Please join the Harriman Institute for a deep dive into the poetry and prose of Georgi Gospodinov. Starting with a look at his poetics and an attempt to translate his “I’m Dying a la Pasternak” (an ironic reference to the Russian writer’s famous poem “Winter Night”), we will then turn to a passage from his novel Physics of Sorrow, that uses much of the same word and sound play in prose.

KNOWLEDGE OF BULGARIAN OR OTHER SLAVIC LANGUAGE NOT REQUIRED.

The master class will be followed at 3:30 by a reading from Rodel’s translations and conversation with Harriman Director Valentina Izmirlieva.

Angela Rodel is a literary translator who holds degrees from Yale and UCLA. Nine Bulgarian novels in her translation have been published in the US and UK, and shorter works have appeared in McSweeney’s, Two Lines, Ploughshares, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. She has received NEA and PEN translation grants. Her translation of Georgi Gospodinov’s Physics of Sorrow won the 2016 AATSEEL Prize for Literary Translation, while her translation of his novel Time Shelter was featured on The New Yorker’s list of Best Books of 2022 and won the 2023 International Booker Prize. Since 2015, she has served as executive director of the Bulgarian-American Fulbright Commission.