Location: Petwork Citizen, 829 Upshur Street, NW
A few blocks from the Petworth Metro -- street parking available.
Please join us for schmoozing and getting to know fellow translators. Also Board members would love to hear your ideas for DC-ALT activities next year!
--May 19: Nuts and Bolts: Getting yourself published, getting grants, Authors Guild Model Contract, Residency Programs. DC-ALT board members and acclaimed translators Nancy Naomi Carlson and Lara Vergnaud reveal the mysteries.
Notes from "Nuts and Bolts" event:
1. Find list (on PEN America or ALTA site) of magazines/journals that publish translations. Among the surprises: Virginia Quarterly; Mass., Indiana, Iowa Reviews; Prairie Schooner, Gargoyle along with usual suspects Asymptote, Anomalous, Words Without Borders, etc. Important to publish online because you may be “discovered” (as Lara was when publisher New Directions contacted her).
2. Research publishers and who they publish (read, read, read). Find out names of decision makers and meet and greet (both publishers and editors) at both AWP and ALTA meetings. Then PUBLISH PUBLISH PUBLISH so you (and your author) can be discovered.
3. When writing a query letter, always open with your name and your most recent accomplishment (book, etc.)
4.. Persistence pays: Nancy tried three times before receiving NEA translation grant. Lara made handouts of her NEA application (which didn’t make it, but useful to see how she organized it, sexy first paragraph included). Note! NEA offers feedback on applications that didn’t get accepted.
5. Discussion of permissions: if the translated poets have previously published some of his/her poems in a book, must get permission from the various book publishers.
6. Magic words: “publication rights available.” When short/long listed award books announced, this indicates that the work is open to publisher queries.
7. Submit for PEN/HEIM award, deadline June 6. This is geared toward emerging and mid-career translators.
8. Residencies: OMI / Ledig House, in upstate NY, two-week translator residency, they pay for translated author to come too (Lara attended last summer). Deadline July 15. Vermont Studio started an international residency (check whether it still has funding for translators). And of course, there’s Banff…
--April 24, 7-8 pm. Our friends at Solid State Books are hosting another translation-related event, author Thorsten Nagelschmidt and his translator Tim DeMarco.
--DCPL DC Author Festival -- DC-ALT has been invited to participate and will have a table
WHEN? Saturday, April 27, 2019
WHERE? Library of Congress, Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave SE.
TIME? 10:00am-4:30pm, table from 10:00am-1:30pm.
--Kensington Day of the Book Festival--April 28--DC-ALT will have a table and a slot in the Poetry Tent with readers Barbara Goldberg, Holly Karapetkova, and Yvette Neisser. Roman Kostovski will be providing music, and Nancy Naomi Carlson will be the Poet Laureate for the event. Lots of good DC-ALT representation!
--April 6: Confluences Translation Conference, co-hosted with Montgomery College: this all-day event will include workshops, presentations, and a keynote speaker on all matters related to translation. Refreshments and a book fair. Details will be announced on the listserv -- plan to attend! Register here: https://www.montgomerycollege.edu/events/confluence/.
--March 18, 2019: Award-winning writer and translator Esther Allen.
Please mark you calendars for an extra special March event! Esther Allen, acclaimed translator from the Spanish and French, theorist of translation and great friend of literary translation as a profession, is coming down to DC expressly to address our group! Please join us when Esther will be in conversation with Sergio Waisman, eminent translator, writer, GW professor and former DC-ALT board member. Monday, March 18, at 7 pm, at Solid State Books--on Capitol Hill. The event is being co-hosted by the George Mason Alan Cheuse International Writers Center. Not to be missed!
--February 24, 2019, 2-4 pm: Italian poetry AND workshopping: Come here acclaimed poet and translator William Schutt discuss his newly published translation of Eduaordo Sangrinetti's "My Life I Lapped it Up." Bring your own works in progress to discuss and workshop. Location: Tenleytown Library.
-- David Keplinger talk: January 20, 2019. Tenleytown Library. Acclaimed poet and translator, David Keplinger, director of the MFA Program at American University, talked about his newest work in translation and the movement from literal to final draft. David Keplinger has published five books of poetry, most recently Another City (2018) and The Most Natural Thing (2013). His collaborations in translation have produced four more collections, including The Art of Topiary (2017) from the German poet Jan Wagner and Forty-One Objects (2019) from Carsten René Nielsen. Keplinger teaches poetry writing and literary translation at American University in Washington, D.C.
-- Happy Hour/Social: Dec. 7, 6:00pm - 8:00pm. Soapstone Market, 4465 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington DC, 20008. Our annual winter social to talk translation, literature, and more -- and most importantly, to meet other local translators! 4465 C