THE WOMEN IN TRANSLATION PROJECT (WIT)

This work is a collaboration with the Museum of Environmental Sciences (MCA) at the University of Guadalajara, the City and Nature José Emilio Pacheco Literary Prize, the International Book Festival of Guadalajara (FIL) and Meninas Cartoneras (Madrid, Spain). The anthology is part of the ongoing collaboration between UW-Madison and the MCA under the guidance of renowned research ecologist Eduardo Santana-Castellón and one of founders of the City and Nature José Emilio Pacheco Literary Award.

Expected to be published in the fall 2020.

This work is part of a future collaboration with the Ultramarina Cartonera and the PLACA Project and contribution to Poetry International. The Anthology can also be available online.

This work is a collection of poems related to the experiences of the COVID19 pandemic and other health crises and a collaboration with the UW-Madison’s Latin American Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS). The collection incorporates different cultural responses to the pandemic as well as themes of mourning, hope, and rituals.

Click here to view the anthology, published in collaboration with the UW-Madison Community Altar Project by 4W Leader and Professor of Textile and Fashion Design, Carolyn Kallenborn.

This work is an unpublished poem by Luisa Futoransky on the experience of confinement due to the COVID 19 pandemic, Paris, France. A contribution to the Luisa Futoransky Archive in Poetry International.

Published April 2020.

“From the Inside Out” invites you to bear witness to the many ways that COVID-19 has impacted us, and to gather a collective vision for the future.

In October, Petronella Zetterlund (Sweden/Mexico), translator, editor, and founder/manager of Nolitchx (Noxlit). Nordic Exchange in Literature, gave a talk and workshop on “Poetry, Translation and Movement: A Strategy for Cultural Wellbeing” (“La movilidad de textos como estrategia de bienestar cultural”). She discussed her work as a poetry translator and freelance cultural producer, and shared the importance of translating texts that are inclusive, democratic, and feminist; representative of her visions for the future.

During the workshop activities, students, faculty, and WIT members translated Petronella’s Spanish version of poems by Burcu Sahin and Iman Mohamed, two women poets with family roots in Iraq and Turkey who write in Swedish. Sahin’s text was translated into English and Portuguese, sparking a discussion about the value of the context of the poem vs. the poetic language itself as part of translation practice. Additionally, Zetterlund conducted a workshop with undergraduate students of Spanish 319: On Translating Cultures and Disciplines taught by Dr. Sarli Mercado in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. 

Mini-video:  4W WIT: PETRONELLA ZETTERLUND

In May, WIT held a virtual workshop with American writer Jeannine Marie Pitas, a Professor at Dubois University and translator specializing in Uruguay and Argentine poetry. She shared ideas about translation and some of her translated works. Participants discussed their journey as translators and the collective translation approach. Jeannine closed the event by reading one of her own poems from Things Seen and Unseen (2019). 

Mini-video: 4W-WIT: Jeannine Pitas  

In September of 2019, WIT hosted a workshop with Argentine writer Brenda Becette, which involved editing and discussing WIT’s final English translation of her short story, “The Goose’s Game” (“El juego de la Oca”) from La parte profunda/The Deep Side (2018). The dialogue centered on Becette’s use of irony, everyday language, colloquial tone, and the poetic alliteration of her words. Such elements were key for translating her representation of the character’s voice and experiences confronting life in a future city, desolated and in ruins, while struggling to find food or gain power in order to survive from either an environmental disaster or the trauma of political violence. WIT also explored the gendered aspects of the story to define the narrative voice of the protagonist and reflect on how Becette’s enigmatic tales narrate uncertainty and the dark side of human behavior, or the self-destructive instinct of human beings. Becette’s story is part of WIT’s publishing project: Mountains & 3 or 4 Ríos: City and Nature José Emilio Pacheco Literary Prize Bilingual Anthology.

In November, WIT hosted a workshop event with guest speakers Laura Cesarco Eglin (USA/Uruguay) and Jeannine Pitas (USA), both poets and translators. These scholars were invited to UW-Madison by WIT collaborator Jesse Lee Kercheval to share their experiences as translators and their published translated work. Eglin shared key reflections about the fundamental role of translation to support linguistic or cultural minorities (such as Latin American indigenous languages which have been relegated to a position of inferiority), the support for women (artists, writers, or women in general), and translation as a form of decolonization in the construction of a new Latin American literary canon for a new generation of readers. The workshop also explored the need for a stronger presence of translation studies in academic settings.

Mini-video: Laura Cesaro Eglin & Jeannine Pitas

In April, WIT workshops began exploring topics and experiences related to COVID-19. Award-winning poet Andrea Cote Botero (Colombia/USA) was invited for a poetry reading and workshop via Webex. A Professor at University of Texas at El Paso, Botero discussed her experiences teaching in a unique bilingual MA Program in creative writing at El Paso, a borderland city with México. The discussion explored issues related to Colombia’s “dead and disappeared” and the war that has been plaguing the country since the beginning of the 21st century. Participants reflected on the importance of poetry as a tool for survival during such social or political crises.

Mini-video: 4W-WIT:Andrea Cote Botero

• Argentine writer Brenda Becette, winner of the City and Nature José Emilio Pacheco Literary Prize Award in 2017. 
• Mexican Poets from Guadalajara: Citlalli Ixchel, Paola LlamasDinero and Sayuri Sanchez. 
• Translator Petronella Zetterlund (Sweden/Mexico) project manager of arts & literature of the Nolitchx. Nordic Literature in Change and Exchange project.
• Mexican poet Ivan Vergara founder of Ultramarina Cartonera and PLACA (Plataforma de Artistas Chilango Andaluces), a collective of artists across the Atlantic.
• Writer, scholar and translator Laura Cesarco Eglin (Uruguay/USA), winner of the 2019 Best Translated Book Awardfor her translation from portuguese of the collection of poems Of Death. Minimal Odes, by Hilda Hilst.
• American writer Jesse Lee Kercheval (France/USA) winner of the Dorset Prize in Poetry, professor at UW-Madison and translator specializing in Uruguayan poetry.  
• Award-winning poet Andrea Cote Botero (Colombia/USA). Professor of creative writing at University of Texas at El Paso.   
• American writer and translator Jeannine Marie Pitas, Spanish Professor at Dubois University and translator specializing in Uruguayan and Argentine poetry. 
• The visit to UW-Madison and public events with writer Luisa Futoransky (Argentina/France), her translator Phillipa Page (UK), and Mexican poet Nadia López García (México) programmed for the Spring 2020 semester were postponed for the 2020-2021 academic year due to the COVID 19 Pandemic. The Center for the Humanities approved postponing the funding for these events
  • WIT was able to translate with the collaboration of poet and translator Jeannie M. Pitas, Luisa Futoransky’s poem “Joan of Arc: The Gateway” is a contribution to Futoransky’s archive created by translator and scholar Philippa Page in Poetry International.