By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 2-09-07
GREENSBORO, NC – Taking literature unscathed across language barriers is a task both necessary and, in a sense, impossible – which accounts for its endless fascination.
The Center for Creative Writing in the Arts will hold a panel discussion on the art of literary translation Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 8 p.m. in the Alexander Room, Elliott University Center. The event is free and open to the public.
Invited panelists include:
•Dr. Alexis Levitin, professor of English at SUNY-Plattsburg, is one of the country’s most respected practitioners of literary translation. Specializing in translation from the Romance languages, principally Portuguese and Spanish, Levitin has won over 30 awards for his work, including two National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship Grants and the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry Translation Grant. His work has appeared in over 200 journals including Prairie Schooner, American Poetry Review, and the Kenyon Review. He is also the author of 20 books in translation, including “Forbidden Words: The Selected Poetry of Eugenio de Andrade” (2005). Levitin will also speak on “Translating Humorous Verse: The Necessary Rhyme” at the Faculty Center on College Avenue Feb. 20 at 4 p.m.
•Former North Carolina Poet Laureate Fred Chappell, UNCG Burlington Industries Excellence Professor of English emeritus, has distinguished himself as a teacher as well as a novelist, poet and short story writer. Recipient of the UNC system’s O. Max Gardner Award, Chappell’s awards include the National Academy of Arts and Letters (1968), the best foreign book prize from the Academie Française (1972), the Sir Walter Raleigh Prize (1973), the North Carolina Award for Literature (1980), Yale University Library's Bollingen Prize in poetry (1985), and the Aiken Taylor Award in poetry (1996). He is the author of 15 books of verse, eight novels and two volumes of stories. His works of fiction include “Moments of Light,” “I Am One of You Forever” and “Brighten the Corner Where You Are.” His most recent poetry collection is “Backsass” (2004).
•Dr. Will Derusha is an assistant professor of Spanish at UNCG. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. His field of specialization is 20th century Spanish poetry and Spanish culture, literature, and language. He writes extensively on Spanish-language poetry, and has published translations from Spanish to English and from English to Spanish in the United States, Latin America, and Spain. In 2004 Duke University Press published “Songs of Life and Hope,” his translation of Rubén Darío's masterpiece, “Cantos de vida y esperanza.”
•Dr. Christian Moraru specializes in critical theory and 20th-century American literature, with particular emphasis on narrative and narrative theory, postmodernism in comparative perspective and the relations between globalism and culture. He teaches undergraduate surveys and graduate courses such as English 740: Studies in Contemporary and Postmodern American Literature, English 650: Modern Literary Theory, English 549: The Critical Canon and Contemporary Issues and English 534: The Modern American Novel. His latest books are “Rewriting: Postmodern Narrative and Cultural Critique in the Age of Cloning” (2001), and “Memorious Discourse: Reprise and Representation in Postmodernism” (2005).
For more information on the panel discussion, contact Dr. Mark Smith-Soto at mismiths@uncg.edu or (336) 334-3775.
