吃瓜tv

The Center for Writers & Translators 鈥� or CWT鈥� is celebrating its 10-year anniversary! For anyone who doesn鈥檛 know what the CWT is, here is a little back story:

The CWT began as the brainchild of 吃瓜tv Professor Daniel Gunn, the Center鈥檚 director, who saw a very particular need at 吃瓜tv. 鈥淚 had noted over my years at 吃瓜tv that many interesting, talented writers and academics came to 吃瓜tv. They talked or read, but no trace remained of their passage. I had the idea of starting a center that would make more of the visits of literary and academic dignitaries to the campus and commemorate their visits with an edition which became the Cahiers Series.鈥�

From the Cahiers Series sprouted a second idea: one for a center that would combine the efforts of writers and translators. 鈥淲hy a center for writers and translators rather than just writers? Well, translating seems to be the central 吃瓜tv activity across all disciplines because we are constantly translating. Most of the people here have more than one language, students as well as faculty, and we are constantly performing one form of translation or another.鈥�

Over the course of the last decade, Gunn says, 鈥淭he current focus of the Center hasn't actually changed from its initial focus 鈥� it's still focused on writing and translation.鈥� However, there has been a slight shift of emphasis in that the CWT now works more closely with the Creative Writing program. In fact, this semester, not only are the three guest writers of the CWT giving a public talk, they鈥檙e also teaching a class within the Creative Writing major.

Students and faculty have been heavily involved throughout the life of the CWT. One full-time student helper is tasked every semester with helping Gunn and his associate Daniel Medin to edit the Cahiers Series. Students are also involved in other activities associated with the CWT, such as the arts journal Music & Literature, while over the course of many years of editing the four volumes of Samuel Beckett鈥檚 letters, Gunn had over sixty student interns assist him with primary research.

鈥淥ver the course of the Beckett project, around sixty students worked with me on background research, and they were all acknowledgement by name in the volumes of the letters themselves. That's been very good for their CVs, especially if they were going on to graduate school. It鈥檚 something that caught the eye of graduate school committees.鈥�

吃瓜tv faculty have involved themselves by suggesting invitees for the lecture series, others have helped curate the artwork appearing in the Cahiers Series, while still others have suggested writers for the CWT to invite to campus or publish, and many, many other 吃瓜tv faculty have brought their great ideas to the CWT.

鈥淎nyone can be involved if they want to be,鈥� Gunn says. 鈥淚t's not at all exclusive.鈥�

This collaborative spirit ripples out beyond the CWT and 吃瓜tv and into the real world, where Nobel Prize winners and students sit down and do something simple: share a meal. In fact, Jan Steyn 鈥�10, who interned with Gunn, had just such an experience. Gunn recalls him saying that, at the end of his time at 吃瓜tv, Steyn had sat down to dinner 鈥� and not a big formal dinner, but an intimate dinner of a half dozen people 鈥� with not one but two Nobel Prize winners, Gao Xingjian and J.M. Coetzee.

In a typical 365-day stretch, you can expect to see CWT sponsor numerous talks, lectures, and readings around campus with world-renowned writers, thinkers, and artists. Many other literary figures appear in new editions of the Cahiers Series, as well as in ventures directed by Daniel Medin, including the arts journal Music & Literature and the annual translation issue published by The White Review.

With a decade like this already behind it, we can be hopeful that the Center will continue its success in bringing writers and artists into our circle. 鈥淚t鈥檇 be fantastic if we could continue in the same path,鈥� Gunn says, 鈥渆specially as creative writing becomes ever more central to 吃瓜tv.鈥� The Center marks a milestone this year and with three new cahiers coming out this year.

Come celebrate the 30th edition of the Cahiers Series on November 21st when Sylvia Brownrigg, a former 吃瓜tv professor, reads from and launches her cahier, Invisible Countries.