¿Qué pasa? An NBCC Reads Event

Where: Durango Building, UT-San Antonio, San Antonio, TX

The National Book Critics Circle recently polled its membership on the question: “Which work in translation has had the most effect on your reading and writing?”  Some of the responses were posted on the NBCC Web site. As a follow-up, in various cities the NBCC is sponsoring a series of public symposia on translation. 

The Department of English of the University of Texas at San Antonio will host a session titled “Translation: ¿Qué Pasa?” on Friday, October 2, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. Free and open to the public, the event will take place in the Southwest Room of the Durango Building (1.124) of UTSA’s Downtown Campus. A panel of five critics, translators, and editors will address not only the original question but also: What is the importance of translation?  What is the current state of translation?  How different is it in other countries?  How are translations reviewed?  What are the conditions for translators?  Which books that have not yet been translated into English should be?  Which languages are favored and which ignored?  How has the Internet affected translation? Following discussion of these and other issues, the floor will be open for questions and comments from the audience.

The participants:

• Charles Hatfield, associate director, Center for Translation Studies, UT Dallas, and editorial board, Translation Review
• Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, author of the 15-volume Klail City Death Trip novel cycle, translator of Tomás Rivera and his own work, and Ellen Clayton Garwood Professor at UT Austin
• Zara Houshmand, translator from Persian, playwright, and contributing editor to Words Without Borders
• Ed Nawotka, book columnist for Bloomberg News, Southern correspondent for Publishers Weekly, and editor-in-chief of publishingperspectives.com
• Barbara Ras, award-winning poet and director of Trinity University Press
• Moderator: Steven G. Kellman, professor of comparative literature, UTSA