Poetry in Translation Event: Sympathy for the Salami

Women & Children First is thrilled to host Steven & Maja Teref for a translation event celebrating the release of sympathy for the salami by Milena Marković. For this event, Steven & Maja will be joined in conversation by Alta L. Price.

For this event, translators Steven & Maja Teref along with Alta Price will be discussing the work of Milena Markovic. Markovic is a city poet who revels in the crumbling concrete and smoked meat of Belgrade and other European metropolises populated by the addicted, the down-and-out, the mad, and the shady. sympathy for the salami selects work from her seven poetry collections, including excerpts from her novel-in-verse Children, which encompass the full range of her humor and terror. Her poems present a blemished nakedness in their candor about her drug-and-alcohol-fueled music scene days and their aftermath, as well as her life as a mother to a son with intellectual disabilities. Motifs of substance abuse, an unabashed love of meat, the dailiness of European urban life, childhood trauma, haunted dreamscapes, and the demands of motherhood permeate the work, steeped in the intricacies of Balkan culture. Readers of American poets as diverse as Anne Sexton and Charles Bukowski will find Markovic's confessional voice, while readers of Charles Simic will chuckle over her humorous voltas, fans of surrealism will feel at home in her dreamscapes, and Frank O'Hara devotees will appreciate her fresh portrayals of European urban dailiness.

Steven and Maja Teref’s latest book is Milena Marković’s sympathy for the salami. Their previous book Ana Ristović’s Directions for Use was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Best Translated Book Award, and National Translation Award. Steven coedited with Aleksandar Bošković Zenithism (1921–1927): A Yugoslav Avant-Garde Anthology (Academic Studies Press). Steven is the editor for Academic Studies Press’ Companions to Slavic Literature Series. Maja teaches English at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools where she is the faculty advisor for the literary translation journal Ouroboros Review.

Alta L. Price runs a publishing consultancy specialized in literature and nonfiction texts on art, architecture, design, and culture. Alta’s translations include works by Giorgio Agamben, Lukas Bärfuss, Dana Grigorcea, Alexander Kluge, Aldo Novarese, Esther Maria Magnis, Martin Mosebach, and Mithu Sanyal. Of the more than 40 books Alta has translated from Italian and German, Juli Zeh’s New Year was a finalist for both the 2022 PEN America Translation Prize and the Helen & Kurt Wolff Prize, and About People is forthcoming this fall. www.altalprice.com

Accessibility: This event is hosted at the bookstore, which is a wheelchair accessible space. Masks are required. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. To request ASL interpretation for this event, please email [email protected] by no later than 14 days before the event. For other questions or access needs, please email [email protected].

Host or Publisher Women & Children First