TRANSLATION MATTERS
PETER FILKINS, ANNA BLASIAK, SYLVIE WEIL
CHAIR: BOYD TONKIN
01/03/2020 12:30 PMKINGS PLACE, ST PANCRAS ROOM
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Author Boyd Tonkin wrote that, ‘To write, and to read, is to forever cross thresholds’. Translation opens up new vistas, refreshes language and fosters globalism. In a world where English is the lingua franca, translation enables authors to speak to far-flung audiences. Boyd is joined by panellists including Anna Blasiak, who translated the acclaimed Holocaust journal Renia’s Diary, and Peter Filkins, translator, and biographer of H.G. Adler, to discuss the challenges, the joys and the pitfalls.Peter Filkins
Peter Filkins is the translator of H.G. Adler’s trio of Holocaust novels, Panorama, The Journey, and The Wall, and the author of Adler’s authorised biography, H.G. Adler: A Life in Many Worlds. He teaches at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.Anna Blasiak
Anna Blasiak is a poet, translator and literature co-ordinator of the European Literature Network. She has recently co-translated Renia’s Diary by Renia Spiegel (Penguin Random House, 2019). annablasiak.comSylvie Weil
Sylvie Weil is the author of critically-acclaimed memoir At Home with André and Simone Weil (2010), translated into several languages; several short story collections and a series of books about Rashi, including Elvina’s Mirror (2009) awarded the YA literature Prix Sorcières 2004.Boyd Tonkin
Boyd Tonkin writes on books and arts for international media including The Economist, The Financial Times, The Times and Wall Street Journal. He chaired the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, and served as its Special Adviser. For many years he worked at The Independent as Literary Editor and then Senior Writer. His reader’s guide to global fiction, The Hundred Best Novels in Translation, appeared in 2018.
