Writer's Workshop: Translation as a Technique for Fiction

It’s translation that brings us classics from places as far away as Kenya or Ukraine. You do translation when you rephrase or put language better. So how can we use translation, whether between two different languages or within one language but with different words, for our own fiction writing? After a brief discussion of some principles of translation, participants will begin translating/writing from one text to another to improve their fiction writing.

Presenter Ian Ross Singleton is a writer and a translator of literature from the Russian and Ukrainian languages. He teaches Writing and Critical Inquiry at SUNY Albany and serves as the Nonfiction Editor of the journal of translation Asymptote. His debut novel Two Big Differences, about the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity, came out in 2021. In 2024, he took part in the Translating Ukraine Summer Institute in Wrocław, Poland. For a list of publications, you can see his website at https://singletonian.com/.