BLUE METROPOLIS TRANSLATION SLAMBlue Metropolis Foundation

Located in Montreal, Blue Metropolis Foundation is proud to announce that a premiere of its signature Translation Slam will be produced at Toronto’s Luminato Festival on June 19 2010. Blue Metropolis Translation Slam the only literary event to be staged at the Canada Pavilion at World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil and at the Shanghai Writer’s Association on September 13th and 14th 2010. Cirque du Soleil on behalf of the Government of Canada is proud to be the producer of the Canada Pavilion’s cultural program for Expo 2010.

About the Blue Metropolis Translation Slam

A panel discussion about language that highlights the role played by the literary translator, the Blue Metropolis Translation Slam at Luminato presents Toronto poet A. F. Moritz reading one of his poems in the original, and two translators Ma Ainong and Lien Chao reading their translations into Mandarin they have worked on independently. With the help of a bilingual host Yan Liang, the event is interactive and fun for both participants and the audience. Since the translations are invariably very different, the Slam is an ideal way to highlight the art of literary translation – and the difference each translator makes.

Poet

A. F. Moritz has written more than 15 books of poetry. He has been a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and he has won the Award in Literature of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His collection, Night Street Repairs, published by House of Anansi Press in 2005, won the ReLit Award and The Sentinel was given Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize and the Griffin Poetry Prize 2009. A. F. Moritz lives in Toronto and teaches at Victoria University.

Translators

Born in China, Lien Chao finished her B.A. in English from Wuhan Teachers' College in 1982; in 1984, she came to Canada to study. She finished her M.A. and Ph.D. in English in 1986 and 1995 both from York University. She is currently teaching special needs for adult learners with the Toronto District Board of Education and writing in her spare time only, she wishes to have more time for writing in the future. Her writing includes literary and art criticism, poetry, and creative non-fiction.
The Chinese Knot and Other Stories (TSAR Publications, 2008) is her last book.
She also published two bilingual Chinese and English poetry collections: Maples and Stream (TSAR Publications, 1999) and More Than Skin Deep (TSAR Publications, 2004).

Host

Yan Liang is a prize-winning journalist and translator based in Montreal and has more than ten years experience working for different media in both Canada and China. She presently works for Radio Canada International (RCI) as a host and journalist. She was also involved in several translation projects, such as Arthur Miller’s autobiography Time Bends (2010, Shanghai 99Read), Stan Douglas’s film transcript Journey into Fear (2004) and others. She is also a freelance writer for several magzines in Taiwan and China.