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Transatlantic Translations

  • The Devon & Exeter Institution 7 Cathedral Close Exeter, England, EX1 1EZ United Kingdom (map)

Join us for Transatlantic Translation, for a discussion of language, identity, migration and translation as cultural dialogue.

Direct from Barcelona, writers Miriam Cano and Alejandra Banca join a panel of Exeter researchers and translators, as well as publisher Rebecca Strong, for a discussion of language, identity, migration and translation as cultural dialogue. Cano is a Catalan poet, journalist and translator, whose collections include Buntsandstein (Red Sandstone, Viena, 2013), winner of the 2012 Martí Dot prize, Ancoratge (Anchorage, Terrícola, 2016), and Vermell de Rússia (Russian Red, laBreu Edicions, 2020). Banca’s debut collection From Savagery (Selkies House, 2024) follows the intersecting lives of the new underclass of overqualified young Venezuelan refugees hustling to survive on the streets of Barcelona. You’ll also hear readings from both writers in multiple languages.

Cost: Free


Helen Vassallo is the founder of Translating Women, a research project that bridges academic and industry contexts, assessing and challenging the barriers faced by women’s writing in translation. She translates Francophone women’s writing (with particular focus on North Africa and the Middle East), and has recently published translations of Darina Al Joundi’s The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing and Marseillaise My Way. Helen is Associate Professor of French and Translation at the University of Exeter.

Rebecca Strong With more than twenty years’ experience in U.K. and U.S. publishing, Rebecca has worked in senior editorial and licensing roles for leading independent presses and multinational publishing houses including Harvill, Bloomsbury, and Random House, New York. In the U.S. she led the multi-million-dollar revenue generating licensing department for Crown, a division of Random House, selling commercial fiction, nonfiction, lifestyle, health, and business lists. She later set up her own boutique literary agency representing the Middle East bureau chiefs of the Times and New York Times. In the U.K. she was approached to help launch the U.K.’s newest literary imprint dedicated to literature in translation, Mountain Leopard Press, which became part of Welbeck in March 2021. Always curious and reaching across boundaries, in 2014 Rebecca retrained as a full-stack web developer becoming a software engineer for a New York consultancy whose tech clients included start-ups in the arts, entertainment, government, and non-profit green space spheres. Her heart never left the world of literature and publishing. Rebecca is learning Scottish Gaelic.

Katie Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Modern Languages and Cultures at Exeter University. An expert on contemporary Latin American culture, she has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s “Open Book” and is part of the women’s U.K., U.S. and Venezuelan translation collective, Colaboratorio Ávila. Her translations appear regularly in the quarterly journal, Latin American Literature Today.   

Alejandra Banca studied literature at Andrés Bello University in Caracas. Fleeing the collapse, in Barcelona she has worked in cold sales and teaching English. Her poetry has appeared in various anthologies. From Savagery, forthcoming in English translation by Katie Brown, is her first book.

Míriam Cano is a journalist, writer and translator, and a lecturer at the Bloom School where she gives seminars on Poetic Reading and Creation. She also works with several Catalan cultural media outlets as a columnist and literary journalist. Notable in her career as a writer are several collections of poems, among them Buntsandstein (Red Sandstone, Viena, 2013), winner of the 2012 Martí Dot prize, Ancoratge (Anchorage, Terrícola, 2016), and Vermell de Rússia (Russian Red, laBreu Edicions, 2020). She also wrote the short story “La Comuna de París” (The Paris Commune) in the jointly authored volume Cremen Cels (They Burn Skies, laBreu Edicions, 2017), a project in collaboration with Martí Sales and Antònia Vicens. As a translator she rendered into Catalan works by authors including Emily Dickinson, Albert Camus, Sandra Cisneros, Maggie Nelson, Lauren Groff, Martha Nussbaum, Joana Russ and John Ashbery. She is also the coeditor of the magazine Carn de Cap.

Richard Mansell is Senior Lecturer in Translation at the University of Exeter, where he directs the MA Translation and researches translators’ decision-making processes and how texts are received in translation, focusing particularly on Catalan-speaking territories. He holds a BA (Hons) in Hispanic Studies and Catalan Philology from the University of Sheffield (2002), a Llicenciatura in Catalan Philology from the University of the Balearic Islands (2003), and gained his PhD on the topic of translators’ decision-making processes from the University of Sheffield (2009). As well as extensive work as a translator of institutional and cultural documents from Spanish and Catalan, he has translated work from Catalan poets such as Blai Bonet and Miquel Costa i Llobera, and collaborated on two successful translations and productions of Shakespeare into Catalan. He has also worked as an advisor for New Spanish Books, a judge for the Ramon Llull Prize for Literary Translation, and was a judge for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2015.


Accessibility Statement: Wheelchair access

The main entrance to the DEI, (facing the Cathedral), has double doors, and is accessible for most wheelchairs. From this entrance there is level access to the foyer, and to the inner and outer libraries. We apologise for the current lack of lift access to the South Range rooms on the second floor.

Please note that from Monday 5th June we will be unable to offer parking as the building work for our Next Chapter project commences. This work will allow us to be more accessible in the future. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for bearing with us during this phase of transition. Information on nearby parking at the Princesshay Shopping Centre can be found here


Toilets

There are toilets on site, though the nearest fully accessible Changing Places toilet can be found in the Princesshay Shopping Centre, at the back of Nationwide. More information about these facilities can be found on the Princesshay website here

Defibrillators

Our nearest public access defibrillators can be found just inside the main entrance of the Guildhall Shopping Centre, or on Bampfylde Lane in the Princesshay Shopping Centre, to the left of Chandos Deli.

Sensory information

The library is usually a quiet space, though can be louder during events. A timetable for events can be found on the website. If you require a quieter space, please ask a member of staff. There is likely to be additional noise during our current building works.

If sounded, the fire alarm makes a repeated sound of two tones, and flashing lights will go off in the reading room and the toilets. On an ordinary day, ringing phones and door buzzers might also be heard.

Lighting is soft throughout the building, and may be low in certain areas.

Assistance dogs are welcome, and staff will be happy to provide water for your dog.

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