In celebration of the new Minor in Translation Studies and NYU’s many talented authors and translators, Liberal Studies is holding a Translation Slam in partnership with the Department of Comparative Literature, the Master’s in Translation and Interpreting Program in the School of Professional Studies (SPS), and the PEN America Translation Committee.
Co-hosted by Liberal Studies Professor Jennifer Zoble and SPS Professor Annelise Finnegan, the Slam will feature Spanish poetry and Arabic prose, and participants will include NYU professors, graduate and undergraduate students, and an alumna, all of whom work in/from either of those languages. Each translator will present their translation of a preselected text by one of the two participating authors, and the audience will have the opportunity to engage them all in conversation about their methods and choices, the particular challenges posed by these texts, and their broader work.
The in-person event is open to members of the NYU community. NYU Community - Register for In-Person Here
This event is open to the public by Zoom. Register for Zoom Here
Please email lsdeansoffice@nyu.edu with any questions.
Arabic Authors and Translators
Hossam Fahr is an Egyptian writer, translator, and conference interpreter. His last post was Chief of the Interpretation Service at the United Nations. In 2008, his book Hekayat Amina (Amina’s Stories) won the Sawiris Foundation Award for best collection of short stories–the most prestigious non-governmental literary award in Egypt.
Hala Halim is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern Studies at NYU. She won an Egyptian State Incentive Award for her translation of Clamor of the Lake, a novel by Mohamed El-Bisatie. Other translations include Heads Ripe for Plucking, a novel by Mahmoud Al-Wardani.
Angela Haddad is a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature at NYU. Her research focuses on the Arab diaspora and its literary production in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. She is an early career translator from Arabic into English whose work has most recently appeared in Absinthe: World Literature in Translation.
Lamar Mufti is a junior studying photography and computer generated images at the Tisch School of the Arts. She is a passionate artist who enjoys using her creative skills to visually and digitally illustrate the progressing interplay between technology and humanity. She has lived her entire life between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Spanish Authors and Translators
Fátima Vélez is a writer, professor, PhD candidate, and cultural producer from Manizales, Colombia. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from NYU. She has published the poetry collections Casa Paterna, Del Porno y las babosas, and Diseño de Interiores, and the novel Galápagos. In addition, she curated and produced the Latin-American poetry series at iD Studio Theater in the South Bronx.
Janet Hendrickson is a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU Liberal Studies, where she teaches both writing and translation. Her experimental translation of a 1611 dictionary by Sebastián de Covarrubias, Treasure of the Castilian or Spanish Language was longlisted for a PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. She is also the translator of The Future Is Not Ours, an anthology of contemporary Latin American fiction, as well as prose and poetry appearing in Granta, n+1, Mandorla, and The White Review.
Montana Ray is a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU Liberal Studies, teaching writing and translation. She translates from Portuguese and Spanish, mostly Black, trans, and feminist authors and artists. She also writes archive-based nonfiction and is the author of several artist books and a book of concrete poetry, (guns & butter). Ray holds an MFA in poetry and translation and a PhD in comparative literature from Columbia University.
A reader, writer, and lifelong linguaphile, Claire Abs translates from Spanish and Portuguese to English. She recently obtained her Master of Science in Translation and Interpreting from NYU. Currently, she is building her career in book translation and publishing. Above all, she is passionate about uplifting diverse voices in international literature and promoting cross-cultural exchange.
Mackenna Vickery is a senior at NYU completing a degree in Global Liberal Studies and Spanish. Her concentration in GLS is Law, Ethics, History, and Religion (LEHR). She enjoys reading and creative writing, and she became interested in literary translation during her sophomore year, when she took a translation studies class with Professor Jennifer Zoble.