by Matthew Griffin
Left to right: Matthew Griffin, Olivia Caputo, and Kate Deimling staffed the ATA Literary Division’s table at the 2025 PEN World Voices Festival in New York City.
The ATA’s Literary Division hosted an information table at the PEN World Voices Festival on Friday, May 2, 2025, in New York City.
The 2025 World Voices Festival was held from April 30 to May 3 in New York City and Los Angeles, and more than 100 poets, authors, journalists, and translators from 35 countries gathered to celebrate free expression and defend the human rights that make it possible.
PEN America invited the ATA Literary Division to host a table on an evening with two translation-related events: Translation Slam and Dialogues: Poetry in Conversation.
In the translation slam, German author Daniel Kehlmann (Measuring the World, Tyll) presented a new, unpublished text in German from a forthcoming play, and translators Geoffrey C. Howes and Paul David Young provided English translations, both of which were excellent (and I translate German to English). Annelise Finegan, a member of the PEN America Translation Committee and the ATA Literary Division, moderated the session. In addition, an excerpt “translated” by ChatGPT was shown via projector. During the Q&A, it became clear how both human translators had focused on creating a unique voice in their translations, an aspect that was plainly lacking from the lifeless version generated by ChatGPT.
In the poetry conversation, Iraqi American poet Dunya Mikhail and Romanian poet, essayist, and translator Radu Vancu read from their work and talked about how translation informs their approach to writing poetry. “I practiced at least two layers of translation in these tablets,” Mikhail writes in the notes to her latest collection Tablets: Secrets of the Clay, “the first from words in one language, Arabic, to another, English; and the second from words to images. What I received from my ancestors are offerings of the future rather than of the past. Now it’s my turn to offer them to you.” The session was moderated by poet and translator Nancy Naomi Carlson, and the concluding Q&A offered fascinating examples of the many ways poetry is inherently in dialogue with translation.
Attendees expressed a lot of interest in the American Translators Association, and volunteers shared information about the ATA and its many divisions, including the association’s advocacy for the profession, member benefits such as the directory and webinars, and the many ways to volunteer and get involved. Attendees also learned about the ATA’s biennial literary translation awards: the Lewis Galantière Award and the Ungar German Translation Award. Kate Deimling organized the table and was joined by Olivia Caputo and me.
In conclusion, it was a fun, social evening—with free ATA bookmarks and candy—and “front row” seats to the impressive effort by PEN to support international writers and free expression in the current climate of censorship, autocracy, and threats to democratic values. Check out the festival’s reading list, if you need any further convincing.