Since 2022, Université Gustave Eiffel has hosted collective translation workshops: each week a few translators meet to translate contemporary English-language poets into French.
In June 2024, with the support of the University Innovative Teaching Grant Program, we organized a Spring – Summer Translation Workshop with the poet Lillian-Yvonne Bertram.
Early 2026, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram’s Argent négatif was published by joca seria with the translations of the collective.
In May 2025, we hosted poet Simone White for a 4-day collective translation workshop (May 19-22) at Université Gustave Eiffel. The collective is currently working on a book of translations of Simone White’s poems.
In May 2026, we are hosting poet Asiya Wadud for a 4-day collective translation workshop, May 26-29, 2026 at Université Gustave Eiffel. We will be translating poems from Asiya Wadud’s Syncope.
Registration
If you are interested in joining the Translation Collective, please register HERE.
Where and when?
The translation workshop will take place during the week of May 26, Tuesday through Friday, at the English Department, UFR de Langues, on the 3rd floor of the Copernic building, from 10 a.m. to 1pm and then from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. How to get to the University and the Copernic building: full instructions HERE.
Tuesday 26 May: 10am-1pm | 2-5pm, room 3B133, Copernic building (3rd floor)
Wednesday 27 May: 10am-1pm | 2-5pm, room 3B133, Copernic building (3rd floor)
Thurday 28 May: 10am-1pm | 2-4pm, room 3B133, Copernic building (3rd floor)
Friday 29 May: 10am-1pm, room 3B133, Copernic building (3rd floor)
It is not necessary to attend all sessions in order to participate.
+ On Tuesday, May 28, 7 pm, there will be a poetry reading with Charlene Dinhut, Asiya Wadud, Simone White, and the translators at Atelier Michael Woolworth in Paris (Bastille). Reading details will be posted on www.doublechange.org.
+ The week will conclude with a research seminar in the afternoon of Friday 29 May on Asiya Wadud’s work. Asiya Wadud will give a talk, “Nearly Any Two Things Can Cohere,” as part of the Research Program “Savoirs, urbanités du genre, minorisations” (dir. Mari Oiry and Caroline Trotot), Université Gustave Eiffel, 2-5pm.
What is a collective translation workshop?
Since the fall of 2022, we have organized weekly collective poetry translation seminars in the English department at Université Gustave Eiffel: the members of the collective gather each week to translate texts together. Based on the translation workshop model developed by Bernard Noël and Emmanuel Hocquard at the Fondation Royaumont, these informal yet engaged sessions aim to produce collaborative translations. For our Spring-Summer Translation Workshop in 2026, poet Asiya Wadud will join us from May 26 to 29.
Asiya Wadud is a writer, most recently of the poetry collections Mandible Wishbone Solvent, No Knowledge Is Complete Until It Passes Through My Body and the chapbook like threadlove, like rubble, like excess. Other recent work can be found in Interlude Docs, POETRY, e-flux journal, the Paris Review, and the Danspace Project Journal. Recent projects have been supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Foundation Jan Michalski, Tekstintalo Helsinki, and Danspace Project.
Asiya Wadud’s website is www.asiyawadud.com
Excepts of Asiya Wadud’s writing can be found at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/asiya-wadud
Click on image below for excerpt.
