This March 3rd in New York City, we’re thrilled to be holding an event to celebrate our fifth anniversary, where we’ll be joined by two multi-award winning superstars of translation: Natasha Wimmer and Ann Goldstein. Between them, these women have brought some of the biggest names in contemporary literature to English-language readers. In anticipation of our event, here’s everything you need to know about our extraordinary guests and host, Frederic Tuten.
Award-winning translator Natasha Wimmer is best known for her translations from Spanish to English of the work of Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño, who was described by the New York Times as “the most significant Latin American literary voice of his generation.”
From his monster novels 2666 and The Savage Detectives to shorter works such as The Third Reich, The Secret of Evil, Antwerp and Between Parentheses, Wimmer was instrumental in bringing Bolaño’s work to English-language readers, making him one of the most famous authors of the last twenty years.
Wimmer spent four years of her early life in Spain, acquiring a fluency in Spanish, furthered during her study of Spanish literature at Harvard. She went on to be a managing editor at publishing house Farrar, Straus & Giroux, where she also initiated her translating career with Cuban novelist Pedro Juan Gutiérrez’s Dirty Havana Trilogy. On leaving publishing to pursue her career as a translator, Wimmer commented:
“My reason for going into publishing in the first place was that I had decided in college that I would never be a fiction writer, but I knew I wanted to be as close to books as I could. Publishing was one way, and translating turned out to be a better way for me.”
In addition to Bolaño, Wimmer translated Nobel Prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Language of Passion, The Way to Paradise, and Letters to a Young Novelist, and Marcos Giralt Torrente’s Father and Son: A Lifetime. Most recently, her translation into English of Mexican author Alvaro Enrigue’s Sudden Death has been received to critical acclaim. When not translating, Wimmer teaches at both Princeton University and New York’s Columbia University.
As if working as an editor at the New Yorker was not enough to keep one busy, our second guest, Ann Goldstein, is also the translator of one of the biggest literary sensations in recent years: Italian novelist Elena Ferrante’s tetralogy of novels. Thanks to Goldstein, so-called “Ferrante fever” has taken over not just the publishing industry but also the marketplace as a whole, with the novels topping best-seller lists for months on end.
Before tacking this mammoth task, Goldstein’s translations included work by Giacomo Leopardi, Alessandro Baricco, and revolutionary filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. She also acted as editor of Primo Levi’s Complete Works. Goldstein is recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Renato Poggioli prize.
Known as the “face” of notoriously reclusive author Ferrante, Goldstein has exclusive access to the mind of Italy’s current literary star. As Wimmer did for Bolaño, Goldstein brought Ferrante to the English-speaking world, rocketing her to fame. As the person who has worked most closely with her, Goldstein is our best insight into Ferrante’s work, and as her accolades show, her skills as a translator and editor make her one of the industry’s biggest successes.
Our host for the evening will be Frederic Tuten. Born in the Bronx and later living in Latin and South America in addition to Paris, Tuten is a prolific writer, critic, actor, and professor, and author of five novels in addition to a plethora of art, film, and literary criticism. In addition to a Guggenheim Fellowship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Award for Distinguished Writing, Tuten is recipient of three Pushcart Prizes.
The evening is sure to be a fantastic celebration of literary translation, with engaging and lively discussions between our speakers, our host, and you, the audience! Be sure to join us for exclusive readings by Wimmer and Goldstein of their most acclaimed translations. Furthermore, the night’s entertainment will be held at The New School’s stunning Auditorium in Manhattan.
Advance tickets cost $8 and are available here. Tickets purchased on the day of the event will cost $10, and all tickets include a drink at the post-event reception.