Translation Contexts

with Deborah Smith

This course of seminars will cover the craft of literary translation, contemporary issues in translation, and cultural production and reception more broadly, informing how we talk about our texts, languages, authors, and work.

Unfortunately, we are full!

Registrations for this course are now closed but do join our mailing list here to be updated on future courses like this.

Summary

Course code: DS1

4 online seminars of 3 hours each

For Foundation, Intermediate & Advanced Writers & Translators

Limited places available

Selective entry – we’ll offer places to writers based on writing samples sent on application

Dates

10, 24, 31 October, 7 November 2021 (Sundays)
4:00 pm to 7:00 pm SGT

No partial sessions accepted

Venue

Workshops will take place online via Zoom

Successful participants will receive a private link to the seminars

Follow up consultations with participants may be available

Overview

This course of seminars will cover the craft of literary translation, contemporary issues in translation, and cultural production and reception more broadly, informing how we talk about our texts, languages, authors, and work.

Please note participants are required to attend all the 4 seminars.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will:

  1. develop their understanding and gain a greater understanding of the craft of literary translation,
  2. deepen their sense of the cultural politics of translation,
  3. explore their own approach to translation and be encouraged to cultivate critical awareness of their own position.

Together participants will learn ways to act for a more accessible, equitable, and self-aware translation community, both on and off the page.

Who should register?

While the issues discussed are of particular practical relevance to practising translators, they are also crucial concerns for creative writers, literary academics, and those who work in publishing.

Translators, writers and academics including:

  1. Foundation Translators and Writers — Early stage, promising translators and writers without any publication history. This includes those who are translating and writing for the first time or have never written with deadlines or structure before
  2. Intermediate Translators and Writers — Translators and writers who have chosen to pursue translation and writing as a full time or part time career with a serious, professional intent but who are not yet published or working with a mainstream or recognised independent publisher
  3. Advanced Translators and Writers — Translators and writers who have translated or published at least one book with a mainstream or recognised independent publisher, and/or published in at least one literary journal and/or anthology

This course is especially targetted at practising translators looking to take their translation practise to the next level.

Participants will be selected by the Visiting Writer with assistance from the Asia Creative Writing programme. A waiting list will be maintained.

Registration and Pricing

Course Prerequisites

To sign up, please register at this link with the following documents:

  1. A 500 word writing sample (your writing sample does not have to be from the genre of the course nor your current writing project; it will be an assesment of your standard and style of writing)
  2. A short summary of your writing project of ~100 words
  3. A short biography of ~100 words

Course Fees

  • For 4 seminars:
    • $150 for adults
    • $60 for students, unemployed, low income migrant workers
  • Free for undergraduates from Singapore tertiary institutions
  • Non refundable if cancellation less than 2 weeks before course starts
  • Please email us if financial assistance is needed

About Deborah Smith

Deborah Smith was born in 1987 in a small town in South Yorkshire, England. She began learning Korean in 2010, and became a literary translator specialising in contemporary Korean fiction. Her translations include three books by Han Kang – The Vegetarian, Human Acts and The White Book – and four by Bae Suah, most recently Untold Night and Day. 

In 2015 Deborah founded Tilted Axis, a non-profit press focusing on translations from Asian languages: Turkish, Uzbek, Bangla, Nepali, Tamil, Kannada, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Cebuano, and Hindi. Upcoming books include translations from Arabic (Yemen) and Telugu, as well as anthologies of Queer Poetry from South Asia and mixed-genre pieces on Decolonising Translation. 

These days she is taking time out to think about supporting translation as an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist practice. She translates little and slowly, mainly poetry, and her other translation work involves mentoring, learning to live in India, and engaging with Tibetan Buddhism. 

Other Courses & Events with Deborah Smith