Posted on September 14, 2009 by Scott Esposito

Download the entire 2009-10 LIT&LUNCH schedule (PDF)

March 9

LIT&LUNCH: The Translator as Overachiever: (A Nobel Winner and a Runaway Bestseller): Alison Anderson on JMG Le Clézio and Muriel Barbery

• Presented by the Center for the Art of Translation at 111 Minna Gallery
• 111 Minna St., San Francisco, CA 94105 (Minna @ 2nd)
• Tuesday, March 9, 2009 — 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
• FREE

Literary translation is often a job with little renown and few financial rewards, but translator Alison Anderson managed to strike it big twice in 2008: the French author JMG Le Clézio, whose novels Anderson has translated, received the Nobel Prize for literature, and Muriel Barbery’s novel Elegance of the Hedgehog became a national bestseller. Anderson talks about the pleasures and the pains of becoming a hot commodity and the books behind these literary celebrities.

February 9

LIT&LUNCH: Rediscovering a Forgotten Genius: Susan Bernofsky on Robert Walser

• Presented by the Center for the Art of Translation at 111 Minna Gallery
• 111 Minna St., San Francisco, CA 94105 (Minna @ 2nd)
• Tuesday, February 9, 2009 — 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
• FREE

Although Kafka revered him and he is widely celebrated in Europe, Robert Walser only recently began attracting readers in the United States. After being featured in publications like The New Yorker over the past few years, this literary master has developed a devoted following among American readers. Translator Susan Bernofsky talks about rediscovering a forgotten genius, as well as the ins and outs of translating Walser’s singular prose.

November 10

LIT&LUNCH: Re-translating a Masterpiece: Breon Mitchell on Günter Grass

• Breon Mitchell discussing and reading from his new re-translation of The Tin Drum
• Presented by the Center for the Art of Translation at 111 Minna Gallery
• 111 Minna St., San Francisco, CA 94105 (Minna @ 2nd)
• Tuesday, November 10, 2009 — 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
• FREE

2009 sees the publication of one of the most important re-translations in decades: Breon Mitchell’s re-translation of The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, only the second time this novel has been translated into English in its 50-year history. Bring a lunch and join the Center for this LIT&LUNCH event! Mitchell will read from his excellent new translation, discuss why it was important to give readers a second translation of The Tin Drum, and talk about the unique collaboration with Grass that made such a daunting work possible.

For the re-translation, Mitchell spent a week with Grass in Danzig, discussing word choice and visiting actual locations used in the book. The result is a fresh new translation that, as Mitchell says, offers a valuable new companion to the original translation. “A translation is a reading,” Mitchell writes, “and every reading is necessarily personal, perhaps even idiosyncratic. Each new version offers, not a better reading, but a different one, one that foregrounds new aspects of the text, that sees it through new eyes, that makes it new.”

November 9

Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed Book Release Party with Special Guest Breon Mitchell

• Book release party with food, wine, and translators reading from Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed
• Presented by the Center for the Art of Translation at Limn Gallery
• 292 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107
• Monday, November 9, 2009 — 6:00 pm
• $10 Suggested Donation

Join the Center for the Art of Translation for its book release party to celebrate the publication of its anthology of literature in translation, Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed. Attendees can expect good food, good wine, and lots of opportunities to talk about literature with professional writers and passionate readers. The event is headlined by a reading from Breon Mitchell, whose re-translation of Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum has just been published, and will include other readings of great literature, including Haitian poetry, Sudanese fiction—and a special tribute to the late Danish poet Inger Christensen. It all takes place in the beautiful LIMN Gallery, currently exhibiting a show of contemporary Chinese photography.

October 7

Natasha Wimmer in Conversation with Daniel Alarcón

• Natasha Wimmer talking about Roberto Bolaño and Latin American literature with noted local writer Daniel Alarcón
• Presented by the Center for the Art of Translation at Lone Palm
• 3394 22nd St., San Francisco, CA 94110 (22nd @ Guerrero)
• Wednesday, October 7, 2009—doors open 6:00 pm, event starts 6:30 pm
• Suggested donation $7

Grab a drink and listen to two people who know Latin America inside-out talk about Roberto Bolaño’s colorful life and his influence on Latin American writers. Natasha Wimmer, the award-winning translator of Bolaño’s blockbuster novels 2666 and The Savage Detectives, is joined by local literary celebrity Daniel Alarcón, named one of the top young American novelists by Granta.

October 6

LIT&LUNCH: Translating a Latin American Superstar

• Natasha Wimmer reading and discussing Roberto Bolaño
• Presented by the Center for the Art of Translation at 111 Minna Gallery
• 111 Minna St., San Francisco, CA 94105 (Minna @ 2nd)
• Tuesday, October 6, 2009 — 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
• FREE

Bring a lunch and join us for the first event of our 2009-10 LIT&LUNCH season.

Natasha Wimmer became a familiar name in the world of literature when she translated Roberto Bolaño’s two biggest novels, The Savage Detectives and 2666. Both books have enjoyed the kind of strong sales and widespread popularity that most works-in-translation can only dream of, with 2666 picking up the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Novel of 2008 (the first translation in 7 years to do so).

In this first event of our 2009-2010 season, Natasha Wimmer will read and discuss her translations of an author many are calling the biggest superstar to come out of Latin America since Gabriel Garc&iacutea Márquez. She’ll also read never-before-published excerpts from Bolaño works she is currently translating for New Directions.

Writing in the New York Review of Books, Francisco Goldman called him “the great Bolaño” and praised 2666 as an “often shockingly raunchy and violent tour de force (though the phrase seems hardly adequate to describe the novel’s narrative velocity, polyphonic range, inventiveness, and bravery).” Hear Wimmer read from her translation of this book, discuss the challenges of bringing this unique author into English, and explain what makes Bolaño so great.