To celebrate the release of Futures: An AGNI Portfolio of Work in Translation, three translators will read and discuss their work: E.J. Koh, Mui Poopoksakul and Ruth Ward. They will be joined in conversation with portfolio coeditors Jennifer Kwon Dobbs and Shuchi Saraswat.

Futures: An AGNI Portfolio of Work in Translation is the largest folio in AGNI's five decades of publication. Featuring 35 translators and 37 writers of prose and poetry from 21 languages, from homelands as far apart as Martinique, Malta, and Thailand, and eras spanning three centuries, these voices demand a reconsideration of the past as we collectively contemplate our future. Join coeditors Jennifer Kwon Dobbs and Shuchi Saraswat and three esteemed translators as they discuss the work and authors they translated for this issue.

Presented in partnership with the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith.

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About the translators:

E. J. Koh is the translator, with Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, of Yi Won’s The World’s Lightest Motorcycle (Zephyr Press, 2021). Koh and Cancio-Bello translated Yi Won's poem "Self Portrait" for the Futures portfolio, from Korean to English. Koh is also the author of the memoir The Magical Language of Others (Tin House Books, 2020) and the poetry collection A Lesser Love (Louisiana State University Press, 2017). Her poems, translations, and stories have appeared in Boston Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, AGNI, Slate, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. She is a PhD candidate in Korean and Korean American literature, history, and film at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Mui Poopoksakul’s translations include Prabda Yoon’s story collections The Sad Part Was and Moving Parts, Duanwad Pimwana’s story collection Arid Dreams, and Pimwana’s novel Bright. A native of Bangkok who spent two decades in the U.S., she now lives in Berlin. She translated Worapoj Panpong's essay "Brittle" for the Futures portfolio, from Thai to English.

Ruth Ward’s creative collaborations center on the Mediterranean, particularly Malta and Spain, where she has long worked on flamenco and other Spanish dance productions. Her poems, stories, and translations have recently appeared or are forthcoming in The Los Angeles Review, The Antigonish Review (Nova Scotia), The Common, Hunger Mountain, AGNI, Modern Poetry in Translation (London), and Southword (Cork, Ireland). Her literary works have been published, performed, or translated in sixteen countries. She is a U.S.-based member of PEN America. She translated Immanuel Mifsud's poem "Talk to Me, Nanna" for the Futures portfolio, from Maltese to English.

About the moderators:

Jennifer Kwon Dobbs is poetry editor of AGNI and has been part of the editorial team since 2019. Born in Wonju, Republic of Korea, she is the author of Interrogation Room (White Pine Press, 2018); Paper Pavilion (White Pine, 2007), winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Prize; and the chapbooks Notes from a Missing Person (Essay Press, 2015) and Necro Citizens (German/English edition, hochroth Verlag, 2019). She also co-translates Sami poetry with poet-scholar Johanna Domokos, and their translation of Niillas Holmberg’s Juolgevuođđu is forthcoming as Underfoot in spring 2022 from White Pine Press. Currently, she is professor of creative writing at St. Olaf College, where she directs Race and Ethnic Studies, and is visiting faculty at Universität Bielefeld.

Shuchi Saraswat is assistant editor and nonfiction editor of AGNI and has been part of the editorial team since 2019. Her literary criticism and essays have appeared in The Boston Globe, The Boston Art Review, Ecotone, Arrowsmith, Coffee House Writers Project and elsewhere. She founded the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith, a reading series focused on themes of migration, and in 2019 served as a judge for the National Book Award in Translated Literature.

About our partner:

The Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith

The Transnational Series focuses on stories of migration, the intersection of politics & literature, and works in translation and is supported by the independent bookstore Brookline Booksmith. Subscribe to the Transnational Series newsletter for information on upcoming events, book recommendations, and more.