LATROBE, PA— Eulalia Books, a publisher of poetry-in-translation housed at Saint Vincent College, has recently released “Poetry’s Geographies: A Transatlantic Anthology of Translations,” edited by Katherine M. Hedeen and Zoë Skoulding and featuring some of the most prominent poet-translators from both sides of the Atlantic.
Contributors include Kareem James Abu-Zeid (translating Najwan Darwish), Don Mee Choi (translating Kim Hyesoon), Sasha Dugdale (translating Maria Stepanova), Daniel Eltringham (translating Anna María Rodas), Forrest Gander (translating Coral Bracho), Johannes Göransson (translating Kristina Olsson), Katherine M. Hedeen (translating Víctor Rodríguez Núñez), Meena Kandasamy (translating Thiruvalluvar), Ghazal Mosadeq (translating Akhavan Sales), Erín Moure (translating Chus Pato), Zoë Skoulding (translating Fred Forte), and Stephen Watts (translating Ziba Karbassi).
“Poetry’s Geographies” radically foregrounds the role of translators as bridge-builders and activists, revealing the structures through which poetry moves and circulates. The anthology forms unruly geographical lines of connection rather than underscoring existing national canons¾shaping new understandings of contemporary poetry’s transnational commitments.
Born amid the shutting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the book celebrates the community of translation—as Sköulding writes in her introduction, a “chance to live in the multiplicity of languages and the spaces of relation that it opens up.” Skoulding continues, “Far from the smooth loops and starry clusters of international flight paths, the haphazard map made by these poets emerges erratically from chance encounters, personal synergies, political commitments and tangles of literary influence.”
Reviewing the anthology in “Asymptote,” a Taiwan-based online literary magazine dedicated to translations of world literature, Laurel Taylor writes that “this ambitious collection is unique in bringing together translation practitioners from the heart of the Anglosphere and giving them a space to speak about their practices.”
Eulalia Books will be co-hosting an offsite event at the 2023 Association of Writing & Writing Programs conference, held on March 10, 2023 (7:00 p.m. PST) at MadArt Studio in Seattle, WA. As part of the event¾co-hosted by three other publishers (co•im•press, Veliz Books and Carrion Bloom Books)¾editor Katherine Hedeen will read selections from the anthology and discuss her role as editor. Copies of the anthology are currently on sale at a discounted pre-order price at www.eulaliabooks.com. The event is in-person and free and open to the public.
Eulalia Books is a part of Saint Vincent College’s literary translation program, a conjunctive effort of the English and Modern Language departments. Its mission is to publish modern and contemporary Latin American poets who do not yet have a collection translated into English. The press has published translations by prominent, award-winning literary translators, such as Katherine Hedeen, Erín Moure, Olivia Lott and more.
To learn more about upcoming Eulalia Books publications, events and more, visit its website at www.eulaliabooks.com, follow on Instagram and Twitter (both @Eulalia_Books) and “like” Eulalia Books on Facebook.