Fall 2022 Events Preview
A sneak peek at what’s coming ahead this season— including literary festivals, author talks, and more!
This season of events at the Center for the Art of Translation and Two Lines Press is far from over! With two upcoming book releases, a week-long literary festival, and more on the horizon, there’s no shortage of events to add to your calendar this fall.
Keep reading for an exciting look into what’s coming in the weeks ahead. Check back for more updates and be sure to keep tabs on these events via our Instagram(opens in a new tab), Twitter(opens in a new tab), and newsletter, too!
Litquake: Words Around the World
Litquake(opens in a new tab), San Francisco’s largest literary festival, is returning in person this year! The festival’s diverse live programs are created with the aim of inspiring critical engagement with the key issues of the day, bringing people together around the common humanity encapsulated in literature, and fostering a vibrant forum for writing in the Bay Area.
The Center for the Art of Translation is proud to be a sponsor of Litquake’s Words Around the World event series. Enjoy a wide range of topics of discussion throughout these six conversations, which will run between October 12 – 16. Event admission is free, but registration is strongly encouraged.
All events are free and publicly accessible, but registration is strongly recommended. Head to Litquake’s website (opens in a new tab)to view a full program of events taking place in the Bay Area between October 6 – 22 and to learn more about the festival!
Marigold | 194 Church Street | San Francisco, CA | 7:00 – 9:00 pm PT
Join us for an evening of literature and cocktails as Granta celebrates its recent anthology Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists 2. Three of its contributors from Spain—Irene Reyes Noguerol, Alejandro Morellón, and David Aliaga— discuss current trends in Spanish-language literature, with translator and Granta editor Valerie Miles and special guest Forrest Gander.
Co-presented by the Center for the Art of Translation and Granta.
The Drawing Room Annex | 780 Valencia Street | San Francisco, CA | 12:00 – 1:00 pm PT
Published this year for the first time in English, Simultaneities and Lyric Chemisms is a vital reconstruction of Italian Futurist poet Ardengo Soffici’s visual poetics. With unexpected lyricism, buzzing between the entropic and the erotic, Soffici’s unrelenting poems manifest his milieu’s fascination with the metropolis. Guillaume Apollinaire called it “very important work, rich in fresh beauties.” This facsimile-style edition of the 1915 original, translated by CAT founder and board president Olivia E. Sears and with a foreword by Marjorie Perloff, offers a glimpse into the vibrant early avant-garde, when modernity held tremendous promise. Accompanied by guest musician Ben Goldberg, Sears will read from and discuss this seminal work, which has been described as “absolutely the most important book that came out of Florentine Futurism.”
Co-presented by the Center for the Art of Translation and Italian Cultural Institute San Francisco.
October 16 — Days Come & Go: Hemley Boum with John McMurtrie
The Drawing Room Annex | 780 Valencia Street | San Francisco, CA | 1:30 – 2:30 pm PT
Chronicling the beauty and turmoil of a rapidly changing Cameroon, Days Come & Go is the remarkable story of three generations of women both within and beyond its borders. Through the voices of Anna, a matriarch living out her final days in Paris; Abi, Anna’s thoroughly European daughter (at least in her mother’s eyes); and Tina, a teenager who comes under the sway of a militant terrorist faction, Boum’s epic is generous and all-seeing. A page-turner by way of Frantz Fanon and V. S. Naipaul, this stirring English-language debut (translated by Nchanji Njamnsi) offers a discerning portrait of a nation that never once diminishes the power of everyday human connection. Hemley Boum will discuss her work with editor John McMurtrie.
October 16 — Calico: New Selections in Translation
The Drawing Room Annex | 780 Valencia Street | San Francisco, CA | 3:00 – 4:00 pm PT
Celebrate what literature can be and what literature can do, with readings from an incredible range of work featured in two new editions of the Calico series. This Is Us Losing Count is a new bilingual edition of eight contemporary Russian poets and seven translators that demonstrates a refusal to accept the structural or moralizing conventions of the past. Visibleshowcases six genre-defying works from around the world that raise questions about the relationship between how we see, how we read, and how we write in “the age of the calligram.” Translators Elina Alter, Eric Fishman, Il’ia Karagulin, and poet Rodrigo Flores Sánchez share readings and talk with Sarah Coolidge, editor of the Calico series.
More in October
October 18 — Days Come & Go: Hemley Boum with Kesha Ajose-Fisher
Powell’s City of Books | 1005 W. Burnside St. | Portland, OR | 7:00pm PT
Hemley Boum, author of Days Come & Go, will be joined in conversation by Kesha Ajose-Fisher, author of No God Like the Mother. Registration is not required for this event, but feel free to pre-order a signed copy from Powell’s City of Books below!
November Events
November 3 — Hugs & Cuddles: A Virtual Conversation
In partnership with Third Place Books(opens in a new tab) and Community Bookstore(opens in a new tab)
Celebrate the virtual launch of the late João Gilberto Noll’s most radical novel— an unapologetically explicit fable of fluidity, and a voyage to the end of gender and the outermost reaches of sexual and artistic expression. Check back soon for more details!
November 5 – Days Come & Go: Hemley Boum with Nchanji Njamnsi and Nkiacha Atemnkeng(opens in a new tab)
Virtual event | 12:00 pm PT
Join the Alliance Française de Seattle(opens in a new tab), in partnership with Elliott Bay Book Company(opens in a new tab), for an online discussion with author Hemley Boum, who will discuss her latest book Days Come & Go, translated by Nchanji Njamnsi. Nkiacha Atemnkeng, a writer and music enthusiast from Cameroon, will moderate this virtual interview. Event admission is free, but registration is required.
November 5 — Two Lines Press at the Portland Book Festival(opens in a new tab)
Portland Art Museum | 1219 SW Park Ave | Portland, OR | 9:00 am – 6:00 pm PT
The Portland Book Festival(opens in a new tab), presented by Bank of America, returns to the Portland Art Museum and neighboring venues on Saturday, November 5, 2022. This daylong event features author discussions, pop-up readings, writing workshops for youth and adults, kids’ story time, an extensive book fair, local food trucks, and more.
Two Lines Press will be tabling at this year’s festival. Check back soon for more details!
Novermber 5-6 — Jazmina Barrera at the Texas Book Festival(opens in a new tab)
Downtown Austin, TX, near the State Capitol | 1100 Congress Ave | 10 am – 5 pm CT
Join Jazmina Barrera, author of Linea Nigra and On Lighthouses, at the Texas Book Festival(opens in a new tab)! Held each fall in and around the State Capitol in downtown Austin, the annual Festival Weekend features a rich variety of author presentations and panels, book signings, cooking demonstrations, programs and activities for kids of all ages, food trucks, and more. Check back soon for more details!
