Welcome to The Poetry Center.
I'm Diana Delgado.
I'm the literary director here.
And we're really excited to welcome Rosa Alcala here
tonight.
So, welcome, Rosa.
[APPLAUSE]
Very excited.
I want to share a little bit about why Rosa is here.
I mean, aside from her being a brilliant poet and translator.
But I want to talk a little bit about the Hannelore
Quander-Ratee Works-In-Translation Reading.
And this is something that we do every year for the past six
years.
And it's an annual presentation in the University
of Arizona Poetry Center's reading and lecture series that
was established in 2014.
And this event features translators
of poetry, international poets and writers and scholars,
working with the boundless possibilities of translation.
Hannelore and Michael Ratee moved to Tucson, Arizona
in 1978 and immersed themselves in the poetry scene.
Hannelore was managing editor of Prickly Pear Tucson, a poetry
quarterly, co-directed the Mosaic Reading Series,
and served on the Tucson Poetry Festival Committee.
During this time, she wrote her own poems
and translated work from and into German.
Especially fond of the work of Gunter Eich, her translation
of his radio play Tiger Jussuf Was produced on Arizona Public
Radio.
Working with William Pitt Root, she also
translated the poems of Heinrich Boll.
Hannelore's poems and translations
appeared in Sonora Review, Poetry International, Star-Web
Paper, Prickly Pear/Tucson, Brushfire, Turquoise Tears,
New Kauri, Tucson Weekly, Fennel Stalk, Laundromat,
and other places.
We are so excited to present Rose Alcala as this year's
Hannelire Quander-Rattee Works-In-Translation Reading.
And I want to also remind everyone else that along with
this reading, next week on Thursday, February 6,
that we're going to be hosting Carolyn Forché.
Yay.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
I don't know what is wrong with me.
I think I ate too much red meat at dinner.
[LAUGHTER]
And I'm like, what is happening?
It's not computing.
But thank you for bearing with me.
I promise I can talk and read.
There are two reminders that I always say here.
We have books for sale.
Please support our poets.
We have two of Rosa's books here.
And then the other thing is that the end of the reading, we're
going to have just a quick Q&A. So as the reading goes on,
just be thinking about that.
We also have Kelsi Vanada.
I'm going to invite a very shortly.
But I just want to share a little bit about Kelsi Vanada,
who is going to introduce Rosa.
Kelsi Vanada is the program manager
of Alta, the American Literary Translators Association,
affiliated, as of a year ago, with the UA
College of Humanities.
She is a poet and translator from Spanish
and sometimes Swedish.
Her translations include The Eligible Age
by Berta Garcia Faet and Into Muteness
by Sergio Espinosa just out from Veliz Books.
Her book of poems, Rare Earth, will be published in March.
And thank you, Kelsi.
I want to welcome you up.
[APPLAUSE]