Join Marseille artist-poet Frédérique Guétat-Liviani as she discusses the English translation by Nathanaël of but it’s a long way, a poetic transcription of conversations with residents of housing projects near Avignon (France).
BUT IT'S A LONG WAY TRANSLATED BY NATHANAËL (BILINGUAL EDITION)
Frédérique Guétat-Liviani’s but it’s a long way is a peace treaty in the form of several soliloquies that, taken together, read like a death warrant or an obituary for an age that has never come. Transcribed from conversations with people of all ages living in public housing in the suburbs of Avignon, these narratives evoke itineraries between Morocco, Algeria, Albania, Spain, Mayotte, Côte d’Ivoire, and France. The result is a magisterial work, a continental chorus that articulates a confluence of humanities (Nightboat Books, 2018)
Born in Grenoble in 1963, Frédérique Guétat-Liviani makes installations that speak of languages, and writes texts that she builds like images. A founding member of the artists’ collective Intime Conviction (1988–94), she is now the publisher of Fidel Anthelme x. The author of several collections of poetry, she is of the caste neither of poets nor of artists. Instead, she inhabits a space in-between. She lives in Marseille.
Nathanaël is the author of more than a score of books written in French or in English and published in the United States, Québec, and France. Recent works include N’existe (2017), L’heure limicole (2016) and Feder: a scenario (2016). Nathanaël’s translations include works by Catherine Mavrikakis, Édouard Glissant, Hervé Guibert and Hilda Hilst (the latter in collaboration with Rachel Gontijo Araújo). She lives in Chicago.
PROGRAM
APRIL 11, 12:30-2PM
Northwestern University - Poetry & Poetics
APRIL 12, 12-1PM
School of the Art institute of Chicago - Joan Flasch Artist's Book Collection
APRIL 12, 7PM
Sector 2337 - Poetry Reading
