On the occasion of its last session of this 2023-2024 academic year, LILAC (Laboratoire inter-universitaire de littérature américaine contemporaine) is very pleased to welcome writer and translator Poupeh Missaghi

Friday, June 7

3 - 5pm

University Paris 8

room A2-217

and online

Poupeh Missaghi is a writer, editor, and translator (between English and Persian). Her debut novel trans(re)lating house one was published in 2020 (Coffee House Press). Her translations include I’ll be Strong for You by Nasim Marashi (Astra House, 2021) and In the Streets of Tehran by Nila (Ithaka Press, 2023), as well as forthcoming Boys of Love by Ghazi Rabihavi (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024). Her new book, a novella entitled Sound Museum, will be published in October 2024 by Coffee House Press. She is currently an assistant professor of English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver, and a faculty mentor at the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, OR.

Here is how the publisher presents trans(re)lating house one  : “In the aftermath of Iran’s 2009 election, a woman undertakes a search for the statues disappearing from Tehran’s public spaces. A chance meeting alters her trajectory, and the space between fiction and reality narrows. As she circles the city’s points of connection—teahouses, buses, galleries, hookah bars—her many questions are distilled into one : How do we translate loss into language ? Melding several worlds, perspectives, and narrative styles, trans(re)lating house one translates the various realities of Tehran and its inhabitants into the realm of art, helping us remember them anew.”

Poupeh Missaghi and trans(re)lating house one will be presented by Yannicke Chupin. Poupeh Missaghi will read a selection of passages from her novel, and Yannicke Chupin will read from her forthcoming translation of the novel. For the collective discussion, contributions from everyone in the group are welcome, in addition to the comments and questions prepared by Stéphane Vanderhaeghe, Karim Daanoune and Brigitte Félix.

Poupeh Misshaghi’s invitation has been financed by the research teams Héritages (Cergy CY université) and TransCrit(Paris 8) for LILAC.