European Day of Languages | An Evening of Poetry in Translation

A literary celebration of French, Italian, Yiddish, and Spanish poetry.

Join us for an evening of poetry in translation! Celebrating the rich linguistic heritage that makes up European and global literary traditions, three Chicago-based poets, poetry translators, and scholars will read selections from their work.

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Massimiliano L. Delfino (Northwestern University) will read from his recent Italian-language poetry, and Anna Elena Torres (University of Chicago) will read from her translations from the Yiddish of multilingual poet and philosopher Debora Vogel. Rachel Galvin (University of Chicago) will share selections from her translations of the work of Raymond Queneau, co-founder of the French literary movement Oulipo, and from the poetry of Argentinian avant-garde poet Oliverio Girondo.
The evening will be introduced by Célie Landry, Operations & Project Coordinator at the Consulate General of Switzerland in Chicago, and the readings will be followed by a reception.

Advanced registration via Eventbrite is required, and please bring a state-issued photo ID for check-in in the lobby.

This event is presented in partnership with EUNIC Chicago, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Chicago, the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago, the Consulate General of Switzerland in Chicago, and the Consulate General of Hungary in Chicago.

PARTICIPANT BIOS
Massimiliano L. Delfino
Massimiliano L. Delfino is a poet, film director, and Assistant Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University. He received a Ph.D. in postwar Italian cinema and literature from Columbia University in New York and studied film direction at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. His poems, published in anthologies and magazines, have received several awards, such as the first prize at La Parola Vista (2023), a special mention at the Renato Giorgi Prize (2023), and the Italians for the Future Award from the Italian Cultural Institute of New York (2023). In 2024 he published L’apocalisse nuda, his first poetry collection (Marietti 1820).

Anna Elena Torres
Anna Elena Torres is an Assistant Professor in the departments of Comparative Literature and Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Torres is the author of 'Horizons Blossom, Borders Vanish: Anarchism and Yiddish Literature' (Yale University Press, 2024) and co-editor of 'With Freedom in Our Ears: Histories of Jewish Anarchism' (University of Illinois Press, 2023). Torres has published in Prooftexts, Jewish Quarterly Review, Nashim, make/shift: a journal of feminisms in motion, In geveb, ArtsEverywhere, and other journals. Torres’ creative practice has included working as a community muralist and exhibiting at the Venice Biennale’s Yiddishland Pavilion (2022) and the POLIN Museum, Warsaw.

Rachel Galvin
Rachel Galvin is a poet, translator, and scholar. She is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago, where she directs Translation Studies. She has published a work of criticism, News of War: Civilian Poetry, 1936–1945, and three poetry collections, most recently Uterotopia (Persea Books, 2023). Her translation of Raymond Queneau’s Hitting the Streets (Carcanet) won the Scott Moncrieff Prize for Translation and was named one of the year’s best poetry books by the Boston Globe. Her cotranslation of Decals: Complete Early Poetry of Oliverio Girondo (Open Letter Books) was a finalist for the 2019 National Translation Award. Her current translation of Mexican writer Alejandro Albarrán Polanco’s poetry is supported by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a co-founder of Outranspo, a creative translation collective.