AALITRA

On October 2 2021, AALITRA celebrated the 2021 AALITRA Symposium: “Writing – Translating – Publishing: Literary Translation in Australia” via Zoom.

Watch the symposium recordings on our new YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZg6gO85itdHbQzgAwL2VBQ

AALITRA Symposium 2019: Translating Traditional Tales and Folklore

Saturday 14 September 2019. Multicultural Hub, Melbourne.

The 2019 AALITRA symposium on TRANSLATING TRADITIONAL TALES AND FOLKLORE was held at the Multicultural Hub, Melbourne, on Saturday 14 September 2019. Celebrating UNESCO’s International Year of Indigenous Languages, speakers Stephanie Smee, Harley Dunolly-Lee, Ruth Singer and Omid Tofighian shared their experiences translating Australian Indigenous languages, French and Swedish traditional tales, and experimental Persian (Farsi) literature.

Listen here:

Thursday 20 September 2018

Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Melbourne

At this event, kindly hosted by the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Melbourne, the winners in the AALITRA Translation Prize (2018) were announced.

The AALITRA Translation Prize aims to acknowledge the wealth of literary translation skills present in the Australian community. Prizes are awarded for a translation of a selected prose text and for a translation of a selected poem, with the focus on a different language each time the prize is offered. In 2018, the focus language was Indonesian. Winners were awarded a cash prize, a book prize, and one year’s membership of AALITRA. Prize-winning entries were read aloud at the Awards Ceremony, and will be published in the Association’s peer-reviewed open-access journal, The AALITRA Review along with a few words from each of the translators.

Book prizes were donated by Text Publishing, Giramondo Publishing and Emeritus Professor Brian Nelson (AALITRA Past President).

Thursday 12 April

Boyd Community Centre, Melbourne

During this evening dedicated to the translation of French literature, Brian Nelson read from, and commented on, his new translation of Marcel Proust, Swann in Love (Oxford World’s Classics, 2017), and Julie Rose spoke about translating the many voices of Victor Hugo in Les Misérables (Modern Library Classics).

Photo by Di Cousens

Photo by Di Cousens

Saturday 16 September

Boyd Community Centre, Melbourne

This event, exploring the role of translation in spreading cultural knowledge and introducing Australian writers to readers around the world, was presented thanks to generous support from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Photo by Di Cousens

ALICE PUNG & LEAH GERBER

Alice Pung spoke with Leah Gerber about her experience of literary translation, referring to the translation of her book Unpolished Gem into Italian, German and Indonesian. She also discussed her experiences in Italy where she spoke about literary translation at the University of Bologna, the University of Milan and the University of Pisa with her Italian translator and friend Adele D’Arcangelo.

Click here to watch the video of Alice and Leah’s conversation.

Photo by Di Cousens

KAREN VIGGERS

Novelist Karen Viggers talked about her translated books in general and offered insights into the successful marketing of her work in France, in particular. Her books have been translated into French, Italian, Norwegian, Slovenian and Spanish, and have enjoyed great success in France, selling more than 400,000 copies to date and winning a French Award. The Lightkeeper’s Wife (La Memoire des embruns) was on the French National Bestseller list for more than 32 weeks.

Click here to watch the video of Karen’s presentation.

Photo by Di Cousens

LILY YULIANTI FARID & PAUL THOMAS

Photo by Di Cousens

Lily Yulianti Farid and Paul Thomas discussed the role literary translation has in spreading cultural knowledge between Indonesia and Australia, referring to the ‘sound’ of the Australian novel in translation, and the impressions that Indonesians might get from reading Australian literature.

Click here to watch the video of Paul and Lily’s conversation.

(Thanks to Erik Beyersdorf for video production.)

Photo by Di Cousens

Tuesday 13 September. 6.0pm

China Cultural Centre Sydney

At this event, the winners of the 2016 AALITRA Translation Prize were announced, and each read out their translation of a Chinese poem or prose text. Prof. Nicholas Jose, Chair of the panel of judges was MC for the evening, and another of the judges, Isabelle Li, spoke about the importance of literary translation in a talk entitled “The Wedding Dress Maker”. Click here to listen the recording of the Award Ceremony.

The winning entries will be published in The AALITRA Review in 2017.

 Awards Ceremony

(AALITRA Translation Prize, 2016)

The winners in the AALITRA Translation Prize (2016) will be announced at an Awards Ceremony to be held at the China Cultural Centre Sydney (Level 1, 151 Castlereagh St, Sydney) on Tuesday 13 September at 6.30pm.

The AALITRA Translation Prize aims to acknowledge the wealth of literary translation skills present in the Australian community. Prizes are awarded for a translation of a selected prose text and for a translation of a selected poem, with the focus on a different language each time the prize is offered. Winners will be awarded a cash prize, a book prize, and one year’s membership of AALITRA. Prize-winning entries will be read aloud at the Awards Ceremony, and will be published in the Association’s peer-reviewed open-access journal, The AALITRA Review along with a few words from each of the translators.

In 2016, the focus language was Chinese. The prose text for translation is by A Yi (阿乙). The poetry text is by Rong Rong (荣荣).

Prizes in each section have been donated by the China Cultural Centre in Sydney.

Free admission. Refreshments will be served. RSVP by 3 September to info@cccsydney.org or (02) 8228 3050.

The Italian Cultural Institute in Melbourne has announced a translation prize (Italian > English) open to residents of VIC, SA, TAS and WA. Click here for more information.

Thursday 26 May, 6.30-8.30pm

Kathleen Syme Library, 251 Faraday St, Carlton, VIC

Those present at the AGM discussed  upcoming events, debated some new ideas and voted in a new committee for 2016-2017. Details to be circulated soon.

We heard Stathis talk on the PLEASURES AND PITFALLS OF ENGLISHING GREEK FICTION. He discussed three of his translations from Greek published over the last twelve years. The most recent was The Last Varlamis by Thanasis Valtinos, ‘a contemporary text of indeterminate genre, to be launched with some fanfare in London on 13 May’. The others were ‘the Cypriot novella “The Gangsters” by Lefkios Zafiriou and Erotokritos by Vitsentzos Kornaros, a 10,000-verse Cretan Renaissance romance that took three of us five years to translate and annotate’. Stathis reflected on the experience of ‘Englishing’ these texts and the issues they raised about translating from Greek and dealing with reviewers.