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Translating Fiction

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Tuesday, March 28, 2017
11:45 am - 12:45 pm
Achy Obejas

In an interview for the journal Origins, Cuban American writer and translator Achy Obejas revealed that she is "always interested in the truth in fiction, and how fiction can dare go places so-called historical accounts can't. Part of the reason for that is that fiction is personal-the reader needs someone to identify with-and so the stories are always more intimate, smaller in dimension, and more accessible than the kinds of movements and forces that formal history contends with."

Obejas cites translating as "the closest close reading" she's ever conducted. In this conversation, she will talk about the challenges and rewards of her work as a translator of fiction. As a translator, Obejas is highly unusual, in that she has earned accolades both for her translations from English to Spanish and for those from Spanish to English. To cite just two examples, her translation into Spanish of Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was a finalist for Spain's Esther Benítez Translation Prize, and her translation into English of Papi by Rita Indiana was listed among World Literature Today's 75 Notable Translations of 2016.

Type: LECTURE/TALK
Contact: Natalie Robles