#   Translating "The Last Letter of My Body" 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **March 19, 2024** 

 04:30PM - 04:30PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Barker Center, Room 133**  



 

 



 

##  [RETHINKING TRANSLATION](/rethinking-translation)

##  **SPEAKERs:** Alex Averbuch, Davis Center, Harvard University; Anne Fischer, Independent Translator

 This conversation between translator Anne Fisher and poet Alex Averbuch will touch on such questions as collaboration and curation, as well as canonization and authenticity in the work of a translator. Based on their collaborative project, "The Last Letter of My Body," a narrative documentary poema assembled by Alex and translated by Anne, they will discuss the ethical, formal, and literary nuances of translating a piece involving documents that had belonged to a deceased person. During the seminar, they will show both the physical notes that were the basis for the poema, and the bound book Anne has made, inspired by her translation of this text.

###  About the Speaker

 **Alex Averbuch** is a scholar, poet, and translator. He earned his Ph.D. in Slavic and Jewish studies at the University of Toronto with a dissertation on the history of the genre of solicitory poetry in Ukrainian, Russian, and Hebrew — works composed in these languages, from the early 18th to early 20th centuries, to aesthetically articulate political and economic aspirations, or make requests in poetic form of the Russian imperial or Soviet authorities and/or influential individuals for goods and benefits. Averbuch’s research explores commodity culture, gender and critical race theory, epistolarity, photography, theatricality and performance, translation, and creative writing in foreign language pedagogy. He is the author of three books of poetry and an array of literary translations connecting Hebrew, Ukrainian, Russian, and English.

 **Anne O. Fisher** is a Russian-to-English literary translator. She translates drama, prose, and (mostly with co-translator \[and husband\] Derek Mong) poetry. A past president of ALTA (the American Literary Translators Association), Fisher has taught in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s program in Translation and Interpreting Studies since 2018.

 Fisher, a native Tulsan, graduated with a B.A. in Russian from the University of Oklahoma, having studied for three and a half years abroad (one year each in Scotland, Austria, and Russia, as well as a summer in Germany). She received her Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Michigan with a dissertation on the Soviet writing duo Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov. Fisher taught Russian language, literature, and culture at Williams College and the College of Wooster before following her soon-to-be husband Derek to Louisville, Kentucky, where she translated her first novel, Ilf and Petrov’s *The Little Golden Calf*. For almost seven years she worked in the government sector providing Russian language services as a self-employed contract linguist. Fisher now lives with her husband and son in Indiana.

 *Co-sponsored by the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures.*



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Seminar ](/event-type/seminar)
- [ Rethinking Translation ](/seminars/rethinking-translation)
 
 

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