In and Out of French: A Poetry Translation Roundtable

This roundtable features poets, translators, translatees, scholars, and all possible combinations of the above, who are currently translating poetic works from the French and/or being translated into French by our poet-translator colleagues. We will discuss the joys and challenges we face, including making translational choices at the level of the word, phrase, and sentence, finding publication venues, writing introductions that contextualize French and Francophone texts for English-speaking readers, and reaching broader audiences for poetic translation. We will aim for our remarks to open a larger conversation about the significance of new poetic developments outside of or adjacent to English for those of us writing and writing about/on/with poetry in English.

Teresa Villa-Ignacio
Lindsay Turner
Cole Swensen