(Left) Annett Gröschner © Susanne Schleyer, and (right) Katy Derbyshire © Anja Pietsch
Invitation to Encounter: Author meets Translator
The series Encounters: Writers and Translators in Conversation (organised by Heike Bartel, Nottingham, and Godela Weiss-Sussex, IMLR) brings together writers and their translators in front of an (online) audience, providing a unique opportunity to experience author and translator reading from the text and in conversation, and allowing a fascinating insight into the working relationship between the two as well as the practical and theoretical aspects of translation. Our event with Annett Gröschner and Katy Derbyshire
Monday, 14 June 2021, 17:00-18.30 BST (online) provides an opportunity to engage with texts in German and in English and can be enjoyed by an audience with little or no knowledge of German as well as those competent in both languages.
The prolific and wide-ranging output of writer, journalist, academic and performer Annett Gröschner includes two novels, Moskauer Eis [Moscow Ice] (2000) and Walpurgistag [St Walpurga's Day] (2011), as well as volumes of poetry, plays, radio features and documentary literature. Her most recent books are Berolinas zornige Töchter [Berolina's Angry Daughters] (2018), tracing the Berlin women's movement, and Berliner Bürger*stuben (2020), a collection of snapshots and observations of life in Berlin. She has been awarded several prizes, among them - very soon! - the prestigious Fontanepreis (March 2020); she has been part of the performance collective SheShe Pop since 2012, and has held a visiting professorship at the Berlin Universität der Künste since 2015. Annett will be reading from and discussing her most recent work in the context of the changed social landscape under the restrictions imposed by Covid-19.
She will be joined by translator Katy Derbyshire. Katy translates contemporary German writers, including Annett Gröschner, Olga Grjasnowa, Heike Geissler and Clemens Meyer. She lives in Berlin, where she co-hosts a monthly translation lab and the bimonthly ‘Dead Ladies Show’, presenting women who were wonderful while they were alive. Katy is now also publisher at the V&Q Books imprint, which exports ‘remarkable writing from Germany’ to the UK and Ireland.
The event is sponsored by the University of Nottingham (Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies) and Keith Spalding Trust (University of London).
A recording will be available on the CTCCS website