Sunday Submissions: Trace Press Arabic Translation Workshop
Yasmine Haj and Norah Alkharashi invite emerging and experienced Arabic-English translators, poets, and writers to dive into the complexities and pleasures of literary translation.
Each workshop in this 2-part series will focus on specific texts and questions exploring the poetic, aesthetic, and ideological challenges that translation from Arabic poses to Western knowledge.
Like a basil plant in translation, these workshops will not make up their mind.
The free workshops, organized in collaboration with Trace Press, will grapple with the following questions:
- How do we decenter Western knowledge through translation?
- What kinds of poetic, aesthetic and ideological challenges does translation pose?
- How do we grapple with words that bear historical traces of oppression, especially around race, gender and sexuality?
- How do we work through practical challenges in translating dialects, humour and insults, or using footnotes and paratexts?
- What are the possibilities of re-envisioning Arabic literary texts for contemporary readers?
Discussions on the ethics of collaboration will conclude the series, along with a shared collective translation.
The workshops will take place in two series:
Series 1: Nov 27, Dec 4, & Dec 11, 2022 (Sundays 11 am-1pm EST/4pm-6pm CET)
Series 2: Feb 5, 19, & 26, 2023 (Sundays 11am-1pm EST/4pm-6pm CET)
Celebration: April 2023 (with the Dalaala collective)
To find more information and register for the workshop, head to the workshop’s website and register through the form available there.