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Literary Translation Clinics

How Do You Translate the 1,000 Words Every Picture Is Worth?

November 18, 2021

A series of knowledge-sharing open sessions for literary translators and appreciators of translated works from all backgrounds and experience levels.

Translation is never “just” about the words, but when visuals are involved, what new constraints or inspirations crop up? French translator Edward Gauvin drew on his experience with comics to speculate with Czech translator Alex Zucker on how exploring these other modes that contribute to meaning can lead to a consideration of other such historically “invisible” fields as design and adaptation, providing new metaphors and strategies for translators to advocate for their own profession.

In Conversation

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    Edward Gauvin

    Edward Gauvin

    A 2021 Guggenheim fellow, Edward Gauvin has translated in various fields from film to fiction, with a personal focus on contemporary comics (BD) and post-Surrealist literatures of the fantastic. His work has been shortlisted for several major prizes and awards. He has received fellowships and residencies from the NEA, PEN America, the Fulbright program, the Lannan Foundation, and the French and Belgian governments. As a translation advocate, he has written widely, spoken at universities and festivals, and taught at the Bread Loaf Translation Conference. The translator of over 400 graphic novels, he is a contributing editor for comics at Words Without Borders.

  • Alex Zucker by Beowulf Sheehan

    Alex Zucker

    Alex Zucker

    Alex Zucker’s translation of The Movement by Petra Hůlová was published last month by World Editions in the US and the UK. His forthcoming translations include the novels A Sensitive Person by Jáchym Topol (Margellos World Republic of Letters at Yale University Press), The Lake by Bianca Bellová (Parthian Books), and essays in The Selected Writings of Jan Patočka: Care for the Soul (Bloomsbury), by the 20th-century Czech philosopher Jan Patočka. More info at www.alexjzucker.com.