The Graduate Certificate in Translation Studies in the Department of Comparative Literature presents

Trans-lating Islands: A Reading and Conversation on Translation with Raquel Salas Rivera, Nicole C. Delgado, and Carina del Valle Schorske

Derrida’s lapidary phrase “There is no world, there are only islands” engages a thinking of translation as the very movement of insular formations. Translation is necessary precisely because “there is no world” already given that would ensure the passage from island to island. But what if islands were already translational in their supposed insularity? How to translate what is already in itself a translation? The Department of Comparative Literature invites you to a reading and conversation with Puerto Rican poets and critics Raquel Salas Rivera, Nicole Cecilia Delgado, and Carina del Valle Schorske, three vital voices in ongoing conversations in Puerto Rico and the US about the politics of poetry and the ethics of translation across languages, genres, and genders.

Raquel Salas Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet, translator, and literary critic. In 2018, they were named the 2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. They are the inaugural recipient of the Ambroggio Prize and the Laureate Fellowship, both from the Academy of American Poets. Their first two books, Caneca de anhelos turbios and tierra intermitente/intermittent land, were published in Puerto Rico. Their third book, lo terciario/the tertiary, was on the 2018 National Book Award Longlist and won the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry. Their fourth book, while they sleep (under the bed is another country), was published in 2019.

Nicole Cecilia Delgado is a Puerto Rican poet, translator, and publisher, Nicole studied Comparative Literature at the University of Puerto Rico and received an MA in Latin American and Caribbean studies from SUNY Albany. Between 2008-9, she was part of the poetry collective, “The Megaphone Poets,” in Mexico City. In 2009, Nicole created with Xavier Valcárcel Atarraya Cartonera—Puerto Rico’s first “Cartonera” press. Since 2012, she organizes the Feria de Libros Independientes y Alternativos (FLIA) en Puerto Rico and she currently directs “La Impresora,” a workspace for graphic and editorial experimentation. Nicole has published close to twenty books of poetry and has been translated into English, German, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and Polish.

Carina del Valle Schorske is a Puerto Rican poet, translator, and essayist with roots in the Bay Area. Carina was awarded the 2016 Gulf Coast Prize in Translation for her renditions of Marigloria Palma’s poetry into English. Her critical essays have been featured in LARB, New York Times Magazine, Boston Review, LitHub, sx salon, The New Yorker Online, and Longreads, among other  publications. She is currently working on a book manuscript NO ES NADA: Notes from the Other Island, forthcoming from Riverhead.

Co-sponsors: Departments of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Gender and Sexuality Studies, English, and American Studies and Ethnicity, Office of the Provost, Levan Institute for the Humanities, and the Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture Doctoral Program