All things translation—November at CAT
November happenings at the Center for the Art of Translation.
“And then a zeppelin appeared in the window…Goodyear splayed across its side. It floated across my field of vision like a nightmare in slow motion. It wished me a good year, and I couldn’t believe it was real.”
Perhaps today you, too, feel something like the disorienting, creeping dread Pirkko Saisio describes from the vantage point of her younger self in Lowest Common Denominator(opens in a new tab)(opens in a new tab) (translated from Finnish by Mia Spangenberg and forthcoming from Two Lines Press next week). In the book, with her trademark wit and style, Saisio discovers in language a refuge and a way to be seen at last.
Today, the Center for the Art of Translation’s mission is put into stark relief. At a moment of grave political division, people are seeking connection, community, and purpose. Some of them are seeking a way to be “seen at last.” Like Pirkko Saisio in her autobiographical masterpiece, CAT believes that literature is a crucial form of expression. It’s a catalyst for building understanding, preserving culture, and uplifting the human experience.
We at CAT are grateful to have you in our community, and we confirm our commitment to you—our readers, writers, translators, and educators—and, in our humble way, to building a more just world.
As President Bartlett put it in The West Wing, “It’s not our job to appeal to the lowest common denominator. It’s our job to raise it.”
And with that: we hope you’ll read all about our literary happenings in November below.
CAT’s imprint Two Lines Press(opens in a new tab) currently has THREE different calls for submissions!
We’re looking for the following:
- Translations of work by female Afghan poets from Afghanistan or the diaspora, translated from any language, and written in any style.
- Translations of ghost stories from around the world. We’re particularly interested in stories that draw upon a place’s history, politics, landscape, or mythology (short stories only, not novel excerpts).
- Full-length projects from any region and translated from any language.
If you’ve been following our social media, you’ve probably heard about Two Lines Press(opens in a new tab) author Layla Martínez and her United States tour. If you missed her readings in Portland, San Francisco, or Brooklyn, fear not!—she’s headed to her final stop at Politics & Prose (Washington, D.C.) on November 7!
If you’re curious about other happenings in the world of translation, click the button below for a full list of events on our calendar. Translator Aaron Coleman reading at City Lights in San Francisco, don’t miss the latest installment of The International Library series, and we’ve always got more in store!
Please welcome Andrea Barnes, Danielle Surrette, Anna Chaewon, Chris Lopez-Cepero, and Jewel Sanchez!
On October 19, Poetry Inside Out(opens in a new tab) gathered together our new cohort and Teaching Fellows from the past two years of the program. Not only did these teachers from all around the country get to meet face-to-face in San Francisco, previous Fellows gave presentations about how the PIO Teaching Fellowship has transformed their perspectives on classroom teaching. Keep an eye on our Features page for Teaching Fellow spotlights throughout the school year.
- Saturnalia Books is now accepting submissions(opens in a new tab) for the Malinda A. Markham Translation Prize, which is given to a female translator of a female poet.
- ALTA’s Emerging Translator Mentorship Program(opens in a new tab) is accepting applications until November 30.
- Duncan Large collected testimonials from the translators(opens in a new tab) who brought 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang’s work to new audiences internationally.
- What can food descriptions teach us about translation? Aditi Machado, author of the new poetry collection Material Witness(opens in a new tab), takes us on a deep dive.(opens in a new tab)
Giovanna Lomanto is a poet and essayist with a tendency to play the same song on repeat until she has memorized every last note. She received her BA in English at U.C. Berkeley and finished her MFA at NYU, during which time she published two poetry collections and two mixed media chapbooks.
