Writing and Translating and Telling Each Other Everything?

Join us for a conversation between German author, Judith Hermann, and her translator, Katy Derbyshire. Newly published in English by Mercier Press, Hermann’s We’d Have Told Each Other Everything is an attempt to write about writing, which veers off course to address what is left out when Hermann creates her celebrated stories.

How did this writer and translator team work on the English book, how did the project change along the way, and did the German book survive its leap between languages and cultures in one piece? Join us for an evening discussing the intimacy of translating memoir-like writing.

This event is available both in person and online

Judith Hermann was born in Berlin in 1970. She is the author of several short-story collections, including Alice and The Summerhouse, Later, as well as the highly acclaimed novels Where Love Begins (all translated by Margot Bettauer Dembo) and Daheim, which was nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. Her work has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives and works in Berlin.

Katy Derbyshire is a translator of contemporary German writers including Inka Parei, Heike Geissler, Olga Grjasnowa, Annett Gröschner and Christa Wolf. Her translations of Clemens Meyer have been twice longlisted for the International Booker Prize. She is the co-host of a regular translation lab in Berlin and the monthly podcast The Dead Ladies Show.