Contemporary French Poetry in the U.S.: Translating, Publishing, Adapting

Friday, April 25

Location:

Afternoon sessions:

La Maison Française, NYU, 16 Washington Mews (corner of University Place)

Evening session:

McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St.

There have been strong transatlantic poetic ties between France and the United States since the 19^th century. Dialogues continue through the translation, publication, and adaptation of contemporary French poetry in the U.S.

Organized by Vincent Broqua (UPEC) and Emmanuelle Ertel (NYU), the afternoon’s discussions highlight the current state of such crucial relations: French and American poets, translators, and publishers speak about the art of translating French and Francophone contemporary poetry, about the publishing houses circulating French poetry in the U.S., and about the importance of French poetry for contemporary American poetry. Anne Portugal and Pierre Alferi, two major French poets, will be present and will share their thoughts about translation.

2:00 p.m.

Vincent Broqua and Emmanuelle Ertel

Introduction

2:15 p.m.

Charles Bernstein

Contemporary French Poetry in the U.S. 

3:00 p.m.

Cole Swensen, Tracy Grinnell, Pierre Joris

Publishing French Poetry in Translation

4:15 p.m.

Pierre Joris

Translating North African Poets

5:00 p.m.

Talk by Pierre Alferi 

Questions to Anne Portugal by Jean-Jacques Poucel

8:00 p.m. (note location)

The day will conclude with a reading organized by Double Change at McNally Jackson Books. Readers include Pierre Alferi, Anne Portugal,Charles Bernstein, Cole Swensen, Pierre Joris, and Tracy Grinnell for the translations of Collobert. The French poets will be translated.

 .....

Pierre Alferi is a French poet and novelist. OXO (Burning Deck, 2004) and Natural Gails (Sun and Moon, 1995) were translated by Cole Swensen.

Charles Bernstein is a poet, essayist, editor, and literary scholar. He is Donald T. Regan Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He has played an important role in fostering French contemporary poetry and his work has been translated in France. His last book, Recalculating,contains translations and adaptations of French poetry. 

Vincent Broqua is Associate Professor at Université de Paris Est. He teaches North American poetry and art. A partir de rien: esthétique, poétique et politique de l'infime (Michel Houdiard) was published in 2013. Broqua has translated Thalia Field, Anne Waldman, and Christian Hawkey. In 2000,  he created Double Change with Olivier Brossard. 

Emmanuelle Ertel is Clinical Associate Professor in NYU’s Department of French, where she directs the M.A. program in Literary Translation. She has translated numerous American novelists into French, including Rick Moody, Tom Perrotta, and Louis Begley. Her book, La Maison des mots, réflexions autour de Carpenter's Gothic de William Gaddis, was published in 2000. 

Tracy Grinnell is a poet and publisher. She created Litmus Press and the journal Aufgabe, which focuses on translation. In 2013, Litmus Press published Murder, Danielle Collobert's first novel, translated by Nathanaël. 

Pierre Joris is a poet, translator, and anthologist. He was Professor at SUNY Albany. With Jerome Rothenberg,  he edited the acclaimed Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry. Recently he translated and published poets from the Maghreb in Poems for the Millennium. The University of California Book of North African Poetry.

Anne Portugal is a French poet. Absolute Bob was translated by Jennifer Moxley, The quisite Moment was translated by Rosmarie Waldrop, andFlirt Formula was translated by Jean-Jacques Poucel and published by Cole Swensen with La Presse Books.

Jean-Jacques Poucel teaches at the University of Calgary. He has written on French poetry and recently translated Anne Portugal's Formula Flirt, published by La Presse Books.

Cole Swensen is a professor at Brown University. She is a poet and translator. As publisher, she created La Presse Books, dedicated to the translation of French contemporary poetry (http://www.lapressepoetry.com/). She has translated many works by French poets, includingOXO (Burning Deck, 2004) and Natural Gails (Sun and Moon, 1995) by Pierre Alferi.

Double Change is a Franco-American collective. It curates, records, and archives readings of francophone and American poets in France and in the U.S., and edits a bilingual journal: www.doublechange.org

Organized with La Maison Française at NYU, the Book Department of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the French Department at NYU, McNally Jackson Books. 

Double Change is supported by the Conseil Régional d'Ile de France and Tamaas.