[applause] [applause] [cheering] i dont want you to be intimidated, but i practiced these jazz hands for ten minutes backstage. Thats not actually a joke and that is the scary thing about it. Good evening and welcome to the 2018 pen america literary awards. Thank you for being here. [applause] honestly im thrilled to be here, very honored to celebrate the mission to protect Free Expression everywhere. Yes you should clap for Free Expression. It is honestly a weird time to be protecting Free Expression. I know that you are thinking but sally it is so obviously not under threat right now. [laughter] certainly not here in the United States of america. I mean, obviously free speech is so free, we have fake speech now. Seriously, i am honored to be here. It is such a big deal. There are so many incredible and important authors that grace us with their words and ideas this year, brilliant visionary inspired writers and of course im talking about ivanka. [laughter] the jokes dont get any bett
Literary translator Len Rix was presented with the Hungarian Golden Cross of Merit for his work in translating Hungarian literary classics into English.
Translation as a Collaborative Mode: An Interview with Sarah Booker
Sarah Booker
I met Sarah Booker virtually in 2018 when she spoke with a graduate student reading group about translating Cristina Rivera Garza s
The Iliac Crest. During her virtual visit, Booker was gracious enough to talk with us about her translation process, and I have kept an eye on her work ever since. In this interview, conducted over email, Booker tells WWB about what drew her to translation work, her praxis, and her vision for translation in public life.
Alex Aguayo (AA): Good morning, Sarah. To begin, could you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you became interested in literature and translation? What has your training been like?
An NYRB Classics Original
The trouble begins in Venice, the first stop on Erzsi and Mihály s honeymoon tour of Italy. Here Erzsi discovers that her new husband prefers wandering back alleys on his own to her company. The trouble picks up in Ravenna, where a hostile man zooms up on a motorcycle as the couple are sitting at an outdoor café. It s János, someone Mihály hasn t seen for years, and he wants Mihály to come with him in search of Ervin, their childhood friend. The trouble comes to a head when Mihály misses the train he and Erzsi are due to take to Rome. Off he goes across Italy, wandering from city to city, haunted and accosted by a strange array of figures from the troubled youth that he thought he had left behind: There are the charismatic siblings, Éva and Tamás, whose bizarre amateur theatricals linked sex and death forever in his mind; Ervin, a Jew turned Catholic monk who was his rival for Éva s love; and again, that ruffian on the motorcycle.