Stefania Heim in Conversation with Sally Scopa- Mr. Dudron

Join us and Sally Scopa in welcoming WWU associate professor of literature Stefania Heim to the Readings Gallery for a dive into her newest translation, Mr. Dudron!

The great metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico's posthumous novel, Mr. Dudron, has been translated in its entirety into English for the first time by Stefania Heim. By turns hilarious and serious, both a riff on Homer's Odyssey and a polemic about art, Mr. Dudron is a wandering account of the (mis)adventures of de Chirico's autobiographical hero—a painter who wanders, remembers, frets, and tells stories.

Stefania Heim is translator of two volumes of writings by metaphysical artist Giorgio de Chirico, both published by A Public Space Books: his Italian poems, Geometry of Shadows, and his posthumous novel, Mr. Dudron, for which she earned an NEA translation fellowship and a grant from the ViceVersa Translation Workshop in Villa Garbald Switzerland. Heim is also the author of two award-winning collections of poetry--Hour Book (Ahsahta Press, 2019) and A Table That Goes On for Miles (Switchback Book, 2014)--as well as a scholar of modern and contemporary poetry. A native of Queens, NY, she lives in Bellingham, where she is an associate professor of literature at Western Washington University.

Born in Volos, Greece, in 1888, Giorgio de Chirico was a gifted and prolific painter: founder of the metaphysical school of art, he was a significant influence on the surrealists. Over his long career he was involved with many of the twentieth century's major art-world figures: he designed costumes for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and set productions for Luigi Pirandello, and was photographed by Irving Penn. De Chirico was also a prolific writer in both Italian and French who lived during his life in Munich, Ferrara, Paris, Florence, New York, and for more than three decades in Rome, where he died in 1978.

Sally Scopa is a painter based in Bellingham WA. She has been awarded residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, France, and SOMA in Mexico City. Recent shows include a solo booth with Oolong Gallery at Nada Miami 2024 and a two-person exhibition at el Museo de la Ciudad (Querétaro MX) with Carlos Vielma, as well as group exhibitions at 550 Gallery (New York), Ladies' Room LA (Los Angeles), and Radio28 (Mexico City). She holds a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University and an MFA in Art Practice from Stanford University. She is originally from San Francisco, California.

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