Poetry: (Mis)translation
Friday, May 23, 7pm–9pm
Taught by Somi Jun
This stand-alone workshop is adapted from March April’s Poetry as Experience course, taught earlier this year.
This particular session is interested in the poetry generated by incomplete, broken, or failed translations. During this workshop, we will think about how failures in communication are central to many artists’ practices.
We will ask: What is each writer attempting to translate onto the page? Where and how do they acknowledge the impossibility of complete understanding, accuracy, and/or continuity of meaning? How do these breaks in meaning-making inform the shape and substance of the poem?
Reading list: Robin Coste Lewis, Solmaz Sharif, Anne Carson, Jhumpa Lahiri
Participants will be given reading packets in advance and will also have the chance to (re)read during class. Each session will end with a writing exercise.
Max: 8 people
Somi Jun was born in Korea and raised in Los Angeles, where they currently reside. They founded March April Studio, which facilitates art, writing, and co-working at sliding scale rates. From Jun’s kitchen table, they co-founded Corners cutoff, a translingual art press which designs, produces, and distributes printed matter in southern California. Jun’s writing has been supported by Tin House and the MFA Programs in Writing at UC Irvine.