Nathan Scott McNamara is a writer who has been published at The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Guernica, The Poetry Foundation, Literary Hub, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. He works as the Associate Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations for the national early childhood literacy organization Reach Out and Read.
Festivals
The Art of Translation
May 8, 2022|11:30am
11:30 am – 12:30 pm PDT
The Marsh Cabaret | 2120 Allston Way | Berkeley, CA
This event has already taken place.
To translate an author’s work—staying faithful to their vision, style, and message, in a language not their own—is to assume an awesome responsibility: one that hasn’t always gotten its just due as an art form. Three of today’s most noteworthy and acclaimed translators of Latin American contemporary literature will shed light on the origins, rewards, pitfalls, and complexities of their discipline. Christina MacSweeney, a recipient of the Valle Inclan prize, has translated the works of leading Spanish-language authors including Valeria Luiselli, Jazmina Barrera, and Elvira Navarro. Megan McDowell, who received the English PEN award and whose works in translation have been nominated four times for the International Booker Prize, has translated many of the most important Latin American authors working today, including Samanta Schweblin, Alejandro Zambra, and Mariana Enriquez. And Havana-born translator Achy Obejas, who has worked with Wendy Guerra, Rita Indiana, Junot Díaz, and Megan Maxwell, is also the author of a recent collection of poetry written in a mostly gender-free Spanish and English. Find out why translation is a journey of never-ending discovery, creativity, and lessons in cross-cultural sensitivity and communication. Moderated by Nathan Scott McNamara.
Translator
Forrest Gander
Forrest Gander, born in the Mojave Desert, lives in California. A translator and multi-genre writer with degrees in geology and literature, he’s the recipient of numerous awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize, the Best Translated Book Award, and fellowships from the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim, and United States Artists Foundations. His recent book, Twice Alive, focuses on human and ecological intimacies.
Translator
Christina MacSweeney
Christina MacSweeney’s work has been recognized in a number of important awards, and her translation of Valeria Luiselli’s The Story of My Teeth was awarded the Valle Inclán Translation Prize and also shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. Her most recent translations include works by Daniel Saldaña París, Elvira Navarro, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Julián Herbert, and Karla Suárez.
Translator
Megan McDowell
Megan McDowell has translated work by many of the most important contemporary Latin American writers, including Samanta Schweblin, Alejandro Zambra, Mariana Enriquez, Carlos Fonseca, and Lina Meruane. Her translations have won the National Book Award, the English PEN award for Writing in Translation, the Premio Valle-Inclán, the Shirley Jackson Prize, and two O. Henry Prizes, and have been short- or long-listed four times for the International Booker Prize, and shortlisted once for the Kirkus Prize. In 2020 she won an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her short story translations have been featured in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Paris Review, Tin House, McSweeney’s, and Granta, among others. She is from Richmond, KY and lives in Santiago, Chile.
Author
Achy Obejas
Achy Obejas is a writer, journalist and translator. She is the author of five books of fiction and has translated Junot Díaz and Wendy Guerra, among many others. She is from Cuba and lives in California.