"Quotes From Istanbul: the Writers and Literary Translators International Congress
So I ostensibly live in Indiana at the moment, but this funny thing happened earlier this month where I was in Istanbul with a bunch of literary translators.
The Writers and Literary Translators International Congress (WALTIC) began as a brainchild of the Swedish Writers Union and inaugurated in Stockholm in 2008. I was there with my boss, the Mongolian Writers Union Director Khaidav Chilaajav, to present a paper on Mongolian poetry on his behalf. (Just when I thought my Henry Luce year couldn't get better, I was in Stockholm meeting Philip Pullman in the gold room where they give out the Nobel Prize for literature. I was 23, and it rendered pretty much everything that's happened since then lackluster in comparison. I nerded Pullman hard. I nerded so hard the poor man actually ran away from me.) The Congress identified several goals and priorities, among them the international safeguarding of freedom of expression and increasing literacy."
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