Poets & Writers Theater

“It was like a very nice, pleasant chat.” In this 2016 Foyles video, Korean author Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith speak about working together on The Vegetarian (Portobello Books, 2015), which won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. Kang is the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature.

“It’s a poem about the experiences of revolutions and war and migration and whiteness and racism, and how these experiences condition the lives of different family members.” Iranian-born Swedish poet Athena Farrokhzad talks about her book, White Blight (Argos Books, 2015), which consists of one long lyric poem with six voices, and reads excerpts in Swedish and English. Translated from the Swedish by Jennifer Hayashida, the book is longlisted for the 2016 National Translation Award.

“I think that with writing, it’s really a space that you own...this sort of free space where you’re really sure of what you’re doing and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks or what sorts of boxes even exist out there.” Amanda Lee Koe, author of Ministry of Moral Panic (Epigram Books, 2013) and winner of a 2016 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for Ten Years of Marriage by Su Qing, talks about the relationship between her creative process and inspirations, which include the city of Singapore.

Jhumpa Lahiri talks with Ann Goldstein, translator of Elena Ferrante's novels, about Ferrante, literature, translation, and writing at the Center for Jewish History. Lahiri, who is featured in the the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, has a new memoir, In Other Words (Knopf, 2016), which is translated from the Italian by Goldstein. For more from Lahiri and Goldstein, listen to the latest episode of Ampersand: The Poets & Writers Podcast.

“When you write a poem in your language, you write it one time. And when you think in the other language, and try to write a poem in the other language, I feel as if it’s a new poem. They say ‘lost in translation’ but also there are things found in translation.” Dunya Mikhail, author of The Iraqi Nights (New Directions, 2014), translated from the Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, talks about the duality of living with multiple homes and languages, and how her journey from Iran to the United States affected her evolution as a poet. Mikhail occasionally translates her own work.

“It's a fun process—I really enjoy it, because it’s nerdy but it’s also very creative.” In this interview, Dorthe Nors talks to Ali Millar about the experience of working in collaboration with translators for her short story collection, Karate Chop, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken, and her novella Minna Needs Rehearsal Space, translated from the Danish by Misha Hoekstra, which were released together in an edition by Pushkin Press in 2015.

“Like two personalities, they didn’t want to be one. They didn't want to tell one story. I couldn’t put them together.” Following the launch of her twenty-third book, The Naked Eye (New Directions, 2009), Yoko Tawada talks about thinking and writing in both German and Japanese. Tawada’s forthcoming novel, Memoirs of a Polar Bear, is translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky and will be released in November by New Directions.

“when i have a sleepless night / and nothing lights up / i order a rilke shake / and eat a toasted blake...” Brazilian author and editor Angélica Freitas reads the title poem from her debut collection, Rilke Shake (Phoneme Media, 2015), translated from the Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan. The book won the 2016 Best Translated Book Award and is longlisted for the 2016 National Translation Award.

Liu Xia, wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, reads from her first poetry collection, Empty Chairs (Graywolf Press, 2015), while under house arrest in her home in Beijing. Empty Chairs, translated from the Chinese by Ming Di and Jennifer Stern, is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"Poetry is condensed language with an internal music." Poet, artist, and literary translator Sholeh Wolpé speaks about how growing up and living within different cultures has influenced her writing.