Abstract:

Co-translating and Editing the Anthology “Arguing with the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers”

The anthology, consisting in thirteen stories by nine authors, derived from a reading circle registered with the UNESCO Register of Good Practices in Language Preservation. Rhea Tregebov’s presentation will touch upon two main issues: the relationship between translators and readers, and the specific challenges in translating a multi-generational account that witnesses key historical elements (the shtetl, abortive revolutions in Tsarist Russia, and the Holocaust) through a female perspective. As she will argue, the transmission of history through a female perspective has many points of contacts with the practice of translation, which constitutes a virtuous model for the preservation of endangered languages like Yiddish.

Bio:

Rhea Tregebov is the author of seven volumes of poetry: Remembering History, No One We Know, The Proving Grounds, Mapping the Chaos, The Strength of Materials, (alive): Selected and new poems and, most recently All Souls’ (2012, Signal Editions, Véhicule Press). Her poetry has received the Pat Lowther Award, the Malahat Review Long Poem prize, Honorable Mention for the National Magazine Awards (poetry) and the Readers’ Choice Award for Poetry from Prairie Schooner. Her first novel, The Knife-Sharpener’s Bell, was published in 2009 from Coteau Press and is the recipient of the 2010 J.I. Segal Award for fiction, as well as being listed as a Top 100 Book for 2010 by The Globe and Mail. The Knife Sharpener’s Bell was also shortlisted for the 2012 Kobzar Prize and 2012 Manitoba Reads competition.

Arguing with the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers, the anthology which she co-translated and edited, was published in March 2007 in Canada by Sumach Press and in March 2008 in the United States by The Feminist Press of CUNY. She has published translations of poetry from Spanish and French and has edited and/or co-translated translations of poetry, fiction and nonfiction from a variety of languages, including Finnish, Catalan and Bosnian.