens-Reed is a translator and writer from Philadelphia. Her translations have been selected for the O. Henry Prize and the Best of the Net anthology, and appeared widely in journals. She has an MFA in literary translation from the University of Iowa.
Becka Mara McKay is a poet and translator. She directs the creative writing MFA at Florida Atlantic University, where she serves as faculty advisor to Swamp Ape Review. Her newest book of poems is The Little Book of No Consolation.
Kelsi Vanada holds MFAs in poetry and literary translation from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the University of Iowa. She has published four full-length translations from Spanish and Swedish, as well as a chapbook of original poems, Rare Earth. She is the program manager of ALTA in Tucson, Arizona.
Farid Matuk is the author of This Isa Nice Neighborhood and The Real Horse. He teaches in the MFA at UArizona. Matuk’s work has been supported by the Headlands Center for the Arts and UC Berkeley's Holloway Visiting Professorship. His book arts project, "Redolent," won the 2022 Ann Rabinowitz Award.
