Tuesday, March 1, 2022
4pm PST / 5pm MST /
6pm CST / 7pm EST
Federation of
Alliances Françaises USA
In English
Join us for a conversation with Sandra Smith, award-winning
translator of French literature, as she discusses the artistry and challenges
involved in translating with Beth S. Gersh-Nešić. Their discussions will focus
specifically on three significant works: The Prodigal Child, by Irène
Némirovsky, In
the Shadows of Paris: The Nazi Concentration Camp That Dimmed the City of Light , by Anne Sinclair
and Inseparable, by Simone de
Beauvoir.
Sandra Smith has translated
twelve of Irène Némirovsky’s novels, including the international
sensation Suite Française, into English. She has also
translated works by Albert Camus, Guy de Maupassant, and Simone de
Beauvoir, among many others and is the recipient of numerous awards
including the National Jewish Book Award and the PEN Translation Prize.
Beth Susan Gersh-Nešić, Ph.D. is an art
historian and the director of the New York Arts Exchange, an arts education
service. Her translation and annotation of André Salmon’s first two books on
art were published as André
Salmon on French Modern Art (Cambridge University Press,
2005), and her most recent book is a translation of Salmon expert Dr.
Jacqueline Gojard’s Pablo
Picasso and André Salmon: The Painter, the Poet and the Portraits (Za
Mir Press, 2019). She contributes to the online magazine Bonjour Paris and teaches art
history at Mercy College.
Irène Némirovsky was born in
Kiev, Ukraine, in 1903 into a wealthy Jewish family and was raised in a life of
privilege in Europe. After fleeing Russia during the Revolution, she immersed
herself in the company of thinkers, artists, musicians, and other cultural
elites as part of the Parisian literati of her time. Sixty-two years after her
death, in 2004, the never-before-published Suite Française brought
international acclaim to this gifted writer, whose life was tragically lost in
the Holocaust. The
Prodigal Child can also be found at the following
booksellers: Amazon, Barnes
& Noble, Books-A-Million, Bookshop.org.
Anne Sinclair was born in New
York City and moved to France with her family as a young girl. There she rose
to fame, in part due to her family’s vast collection of paintings by Picasso,
Braque, Matisse, and Léger, which she would become heir to, but also because
her prominence as a highly regarded broadcast journalist led to her serving as
the model for statues of Marianne, the national emblem of France, symbolizing
liberty. From 1984 to 1997 she hosted 7 sur 7, France’s most
popular Sunday evening news show, similar to CBS’s 60 Minutes; during that
time, she interviewed many world figures, including Bill Clinton, Mikhail
Gorbachev, Shimon Peres, and Prince Charles. She is the author of numerous
bestsellers in France. In
the Shadows of Paris, which was recently recognized as a
top-four finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, can also be found at the
following booksellers: Amazon, Barnes
& Noble, Books-A-Million, Bookshop.org.
Simone de Beauvoir was a French
author and philosopher. She wrote novels, monographs on philosophy, political
and social issues, essays, biographies, and an autobiography. She is now best
known for her metaphysical novels, including She Came to Stay and The
Mandarins, and for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex,
a detailed analysis of women’s oppression and a foundational tract of
contemporary feminism.
This event will be on Zoom and is free
for all Alliance Française members, AATF members, and invited guests of the
presenter or publicist. Non-members or persons who have no AF chapter nearby
can purchase tickets ($10). Please click here to register.
