Queer Literature, Queer Legacies: Looking Toward the Future of LGBTQ Translation

PEN America, the Center for the Humanities at CUNY Graduate Center, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library presented Queer Literature, Queer Legacies: Looking Toward the Future of LGBTQ Translation livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 30 June 2020 at 10:30 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 12:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 1:30 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 18:30 BST (London, UTC +1) / 19:30 CEST (Berlin, UTC +2).

What strategies might inform our practice of translating queer literature and what are the ethical implications of doing so? How might we draw on our own experiences of U.S. queer cultures in our work, and how might doing so reinforce American queer cultural hegemony? What structures might we as queer translators and writers want to build together in the future? Join us as we seek to move beyond issues of representation to discuss projects and processes related to queer literature in translation.

Achy Obejas is the author of The Tower of the Antilles, which was a PEN/Faulkner finalist, and several other books of fiction. Her first full book of poetry, Boomerang, will be published by Beacon Press in a bilingual edition in 2021. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area and writes and edits synopses for Netflix with a brilliant group of people.

Sean Gasper Bye is a translator of Polish literature, most recently by Małgorzata Szejnert, Szczepan Twardoch and Remigiusz Ryziński. A native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, he studied modern languages at University College London and international studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He spent five years as Literature and Humanities Curator at the Polish Cultural Institute New York. He is a winner of the Asymptote Close Approximations Prize and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowship.

Elizabeth Rose is a literary translator and Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. They translate from German and Spanish, and their scholarship centers the intersections of translation, queer theory, and transnational American studies. Their work has appeared in Alchemy, Tupelo Quarterly, Raspa Magazine, and Cagibi, among other places.

About this Conference and Conversation Series

Translating the Future launched with weekly hour-long online conversations with renowned translators throughout the late spring and summer and will culminate in late September with several large-scale programs, including a symposium among Olga Tokarczuk's translators into languages including English, Japanese, Hindi, and more.

The conference, co-sponsored by PEN America, the Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center CUNY, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, with additional support from the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, commemorates and carries forward PEN's 1970 World of Translation conference, convened by Gregory Rabassa and Robert Payne, and featuring Muriel Rukeyser, Irving Howe, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and many others. It billed itself as "the first international literary translation conference in the United States" and had a major impact on US literary culture.

The conversations are hosted by Esther Allen & Allison Markin Powell.

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email tv@howlround.com, or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal/WhatsApp. View the video archive of past events.