Proud to partner with the Jewish Chronicle Translation Matters
Peter Filkins, Anna Blasiak, Ros Schwartz
Chair: Boyd Tonkin
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 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 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.com
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.
Ros Schwartz is a translator from French of fiction and non-fiction. In 2009 she was made a Chevalier d'Honneur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
