Poetry in Translation
Schedule
Thu Oct 30 2025 at 06:30 pm to 08:00 pm
UTC-07:00Location
Vancouver Public Library | Vancouver, BC
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Join us for an evening lost in translation with three talented poets as they discuss the often overlooked art of translation. How do you carry a book from one language to another, line by line, with precision? UBC Associate Professor Bronwen Tate will moderate the discussion with poets Rhea Tregebov, Rahat Kurd and Deborah Woodard. ---
Bronwen Tate is the author of the poetry collection The Silk the Moths Ignore. She is an Associate Professor of Teaching and Undergraduate Chair in the UBC School of Creative Writing, where she offers courses in poetry, creative writing pedagogy, and literary translation. A Practical Guide to Teaching Creative Writing: Supporting Inclusive Pedagogy, a collaboration with colleague John Vigna, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Academic in Spring 2026.
Rhea Tregebov is the author of eight collections of poetry, most recently, Talking to Strangers. She edited and co-translated the anthology Arguing With the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers and taught workshops in literary translation at UBC. In 2019 she taught a graduate course for the English Department at Tsuda University in Tokyo entitled “Translating the Self: Issues in Literary Translation.” Tregebov has translated poetry from French and Spanish and has worked in tandem translation from Japanese, Catalan and Finnish, languages she does not know. She is now an Associate Professor Emerita at the School of Creative Writing at UBC.
Rahat Kurd is a poet, writer, and editor of Kashmiri and north Indian family origin, born in Canada and based in Vancouver. The Book Of Z, published by Talonbooks this fall 2025, is her second full-length work of poetry. Her previous literary titles with Talonbooks are The City That Is Leaving Forever: Kashmiri Letters, (2021), co-authored with Kashmiri poet Sumayya Syed, and Cosmophilia, (poems, 2015). In her work as a beginner translator of contemporary Urdu poetry, Rahat Kurd is particularly interested in the ways lyrical resonances from the classical ghazal tradition have influenced modern and feminist Urdu-language poetic sensibilities.
Deborah Woodard studied with Charles Simic at the University of New Hampshire and has a PhD from the University of Washington. Her books include Borrowed Tales (Stockport Flats) and No Finis: Triangle Testimonies, 1911 (Ravenna Press). With Roberta Antognini, she has translated the poetry of Amelia Rosselli in Hospital Series (New Directions), Obtuse Diary, The Dragonfly, and Notes Scattered and Lost (Entre Rios Books). Their translation of Rosselli’s Document has just been published by World Poetry Books. Deborah teaches at Hugo House in Seattle, Washington and co-curates the reading series Margin Shift.
*This event is curated by writer, Jen Currin (Disembark and Trinity Street amongst many others).
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VPL is committed to making our programs accessible for all. If you have an access need that we have not addressed here, please email us at [email protected].
This event takes place in the Montalbano Family Theatre on Level 8
*Elevator access to level 8 is available with the main elevators on level 2.
*The theatre has three wheelchair accessible spaces in the front row on the right hand side.
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Please register. Registration is not required to attend, but it helps us anticipate attendance and send a reminder the day before the event, or any updates about this program.
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Where is it happening?
Vancouver Public Library, 350 West Georgia Street,Vancouver, British Columbia, CanadaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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