On Thursday 14 June there was an excellent day of translation events at Bristol University, organised by English PEN and the university’s School of Modern Languages.
Two roundtables in the afternoon, on translation and globalisation and translation in theory and practice, saw writers, translators, publishers and academics from around the UK discussing subjects ranging from the current flowering of translation to the value of re-translation, followed by a brilliant evening lecture-performance by Diego Marani, prize-winning author of New Finnish Grammar and now of The Last of the Vostyachs.
Julian Evans, co-organiser, commented that “The jargon calls these collaborations between universities and the wider world ‘knowledge exchange’. I prefer to think of ‘Living Translation’ as an exchange of curiosities, of which there should be many more.”
Especial thanks to Diego Marani, Susan Harrow, Adrienne Mason, Danny Hahn, Shaun Whiteside, Robert Chandler, Kapka Kassabova, Jane Aitken, Philip Gwyn Jones, Charles Burdett, Delphine Grass, Duncan Large, and Emma Cleave.
You can see photos of the events online here. There will be more photos and video footage online shortly.