The need to address a constellation of competing goals is one of the most challenging aspects of literary translation. Among the most intractable of those challenges is rendering semantic content without sacrificing the aesthetic value of aural qualities of the original such as rhyme and alliteration. Of equal importance are the cognitive “rhymes” produced by recurring images and phrasings, which serve to reinforce a book’s moods and preoccupations. Translators Reilly Costigan Humes and Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler will discuss their experience of preserving these effects in their work on two novels by the great contemporary Ukrainian author Serhiy Zhadan, Mesopotamia and The Orphanage.

Reilly Costigan-Humes and Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler are a team of literary translators who work with Russian and Ukrainian, known for their renderings of novels by contemporary authors including Serhiy Zhadan, Dmitry Lipskerov, and Andriy Lyubka. Their translations have appeared in numerous journals, including Little Star, Trafika Europe, and the Tupelo Quarterly. Wheeler is also a published poet.

Part of the Translation Studies Hub project. Event co-sponsored by Slavic Languages & Literatures; the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, & Central Asian Studies; Northwest Translators & Interpreters Society; Third Place Books. Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made by October 10, 2022 to the Simpson Center, 206-685-5260, scevents@uw.edu.