2020 Festival
Headliners
Robin Myers
Robin Myers is a translator and poet based in Mexico City who has translated over eighteen books from Spanish to English. She talks about translating and publishing prose vs. poetry, her philosophies of translation and the US translation market.
Xinran
In her long career Xinran has always placed the stories of working class rural Chinese women at the heart of her work. The author of eight books that have been translated into over thirty languages, Xinran is in our opinion one of the kindest people in the world.
Polly Barton
Japanese to English translator Polly Barton talks about her most recent book Where the Wild Ladies Are by Matsuda Aoko. These are feminist retellings of Japanese ghost stories, but not in the style of Angela Carter, these are delightful tales. She also talks about how she became a translator.
Talks
Periene Press
Publishing Assistant at Peirene Press, Maddie Rogers, talks about Peirene, who publish translated books that can be read in the time it takes to watch a film and her newest project The Borderless Book Club.
Charco
Founder of Charco Press, Carolina Orloff, talks about how she finds and publishes outstanding contemporary Latin American literature.
Helen Vassallo
From the popular Translating Women blog, Dr. Helen Vassallo, Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter shares her top reads of the year. She talks about how she started her work and what it means to her to be an intersectional feminist.
J Ockenden
Superstar translator in the making and winner of the 2019 Peirene Stevns Translation Prize, J talks about their translation of Claudio Morandini’s Snow, Dog, Foot. A strange and compelling tale about isolation and guilt in the Italian Alps.
We by Zamiatin
Professor of Russian at Oxford University and Fellow of Wolfson College, Dr. Julie Curtis, talks about the book We by the visionary Russian writer Yevgeny Zamiatin. We is most famous for being the direct inspiration for Orwell’’s Nineteen-Eighty Four but deserves to be known on it’s own terms.
Beatrice Ballarini
Audio-visual translator, specialising in subtitling, Bea Ballarini talks about her work and some famous translation mistakes in Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Stephen King.
Chrissey Worrall
Expert Children’s Bookseller at Waterstones Chrissey Worrall shares her favourite books in translation from when she was a child. She also shares her recommended reads for every age group.
Green Ink Booksellers
One half of the Official Festival Bookshop Josh Boyd-Green talks about his favourite translated Icelandic books.
Georgia Winstone
Expert on Blodeuwedd from the Mabinogi, George Winstone talks about the field of Welsh Feminist writers.
Dr. Van Buren
Dr. Van Buren (Caitlin’s mum - there may have been nepotism involved with this speaker) talks about translating in the consulting room and how revolutionary having an in person translator can be to quality of care.
Music
James Ward
An afternoon mix by James Ward from Pretend to read along with, and relax to in the sun (or rain).
An Evening of Japanese Music
Inspired by Polly Barton’s talk join us for an evening of Japanese music chosen by Lawrence specially for Gŵyl.
Discussions
Huruki Murakami
A giant of Japanese fiction, Caitlin talks with Jemima Skala about Murakami’s back catalogue.
Italo Calvino
Caitlin talks with Amy O’Donnell about If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller and the act of reading.
Learning German
German student at the University of Leeds Ellie and Editor of The Scribe, Ellie Fleming talks learning languages from Harry Potter and her year abroad.