Israel Emiot
(1908-1978) was a prolific Yiddish writer of poetry, prose, translations, and
essays, born in Poland. In 1939 he fled to Kazhkstan, then Moscow, from which
he was sent by the Joint Anti-Fascist Committee to Birobidjhan as a journalist.
He spent 7 years of a 10-year sentence for
"internationalism" in a Stalin-era lager in Siberia, then returned
to Poland, and in 1958 came to the USA where he continued an active literary
life and won prizes. In a life in many ways emblematic of 20th century Yiddish
writers, his childhood was spent within a very orthodox community, but he became
secretly self educated in books of the "enlightenment", and then became
a thorough student of modernistic trends in Yiddish and world poetry. His work
reflects these transitions in both
form and content. <back
to translation>
Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) published his first book of verse on July 28, 1830. His novels earned the praise of Balzac. For Carlotta Grisi, he devised the ballet Giselle. His voluminous critical writings (more than a thousand articles between 1836 and 1855 alone) cover drama, literature, music, and the Salon. Émaux et Camées, his great collection of poems, appeared in 1852 and was subsequently expanded until the definitive edition in 1872. <back to translation>
Nizar Kabbani, one of the contemporary Arab World's most celebrated poets, was born in Damascus, Syria in 1923. He died in London in 1998, leaving a huge legacy. His work comprises over 50 collections of poetry. His poems have been translated into numerous languages including French, Spanish, Italian, Persian, and Russian. Kabbani’s poetry is known for its freshness of language and for its exploration of a wide range of human experiences and emotions, such as eroticism, love, social criticism, anger, violence and death. <back to translation>
Mohja Kahf, born in Damascus, Syria, earned a doctorate in comparative literature at Rutgers University and is an associate professor at the University of Arkansas. Her books include Western Representations of the Muslim Woman: From Termagant to Odalisque (University of Texas, 1999) and E-mails from Scheherazad (poetry), University Press of Florida, 2003. Her poetry has been published in literary journals for over ten years, including The Paris Review (#164) and The Atlanta Review (Fall/Winter 2001). In 2002, she received an Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist grant for literary achievement. Her next book of poetry, The Hajar Poems, deals with Hagar, Sarah, Aisha, and other figures from religious scriptures. Some of her poems have been translated into Arabic for readings she has given in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, and for anthologies. Her husband, Najib Ghadbian, translates them, working closely with Kahf. <back to translation> <back to notes on her translations>
Kemal Kurt (1947-2002)
was born in Turkey and lived in Berlin from 1975 until his death. Kurt studied
mechanical engineering in Ankara, Miami, and Berlin, where he received his PhD
in physical engineering in 1983. He wrote screenplays, children's books, poems,
and essays. His writing was informed by his interest in German-Turkish relations
and issues of European identity.
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Christopher Mulrooney has contributed poems and translations to The Pacific Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Brooklyn Review, Aesthetica, Frank, Poetry Salzburg Review, Renditions, and others. He is the author of notebook and sheaves. <back to translation>
José Luís Peixoto was born in 1974 in Alentejo, Portugal. His first novella, Morreste-me (You died on me), won the Young Creators’ Prize awarded from the Portuguese Institute for Youth and was translated and published into four languages. His first novel, Nenhum Olhar (Blank Gaze), won the Jose Saramago Literary Award and has already been translated and published in ten different languages. His second novel, Uma casa na escuridao (A house in darkness), has already been sold to three different countries. The short story "South" is part of the collection of short stories Antidoto (Antidote). Nobel Prize winnerJose Saramago wrote about him: "Jose Luis Peixoto is one of the most suprising revelations in recent Portuguese literature. I have no doubts that he is the safe promisse of a great writer." <back to translation>
Marilya Veteto
received her Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of Texas at Austin. She has published
literary translations since 1983. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona and teaches
German language, pedagogy, and literature at Northern Arizona University.
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Leah Zazulyer
is a poet, translator, prose writer, former school psychologist, special education
teacher, and mediator. Her publications and prizes include two chapbooks of
her own poetry, and SIBERIA, poems by Emiot ( State Street Press).
She is working on a selected/collected volume of all Emiot's poetry. Born in
the west, of parents from Belarus, she now lives in the east. She has long been
interested in the "geography of the imagination" and in the relationship
between language and
culture. She knew Emiot in his last decade.
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Richard Zenith's
translations from Portuguese include works by António Lobo Antunes and
Fernando Pessoa. His Fernando Pessoa & Co. - Selected Poems won
the 1999 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. He is the author of Terceiras
Pessoas, a collection of short stories, and has published his own poetry
in literary reviews. He lives in Lisbon.
<back to translation>
Programs
in Creative Writing and Translation ■ Department of English ■