In 1963, a year after Algerian independence, Anna Greki, an Algerian poet of French descent living in exile in Tunisia, published Algeria, Capital: Algiers, her first poetry collection, in French and Arabic. Greki, 32 at the time, had participated in the Algerian revolution and was arrested, incarcerated and tortured by the French military for her activism. Algeria, Capital: Algiers, translated by Marine Cornuet, and introduced by Ammiel Alcalay, includes poems Greki wrote while in prison and is available in English for the first time. Please join us for a reading and discussion of Greki’s life and work, and of the translation itself.
Marine Cornuet is a Brooklyn-based translator, poet, and editor. Recent publications include Cloche Pèlerine (Le Castor Astral, 2024), a French translation of Kaveh Akbar’s poetry collection Pilgrim Bell, and Algeria, capital: Algiers (Pinsapo Press and Lost & Found, 2024), an English translation of Anna Gréki’s poetry collection Algérie, capitale Algers. She holds an MFA from Queens College, CUNY, and is the co-founder of the literary journal Clotheslines. She is a member of the working collective and an editor at Ugly Duckling Presse.
Poet, novelist, translator, essayist, critic, and scholar Ammiel Alcalay’s latest books are CONTROLLED DEMOLITION: a work in four books, his co-translation of Nasser Rabah’s Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece, and the forthcoming Follow the Person: Archival Encounters. In 2017, he received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for his work as founder and General Editor of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative; he is a Distinguished Professor at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center.
Contact: Gabriella Lindsay E-mail: [email protected]
4/14
Monday
6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Olin Humanities, Room 102
Traduttore, Traditore? Reflections on Translating Dante
The Italians have a saying traduttore, traditore – that is, the “translator" of a book can often be a “traitor” to it if he fails to capture both its letter and its spirit! In this event, Professor Joseph Luzzi will discuss his new translation of Dante’s Vita Nuova (Liveright/Norton, December 2024), which was Dante’s first book and a moving account of his youthful love for his muse, Beatrice, and his discovery of his passion for poetry. Professor Luzzi will show how his understanding of translation as a “way of thinking” also helped him complete his recent Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Biography (Princeton University Press, November 2024). Overall, he will share his experiences in trying to remain faithful to Dante’s original language, while at the same time bringing his own personal understanding and interpretation of the Vita Nuova, an early masterpiece by Italy’s so-called sommo poeta, supreme poet.
Contact: Franco Baldasso E-mail: [email protected]
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Student Workshop in Aspinwall 302
Panelists include: Eugene Bata Daniel Krakovski Robert Isaf Melanie Mignucci Courtney Morris Yuko Okamura Christopher Shea Alissa Rubin Melissa Weaver 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Faculty Workshop in RKC 103
Panelists include: Thomas Bartshcerer Jonathan Brent Peter Filkins Susan Gillespie Wyatt Mason Justus Rosenberg Olga Voronina