A NIGHT OF READINGS FROM THE

BEST LITERARY TRANSLATIONS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22
7:00PM – 8:30PM

POSTCARD BOOKSHOP
inside CARGO
81 SE YAMHILL STREET
PORTLAND, OR (MAP)

Published annually since 2024 by Deep Vellum, Best Literary Translations redefines the canon of global literatures in English translation, showcasing the brave and brilliant work of contemporary translators and editors. The series draws hundreds of submissions from languages both widely spoken and critically endangered, and has featured guest editors including Pulitzer Prize Winner Cristina Rivera Garza and US Poet Laureate Arthur Sze.

Hundreds of translators will descend on Portland in late October for the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) conference, and we're lucky enough to host 14 of them for an evening of readings. Spanning the past three anthologies, the event will bring together translations from Arabic, Braj Bhasha, German, Italian, Old English, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swahili. The night will be a one-of-a-kind tour of some of today's most vibrant writing from around the world.

* Limited parking available in a lot behind the store (enter off SE Water Avenue), as well as ample on-street parking. Easily accessible by bus and bicycle. The store is also a short walk across the bridge for those coming from the ALTA Conference hotel. An elevator is available for those who need assistance.

YOUR EMCEE

WENDY CALL

Wendy Call (she/her) is the author, co-editor, or translator of ten books and two chapbooks, including the annual anthology she co-founded, Best Literary Translations. A recent Fulbright Scholar to Colombia and Translator in Residence at the University of Iowa, she teaches creative nonfiction in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA Program.

KAREEM JAMES ABU-ZEID

Kareem James Abu-Zeid, PhD, is a translator of poets and novelists from across the Arab world. He has received the Sarah Maguire Prize, PEN Center USA's translation prize, Poetry Magazine's translation prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, an NEA grant, and has thrice been a finalist for the PEN America Translation Prize.

GEOFFREY BROCK

Geoffrey Brock (he/him) is the author of three books of poems, the editor of The FSG Book of 20th-Century Italian Poetry, and the translator of more than a dozen books of poetry, prose, and comics, mostly from Italian. He lives and teaches in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

MONIKA CASSEL

Monika Cassel is the translator from German of Portolan by Daniela Danz (Georgia Review Books 2027). She lives in Portland, OR, is an assistant poetry editor for Four Way Review, and holds an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College.

ILZE DUARTE

Ilze Duarte, a native of São Paulo, lives in the United States, where she translates literature by Brazilian writers into English. Ilze is a recipient of the 2024 Sundial House Literary Translation Award, which included the publication of her translation of Maríilia Arnaud’s short story collection The Book of Affects.

JOANNA T. HUSS

Joanna T. Huss’s translations and essays have appeared in such venues as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The Paris Review, and Times Literary Supplement. She is research editor for the Cambridge Journal of Literary Translation, and Professor of Translation Studies at Kent State University.

DMITRI MANIN

Dmitri Manin’s translations have appeared in journals and anthologies, including Best Literary Translations, and two antiwar anthologies, Disbelief and Dislocation. He co-translated and co-edited Firefly in a Box: An Anthology of Soviet Kid Lit. Manin’s translation of Nikolay Zabolotsky’s Columns was shortlisted for the NCBA and ALTA First Translation Prize.

M.L. MARTIN

M.L. Martin is a poet, translator, and poetry editor for Asymptote. Their latest work, W&E: a refracted translation of ‘Wulf and Eadwacer’ (Action Books) was shortlisted for the 2026 ALTA First Translation Prize, and recovers a radical Anglo-Saxon text to the feminist, queer, and experimental canons to which it belongs.

CHLOE MARTINEZ

Chloe Martinez (she/her) is a poet, a translator, and a scholar of South Asian religions. A 2026 NEA literature fellow, she is the translator of Blue Like My Beloved, poems of Mirabai (New Directions 2026). She lives in Claremont, CA, on Tongva/Gabrielino land.

MICHELLE MIRABELLA

Michelle Mirabella (she/her) is a Spanish-to-English literary translator based in Pittsburgh, PA. Shortlisted for the 2026 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award with Catalina Infante’s The Cracks We Bear (World Editions), she is a 2026 ALTA Travel Fellowship Judge and an editor-at-large for Hopscotch Translation. More at www.michellemirabella.com.

WILL MORNINGSTAR

Will Morningstar (he/him) is a Boston-based translator and editor. His co-translation with Samantha Schnee of Argentine writer Mariana Travacio's novel All That Dies in April was published in 2025 by World Editions. He is the publisher of Diptych Press, a new initiative to spark conversations about world literature, launching in 2027.

JAMIE RICHARDS

Jamie Richards is a widely published translator of Italian literature and 2024 winner of the National Translation Award in Prose for Marosia Castaldi's The Hunger of Women. Her forthcoming translations include Claudia Durastanti’s Missitalia and Viola di Grado’s Marabbecca.

JAY BOSS RUBIN

Jay Boss Rubin (he/him) is a translator from Swahili into English. His book-length translations include Rosa Mistika by Euphrase Kezilahabi and The Witness of Nina Mvungi and Other Stories by Esther Karin Mngodo. He resides in Portland, OR, where he currently serves as Deputy Editor of Portland Tennis Courterly.

MATVEI YANKELEVICH

Matvei Yankelevich is a poet, translator, and editor whose books include Dead Winter (Fonograf) and Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms (Overlook). He is the editor of World Poetry, a nonprofit publisher of poetry in translation, and proprietor of the small press Winter Editions.