Moderated by Olivia E. Sears, with Gabriela Alemán, Dick Cluster, Gillian Conoloy, Elaine Katzenberger, Emilie Moorehouse, and Mark Schafer.

City Lights was conceived as an international project. From the very beginning, from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s own translations of Jacques Prévert , and on to some of the exciting authors City Lights publishes today, the world in translation has been at the core of the City Lights mission. Spend an evening with the editors and translators who have helped shape the translation program at City Lights.

Olivia E. Sears is the board president and founder of the Center for the Art of Translation. She is a translator of Italian poetry and prose, specializing in avant-garde women writers. She founded the Center for the Art of Translation and the journal Two Lines, where she served as editor for twelve years.

Gabriela Alemán is an Ecuadorian writer and publisher whose work has been translated into multiple languages. City Lights published english translations of two of her books: Poso Wells and Family Album: stories.

Dick Cluster is a writer and translator living in Oakland, California. He translated Gabriela Alemán’s Poso Wells and Family Album: stories.

Gillian Conoloy is a poet, editor, and translator. Her new collection is Notes from the Passenger with Nightboat Books May 2023. Conoley’s translations of three books by Henri Michaux, Thousand Times Broken, appeared in English for the first time, with City Lights Books.

Elaine Katzenberger is the executive director of City Lights and the publisher of City Lights Books.

Emilie Moorehouse a teacher, writer, translator, and environmentalist. She translated Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems by Joyce Mansour for City Lights Books.

Mark Schafer is a literary translator, a visual artist, and a senior lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he teaches Spanish. City Lights recently published his translation of Belén Gopegui’s Stay This Day and Night with Me.

Co-sponsored by Center for the Art of Translation/Two Lines Press and the City Lights Foundation. She is a translator of Italian poetry and prose, specializing in avant-garde women writers. She founded the Center for the Art of Translation and the journal Two Lines, where she served as editor for twelve years.

To learn more about Center for the Art of Translation

To learn more about the City Lights Foundation

City Lights features a full selection of literature in translation both as a bookstore and a publisher. Click these links to learn more:

For African, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and Oceanic Literature

For Euro Lit

For City Lights published literature in translation