With the special selection and invitation from the American Literary Translators Association, Arthur Elbakyan’s “My Insane Shakespeare” book has been presented by Meri Elbakyan’s translation (on the photo) at this prominent Association’s 39th conference. Aravot.am was informed by American Literary Translators Association’s website.
According to the same source, this year nearly 500 translators, editors, and publishers from around the world, and simply lovers of international literature were present at the Associations 39th annual conference, which is considered American Literary Translators Association’s most attended conference ever and took place in the city of Oakland, state of California.
Among more than 150 translators with around 30 languages, Meri Elbakyan was given a unique opportunity to read from the podium her English translation of “My Insane Shakespeare” and at the same time present Armenian writer Arthur Elbakyan’s literary work.
The 2014 theatrical world premiere of “My Insane Shakespeare” in New York City, the framework of an international theatre festival, drew the attention of the American literary and theatre worlds. And now, the literary work and Meri Elbakyan’s translation have received the highest praise from the association and the professionals at the conference in Oakland. This success was sealed with several proposals. “My Insane Shakespeare” will be published in English as well as in Russian, Spanish, German, and French.
It should also be noted that Meri Elbakyan is a multilingual linguist and translator. She has excellent command in Armenian, Russian, English, Spanish and German.
She has graduated from Moscow State Linguistic and University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to translation and interpretation, Meri Elbakyan has been actively involved in cross-cultural communication. She is a member of the Public Relations Association of America, which is the world’s largest and foremost organization of public relations professionals.
As for American Literary Translators Association, it bridges cultural communication and understanding among countries and languages through the art and craft of literary translation. It is the only organization in the United States dedicated solely to literary translation. The Association promotes literary translation through its annual conference, which draws hundreds of translators and literary professionals from around the world, giving opportunity to writers of various languages to present their work to the literary world. This is a platform where alongside established authors, new of names of writers and translators emerge with the help of translators and translation craft.
