How might immigrant or diasporic translators bring a particular set of concerns to the task of translation distinct from the mainstream of literary translation in the US? The Kitchen Table Translation panel creates an opportunity to hear from a diverse group writers and translators who can speak about personal, cultural, and political dimensions of translation in relation to the technical, aesthetic, and literary aspects of the work.

Moderator:

Madhu Kaza is a writer, translator, artist, and educator based in New York City. She published a cotranslation of Political Stories, a collection of stories by the Telugu writer Volga. She is the editor of Kitchen Table Translation, an anthology of writing by immigrant and diasporic translators.

Gabrielle Civil is a black feminist poet and performance artist. Her texts and translations have appeared in Small Axe, Aster(ix), Something on Paper, Obsidian, and Two Lines. She is the author of Swallow the Fish and Tourist Art with Vladimir Cybil Charlier. The aim of her work is to open up space.

Sawako Nakayasu’s books include The Ants, Texture Notes, and Mouth: Eats Color. Her newest translations are Tatsumi Hijikata’s Costume en Face, and The Collected Poems of Sagawa Chika, which won the 2016 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. She has received fellowships from the NEA, PEN, and JUSFC.

Don Mee Choi’s books of poetry include Hardly War and The Morning News Is Exciting. She has received a Whiting Award, Lannan Literary Fellowship, and Lucien Stryk Translation Prize. Her most recent translation of Kim Hyesoon, a contemporary South Korean poet, is Poor Love Machine.

Rosa Alcalá is the author of three books of poetry, most recently My OTHER TONGUE (Futurepoem, 2017). Recipient of an NEA Translation Fellowship, her translations are included in Cecilia Vicuña: New & Selected Poems (Kelsey Street, 2017), which she also edited. She teaches at the University of Texas-El Paso.