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Discussion and Book Presentation: Jorge Amado 100th Anniversary Event

On September 13, join legendary translator Gregory Rabassa in a conversation with award-winning writer Rivka Galchen to commemorate the Brazilian author's centennial.

 

Thursday, September 13, 2012
7:00 p.m.
Queen Sofia Spanish Institute
684 Park Ave at 68th street
New York, NY
In English

“Life was good, one had only to live it,” wrote renowned Brazilian writer Jorge Amado in one of his finest modernist novels, Gabriela, Cravo e Canela. Americas Society in collaboration with the Queens Sophia Spanish Institute & Penguin Classics is honoring Jorge Amado on what would have been his 100th birthday. Join legendary translator Gregory Rabassa and award-winning novelist Rivka Galchen in a lively discussion and reading that celebrates the life of the twentieth century’s foremost Brazilian author and the publication, by Penguin Classics, of two new translations of his masterworks: The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray and The Discovery of America by the Turks. The program will include a clip from a documentary on Jorge Amado by João Moreira Salles.

Jorge Amado was born in 1912 in the state of Bahia, Brazil. He published his first novel, O Pais do Carnaval (The Country of Carnival) in 1931. Despite imprisonment and exile for leftist political activities, he continued to produce novels, many of which were banned in Brazil and Portugal.  Later works preserve Amado's political attitude through more subtle satire. His work has been translated into nearly 50 languages, and many of his books have been adapted for film and TV, most notably, Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (1958; Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, 1962) and Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (1966; Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, 1969).  Amado’s work reflects the image of a mestizo Brazil and is marked by religious syncretism. He occupied the twenty-third chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1961 until his death in 2001.

90 year-old Gregory Rabassa, considered the greatest of all translators from Spanish and Portuguese, is professor emeritus of romance languages and comparative literature at Queens College and the Graduate School, CUNY.  He has translated some forty works including novels by Jorge Amado, Clarice Lispector, Machado de Assis, Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and Luis Rafael Sánchez. In addition to receiving a National Book Award and other literary honors, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts and holds the Order of Rio Branco (Brazil).

Rivka Galchen, is one of The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40” fiction writers. Her first novel, Atmospheric Disturbances (2008), has been translated into more than 20 languages, and was awarded the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Born in Canada, Galchen now lives in New York.

The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray, newly translated by the dean of Portuguese-language translators, is widely considered the greatest work by the Brazilian author. It tells the story of Joaquim Soares da Cunha, who drops dead after abandoning his upstanding life to assume the identity of Quincas Water-Bray, a "champion drunk" who is whisked along on a postmortem journey that climaxes in his loss at sea. The Discovery of America by the Turks, published for the first time in English in Rabassa’s brilliant translation, is a whimsical Brazilian take on The Taming of the Shrew that will remind readers why Jorge Amado is to Portuguese-language literature what Jorge Luis Borges is to Spanish-language literature.

Press Inquiries: Please contact Adriana La Rotta at alarotta@as-coa.org or 1-212-277-8384.


ABOUT AMERICAS SOCIETY

Americas Society is the premier organization dedicated to education, debate and dialogue in the Americas. Established by David Rockefeller in 1965, our mission is to foster an understanding of the contemporary political, social and economic issues confronting Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the Americas and the importance of the inter-American relationship.

Visit us at www.as-coa.org

 

 

 

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