Colloquy 17: Emerging Translators

Please join us for the seventeenth installment of Colloquy: Emerging Translators, with readings and discussion from Marine Cornuet, Aiden Farrell, and Poorna Swami.

The event will moderated by Colloquy curator Catherine Fisher, and take place in the backyard of Unnameable Books.

Colloquy is an event series presented by World Poetry Books in collaboration with Montez Press Radio and partnering bookstores which invites translators to engage with live audiences in an exploration of the art of translation.

Reader Bios:

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 Alger". She is the co-founder of the literary journal Clotheslines and is on staff and a member of the editorial collective at Ugly Duckling Presse.

Aiden Farrell is a poet, translator, editor, and educator. He has published two chapbooks: lilac lilac (Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs) and organismalgorithm (Fence), and his poetry and translations have been featured in Amygdala, Denver Quarterly, Spectra Poets, Asphalte Magazine, Wonder, and elsewhere. He is the managing editor of Futurepoem, and co-curates the Unnamed reading series with Ryan Cook. Born in Paris and raised between three continents, Aiden lives in Brooklyn. The Vitals is his debut translation.

Poorna Swami is a writer, choreographer, and translator from Bangalore, India. She received the 2023 Jawad Memorial Prize and a 2024 ALTA/SALT Emerging Translators Mentorship for her translations from Urdu. Her own poetry has been published in journals such as Indiana Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Indian Quarterly, and Prelude. She is currently a PhD student in the Department of South Asian Studies at Harvard University.

About the series:

Colloquy provides a forum for translators to engage with live audiences in an exploration of the art of translation. Each Colloquy event presents a group of two to four translators of recently published works of poetry, prose, and essay, for short readings and extended conversations, followed by Q&A’s with the audience. When possible, authors of translated books will also be invited to read from their work in the original language and to participate in the discussions. The post-reading discussions will focus on the process of translation and the specific translating issues arising from the events’ featured books. The discussions will be moderated by guest curator and emerging translator Catherine Fisher, with assistance from World Poetry Books publisher Peter Constantine and editor Matvei Yankelevich. The five events will be hosted by beloved independent bookstores in Brooklyn, NY, and simultaneously broadcast on internet radio for broader access by our collaborators at Montez Press Radio. (Montez will also archive the recordings for future listeners.) Selections from the transcripts of the live discussions will be published in World Poetry Review, an online magazine for poetry in translation that partners with our press.

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