This week, our editors on the ground are watching out for multilingual poetry events, emerging Armenian writers, solidarity in language and literature, the favourite texts of Filipino readers, translation in Southeast Asia, dialogues between authors in Nairobi, and PEN/HEIM Translation Grants winners. Read on to find out more!
Kristina Tatarian, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Armenia
The beautiful auditorium of the Carfesjian Center for the Arts, located at the Cascade Complex in Yerevan, is a frequent stage for literary readings. On the night of October 8, the center hosted a performance as part of antiBabylon, a multilingual poetry event that brought together literary communities from Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova and Germany. Organised by PANDA Platforma, an NGO from Berlin, the event took place in Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine, as poets visited each other’s countries for joint workshops and performances to create, translate, and perform. The Project’s aim is to create a “free multilingual poetic space,” and test if poetry can answer the most burning existential questions of today’s troubled world.
On the same day, IALA’s Emerging Writers Showcase took place online. This showcase featured readings from Armenian authors championed by the organisation as mentees or winners of the Young Armenian Poet Award. By supporting emerging literary talent, the organisation adds to the global effort of Armenian artists to accelerate cultural revival in the country.
The Armenian diaspora around the world plays a crucial part of setting the cultural agenda for Armenian literature, and now, the groundbreaking collection We Are All Armenian: Voices from the Diaspora, edited by Aram Mjorian, is available from University of Texas Press. The collection will feature essays from writers and poets of Armenian origin, shedding light on diverse experiences of “Armenianness” and personal perspectives on ethnicity, identity, and the sense of home.
The goal to diversify and enrich the Armenian art scene cannot be complete without reinforcing the importance that languages play in shaping cultural trends around literature. In November, some of the most notable Armenian literary figures and government officials gathered to mark the European Day of Languages. Conjointly with ARI Literature Foundation, the EU delegation in Armenia presented the project entitled “The Language of Solidarity,” to heighten the crucial role that language and literature play in shaping a shared sense of the human experience.
Alton Melvar M Dapanas, Editor-at-Large, reporting from the Philippines
A rich variety of titles competed in the translated works category of the recent Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards, including a famed South Korean Instagram poet translated into English for the first time; Pope Francis’ theological essays on the Catholic sacrament of anointing the sick; a tributary anthology to democracy icon and former vice president Ma. Leonor “Leni” G Robredo; and a translation of Dante Alighieri into the Tagalog-based Filipino. The highlights among the list, however, also include past Asymptote contributor Luna Sicat Cleto’s novel Typewriter Altar (University of the Philippines Press, 2016), translated into the English by Marne L Kilates; the bilingual poetry volume Gugma ni Datu Lubay: Mga Daan kag Bag-o nga Binalaybay (Kasingkasing Press, 2015) in Alex C Delos Santos’ autotranslation; and Ang Manggagaway at Iba pang Kathang-Agham at Pantasya mula sa Gitnang Europa at Pilipinas (VisPrint, 2017), a collaborative anthology among fantasy and sci-fi writers from Central Europe and the Philippines. Topbilled by Poland’s Andrzej Sapkowski, Hungary’s Csilla Kleinheincz, Czech Republic’s Julie Nováková, and Slovakia’s František Novotný, Juraj Červenák, and Alexandra Pavelková, the anthology was co-edited by diplomats József Bencze and Jaroslav Olša Jr., then-ambassadors of Hungary and Czech Republic to the Philippines, respectively. Also joining the powerhouse team are Filipino writers Elyss Punsalan and Edgar Calabia Samar (as contributors) and Dean Francis Alfar (as third co-editor).
In other news, the literary community recently lost writer and translator Felino S Garcia Jr.—who had translated Federico García Lorca’s Sonetos del amor oscuro into his native tongue, Hiligaynon (Mga Dilambong sang Magul-umon nga Gugma), as well as the Philippine Hispanophone writers Jesús Balmori and Adelina Gurrea Monasterio’s Cuentos de Juana: Narraciones malayas de Las Islas Filipinas (an award-winning 1943 short story collection) into the Filipino (Mga Kuwento ni Juana, 2017 Rolando S Tinio Translators’ Prize winner). Both Garcia’s book-length translations of Lorca and Gurrea were released by Iloilo-based dynamo of an indie publisher, Kasingkasing Press.
The Ateneo de Manila University also partnered with the Book Institute of the Philippines, the National Book Development Board, and the Book Development Association of the Philippines for the latest instalment of the Kritika Kultura Reading Series. Titled “Translation in Southeast Asia: Practices, Politics, and Prospects,” this latest edition features Kristen Vida Alfaro of Tilted Axis Press alongside Filipino translators Kristian Sendon Cordero, Junley L Lazaga, and past Asymptote contributor Kristine Ong Muslim. International Booker Prize duo and former Asymptote editors-at-large Norman Erikson Pasaribu and Tiffany Tsao were also on the same panel, which was moderated by past Asymptote contributor Allan Derain.
Wambua Muindi, Editor-at-large Kenya, reporting from Kenya
Translation is a challenging exercise that, among other things, requires considerable financial investment, and recently, grants are increasingly coming to the aid of translators and their projects. On November 16, Richard Prin was declared, among others, a recipient of the PEN/HEIM Translation Fund Grants. Prin was awarded for his translation-in-progress of Katama Mkangi’s Walenisi—originally written in Swahili. Mkangi was a prolific academic and a pro-democracy crusader, and thus it’s no wonder that the jury contended the work to be “a touchstone of Kenyan literature . . . with a reimagination of events from the dictatorial Kenyatta and Moi regime.” Prin’s previous translations in Swahili have ranged from poems to music, and some his translations of Swahili-language lyrics were featured on Asymptote this year.
Cheche Books, an independent pan-African feminist bookshop, café, and community space, was filled to capacity as it played host to a conversation between Mukoma wa Ngugi, writer and poet, and Zukiswa Wanner, writer and publisher. The Nairobi literary community enjoyed a refreshing and engaging dialogue on the November 18, premised on the former’s two novels: We, the Scarred and Unbury our Dead with Song. The event was the latest instalment of the bookshop’s Conversations with Authors, which brings writers in for discussions about their writings.
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