I invite you to watch a video of the Translation Slam at the 2023 PEN World Voices Festival! First in the program is the Taiwanese writer Kevin Chen, whose text was “slammed” by translators Stacy Mosher and Lin King. Then at about 38 minutes into the video, I “slam” a gorgeous text by Ecuadorean writer María Fernanda Ampuero with the extraordinary Samantha Schnee, founding editor of Words Without Borders.
Besides sharing the stage with writers and translators that I deeply admire and meeting PEN America Translation Committee co-chair Annelise Finnegan for the first time in person, it was a privilege to dig into a fresh, new text by Ampuero. In short, I had a blast. I am grateful to PEN America for the work it does and thankful to everyone, including the sold-out audience, at the event.
