Translated!
An Interactive Festival of Literary Translation
Five days of translation workshops (French, German, Spanish), talks and panel discussions on creative writing, literary translation and publishing
February 7–12, 2011
Monash University
In association with AALITRA and The Wheeler Centre
Melbourne, Australia
The 2011 Translated! festival involved a week-long residential program of hands-on translation practice, supplemented with talks and panel discussions addressing various aspects of the theory, practice and business of literary translation. The hands-on practice was offered in the form of language-specific workshops, led by experienced, practising translators in FRENCH, SPANISH and GERMAN.
Festival program can be downloaded here.
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2011 Translators and Authors
French Stream
Translator Jean Anderson is currently a Senior Lecturer in French at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, as well as editor of the New Zealand Journal of French Studies, and is the founding director of the Te Tumu Whakawhiti Tuhinga New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation. Her published translations include Les Enfants de Ngarua (Dogside Story, Patricia Grace) with France Grenaudier-Klijn in 2009, Island of Shattered Dreams (L'Île des rêves écrasés, Chantal Spitz) in 2007, Bluebeard's Workshop (L'Atelier de Barbe-bleue, Pierre Furlan) in 2007and Les Yeux volés (Baby No Eyes, Patricia Grace) with France Grenaudier-Klijn in 2006. She has also published a host of critical works, has edited a collection of translations (Been there, Read That! Stories for the Armchair Traveller, 2008), and is a frequent guest speaker at international conferences and seminars.
Author Moetai Brotherson was born in Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia and started writing at the age 14. Moetai has written eight novels, three books of poetry and two children's books. He published his latest novel, Le roi absent (The Missing King), in June 2007. When it was released, Le roi absent took the Tahitian literary world by storm; it remains a bestseller in French Polynesia. Moetai has also published articles in the literary magazine Litera Ma'ohi, with excerpts from Le roi absent published in the English literary magazine Wasafiri. In 2009, Le roi absent was awarded the highly coveted University of French Polynesia prize.
Spanish Stream
Translator Peter Bush, previously Director of the British Centre for Literary Translator and Professor of Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia, now lives in Barcelona and translates Catalan, French, Portuguese and Spanish literature. He has translated over fifty works by authors including Juan Carlos Onetti, Chico Buarque, Leonardo Padura, Quim Monzó, Pedro Almodóvar and Nuria Amat. He won the 2009 Calouste Gulbenkian Prize for his translation of Equator by Miguel Tavares. His 2010 Celestina offers readers a radical new interpretation of Fernando de Rojas's bawdy masterpiece from 1499. He edited The Translator as Writer, essays on the art of literary translation, with Susan Bassnett.
Author Jorge Carrión was born in Tarragona, Spain, in 1976. He is a Doctor of Humanities at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona where he teaches contemporary literature and creative writing. Jorge formed part of the editorial team at Lateral magazine between 2002 and 2005 and was a member of the editorial board at Quimera magazine from 2006 to 2009. Jorge has published the following works: the novel Los Muertos (Mondadori, 2010); the essay Viaje contra Espacio. Juan Goyitsolo y W.G. Sebald (Iberoamericana, 2009); the travel narratives Australia. Un viaje (Berenice, 2008), La Piel de La Boca (Libros de Zorzal, 2008), and La brújula (Berenice, 2006); the artist's book GR-83 (Autoedición, 2007); and the novella Ene (Laia Libros, 2001).
German Stream
Translator Heike Brandt is also a writer and critic. Heike is the author of three books for young people: Die Menschenrechte haben kein Geschlecht, Wie ein Vogel im Käfig, Katzensprünge, and her new book for junior readers, Jana hat ein Geheimnis. She has translated over 70 books from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Nigeria from English to German. In a unique collaboration with Australian author Elizabeth Honey (whose books she has translated into German), Heike wrote To the Boy in Berlin, a story told through emails. She also translated the book into German as Henni und Leo. To the Boy in Berlin was chosen for The White Ravens, International Youth Library, Munich.
Author Elizabeth Honey grew up on a farm near Wonthaggi, studied art (Film and TV) at Swinburne University in Melbourne. A writer, illustrator and poet, she now has fifteen titles to her name including 45 + 47 Stella Street and everything that happened, Honey Sandwich and Don't Pat the Wombat!, all of which were Honour Books in the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards, and Not a Nibble!, winner of the CBCA Picture Book Award. Elizabeth's novels are recognised internationally: 45 + 47 Stella Street won the Premio Cento Prize for Children's Literature (Italy), Remote Man was short listed for the Kinderliteraturpreis (Germany), and several of her novels have been selected for De Nederlandse Kinderjury (Holland).
Public Event Information
Monday February 7 - Opening address and reception - Optical Illusions? Literary Translation as a Refractive Process
Valerie Henitiuk is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Translation and Acting Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia. She is editor of In Other Words: the journal for literary translators, and on the editorial board of a new transdisciplinary journal simply called translation. Other activities include the Nida School of Translation Studies, held annually in Italy, and consultancies for the Arts Council of England, the British Council in Egypt, and Penguin China to develop literary translator training programs.
Wednesday February 9 - Panel discussion - The Writer as Translator: The art of self-translation
Lia Hills is a poet, novelist and translator. Her recent publications include her award winning poetry collection, the possibility of flight (Interactive Press), The Beginner's Guide to Living (Text Publishing), and a translation of Marie Darrieussecq's acclaimed novel, Tom Is Dead (Text Publishing), from French into English.
Ouyang Yu came to Australia in early 1991 and has since published 55 books of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, literary translation and literary criticism in the English and Chinese languages. His translations into Chinese include The Female Eunuch (1991) and The Man Who Loved Children (1998). In 2010, his second novel, The English Class (Transit Lounge), was published in August.
Thursday February 10 - Panel discussion - Getting It Out There: Publishers' perspectives on translated literature
Publisher Henry Rosenbloom (Scribe), reviewer James Ley, host of ABC radio's "Lingua Franca" Maria Zijlstra and bookseller & translator Dr Christine Mathieu discuss the publishing, marketing and reviewing of translations.
Saturday February 12 - Closing lecture - Leopoldo Maria Panero's Per-versions: On Translation Considered as One of the Fine Arts
Ramon Lopez Castellano was born in Granada, Spain, where he completed his degree on English Philology. He wrote his PhD thesis on the Spanish poet Leopoldo Maria Panero at Monash University, where he has been teaching Spanish language, as well as Hispanic history, literature and Spanish-English translation for the last five years..