Marjolijn de Jager reading from “For A Long Time, Afraid Of The Night” by Yasmine Ghata from David Vita on Vimeo.

On Sunday, 9 February at the Book Club in New York City, the PEN Translation Committee presented a reading of recently published work that members and friends have translated. This was a continuation of the former KGB Bar Reading Series, in an exciting new location.

The readers and their works included:

• Marjolijn de Jager, reading from her translation of Lebanese novelist Yasmine Ghata’s latest book, about a refugee boy from Rwanda in France, “For a Long Time, Afraid of the Night”, published by Schaffner Press in 2019.
• Linda Baker, reading her translation of a piece by German writer Max Frisch, “Little Diary of a German Journey,” which will appear in the March 2020 issue of New England Review.
• Jonathan Cohen, reading from his translation of Dominican poet Pedro Mir’s poetry, “Two Elegies of Hope”, published by Spuyten Duyvil Press in 2019.
• Sharon Dolin, reading from her translation of Catalan author Gemma Gorga’s prose poem “Book of Minutes”, published by Oberlin College Press in 2019.
• Tess Lewis, reading from her translation of German author Monique Schwitter’s novel “One Another”, the tale of a contemporary woman’s search for her past lovers, published by Persea Books in 2019.
• Lyn Miller-Lachmann, reading her translation of the picture book “The President of the Jungle”, written and illustrated by the Brazilian team of André Rodrigues, Larissa Ribeiro, Paula Desgualdo, and Pedro Markun, published by Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House in 2020.

The event was free of charge, and books were available for purchase and signed by translators.