Adventures in Literary Translation, Part 1

I signed up to Casa Guilherme de Almeida’s esteemed literary translation programme, Programa Formativo para Tradutores Literários, on Tuesday 12th March 2024. Three weeks later, I e-mailed them to request a full refund.

‘That’s fine,’ they said. ‘But may we know the reason?’

‘I thought the course would have about 30 people. There’s over 100.’

It was the first time since the pandemic that Casa Guilherme de Almeida offered their 6-month course fully online. ‘Maybe they got a little too excited with the amount of money they’d make,’ someone suggested in the students-only WhatsApp group we’d set up.

Classes were held twice a week on Google Meet, plus workshops on Saturdays. The programme’s professors were academics at the top of their game, who’d translated Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, and others into Brazilian Portuguese. During classes, one hundred little windows opened up across Brazil, North America and Europe, Google Meet’s chat box on fire with student questions and comments. One professor confessed she wouldn’t be able to look at everyone’s work; another couldn’t get through all her presentation slides, too distracted by our chatter.

Dissent grew in the WhatsApp group: ‘six months of lectures and most students won’t be able to get a word in!’ We all agreed, though, that the professors were lovely.

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LiveJournal is 25: interesting facts about me and my blog

1. LJ appeared in April 1999, the year when I… had just started my first serious long term relationship, with Kevin, and was approaching the end of my time in Montréal. That year, I completed my BA in History and English Lit at Concordia University and started an intensive french course in McGill. Little did I know that just round the corner was a friend I'd make who'd introduce me to LJ.

2. As a child, I wanted to become a… private detective. I fell in love with Agatha Christie when I was 8 and devoured all her books, plus any adjacent authors. If there was a crime and a mystery, I was hooked. I even started investigating "crimes" in the building I lived in São Paulo, roping in friends as my assistants. Then I started writing crime fiction; my detective's name was Mr Clark and there was usually a very high body count behind him by the time he figured out who was the murderer.

3. My favorite school subject was… Portuguese. I loved books, lived in the school's library, and couldn't be happier whenever the teacher gave us a creative writing exercise. 

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