Workshop
Fiction for Poets; five-session Workshop with Ari Braverman
At its heart, translation is generation. The term “translation” has too often been used to overdetermine a relationship to text which can privilege a monodirectional, even institutional form of language. In reality, the process of translation has far more to do with our writing practices, historical context, and methods of performance and resistance, than the promise of access that a traditional “source/target” model engages in. Yet, we cannot escape the fact of translation’s linguistic nature, its particular expectation for transmission. In this workshop, we’ll look at work by poets for whom translation is an essential part of their practice, who think of translation as a means of creating, drawing relationships, rather than an end in itself. This will not mean sacrificing historical realities in exchange for artistic agenda. We’ll think about translation’s limits, how they can become generative, and think toward making our own projects, book-length or not, via poets like Sawako Nakayasu, Mónica de la Torre, Fernanda Laguna, John Keene, Erin Mouré while also looking towards artists and projects which investigate translation’s dilemmas. There will be readings, prompts, and workshopping. All are welcome!
