First Conference of Brazilian Women Writers in New York

This week, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I attended the First Conference of Brazilian Women Writers in New York, hosted by the Brazilian Endowment for the Arts in midtown Manhattan. It was an amazing event, and the attendees came in from all over the United States and all over the world! I met translators, professors and other academics, writers, and others in the book industry–all with a deep interest in Brazil and Brazilian writers. They came in from Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Texas, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, and even Germany, Norway, and Brazil. The Conference was organized by: Domício Coutinho, who is the president of the Brazilian Endowment for the Arts; Jacilene Brataas and Joyce Cavalccante, who are leaders in REBRA (Rede de Escritoras Brasileiras–Network of Brazilian women writers), Peggy Sharpe, a Portuguese professor from Florida State University in Tallahassee and the current president BRASA (Brazilian Studies Association); and Professor Elizabeth Lowe, the director of the brand-new Center for Translation Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There were many excellent workshops and presentations, which I’ll discuss in another blog-post shortly!

This is the program:

Primeiro Congresso de Escritoras Brasileiras em Nova Iorque

October 14, 2009: EVOCANDO NÍSIA FLORESTA

Cerimônia de Abertura (Opening Ceremony)
Keynote address: Ana Maria Machado, Academia Brasileira de Letras, “Palavra de Mulher.” Introduction by Renata Wasserman, Wayne State University

Sessão 1: Nísia Floresta
Facilitator: Joyce Cavalccante, REBRA
Presenters: Constância Lima Duarte, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, “Nísia Floresta, uma mulher à frente de seu tempo – no bicentenário de seu nascimento”, Peggy Sharpe, Florida State University, “Nísia Floresta: Educating heroines.”, Charlotte Liddell, University of Manchester, UK; “Saving Brazil, Selling Brazil: Floresta’s patriotic purpose at home and abroad.”

Sessão 2:  Workshop– Traduzindo Escritoras Brasileiras
Elizabeth Lowe, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Earl Fitz, Vanderbilt University; Gregory Rabassa, Translator

Lecture: Joyce Cavalccante, Writer and President of REBRA, “História da literatura feminina no Brasil.” Introduction by Steven Butterman, University of Miami

Noite de Autógrafos e Recepção

October 15, 2009: EVOCANDO CECÍLIA MEIRELES

Sessão 1: Cecília Meireles
Facilitator: Paula Gândara, Miami University
Presenters: Darlene Sadlier, Indiana University, “An ABC of Cecília Meireles.”, Katia Bezerra, University of Arizona at Tucson, “Romanceiro da Inconfidência: Re-escrevendo a Relação entre Memória e Nação.” Luiza Franco Moreira, Binghamton University, “Cecília Meireles’ Contribuitions to A Manhã.”

Sessão 2: Cecília Meireles
Facilitator – Lucia Bettencourt, Writer
Presenters: Charles Perrone, University of Florida, “Transamerican Motives in Cecília Meireles.”, Regina Zilberman, UFRS, “Cecília educadora, examinando as preocupações da autora com a educação da infância.” Luiz Fernando Valente, Brown University, “The Refiguration of Brazil’s 18th Century in Romanceiro da Inconfidência.”

Workshop: Brazilian Women Poets Speak
Facilitador – Miriam Alves, Writer; Introdução de Emanuelle Oliveira, Vanderbilt University

Painel de discussão: Impacto da Tradução no trabalho do escritor
Moderator: Rhett McNeil, Translation Fellow, Dalkey Archive Press; Panelists: Cliff Landers, Translator; Nelson Vieira, Brown University; Rick J. Santos, SUNY at NCC; Conceição Evaristo, Writer; Miriam Alves, Writer.

October 16, 2009 EVOCANDO CLARICE LISPECTOR

Sessão 1: Clarice Lispector
Facilitator: Lesley Feracho, University of Georgia
Presenters: Nadia Gotlib, Universidade de São Paulo, “Imagens de Clarice Lispector: literatura, biografia, fotobiografia.”, Maria José Barbosa, University of Iowa, “Performativity and Performance in Clarice Lispector’s Texts.”, Diane Marting, University of Mississippi, “Killing Macabéa.” Alexis Levitin, State University of New York, Plattsburgh, “Clarice Lispector: The Stylistics of Love.”

Award Ceremony for Winners of Literary Contests in Poetry and Short Fiction

Session 2: Clarice Lispector
Facilitator – Marta Almeida, Yale University
Presenters: Marta Peixoto, New York University, “Lispector’s Maids.”, Sonia Roncador, University of Texas, “How to Treat a Maid?”: Misencounters with Domestic Servants in  Clarice Lispector’s Journalism.”, Dario Campos, Vice-Consul, Consulate General of New York, “Diálogos com Clarice.”

Workshop Brazilian Women Write the Short Story
Facilitator - Conceição Evaristo, Writer
Introduction by Carolyn Durham, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Painel Discussão: New Trends in Brazilian Women’s Writing
Moderator: Ana Maria Machado; Panelists: Regina Rheda, Paula Parisot, Lúcia Bettencourt, Adriana Lisboa, Jacilene Brataas

Cocktail Sponsored by the Consulate General of Brazil of New York

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