What do we mean when we say a character or an author—or even a translator—has a “voice”? What is the difference between a work of prose that has a voice and one that doesn’t? And how do translators bring a “voice” to life? In this talk, Anton Hur will examine the idea of voice in literary translation. He will focus on the practice of “triangulation,” or the zeroing in on a narrative voice, and “translator jetlag,” or the tendency for translators to require periods of adjustment between book-length projects defined by different narrative voices.

Anton Hur is the author of Toward Eternity and No One Told Me Not To. He is a prolific translator of numerous books, including the bestseller by and about the Korean boy band BTS. His translation of Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize and the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature.