Damion Searls: The Philosophy of Translation

Join us for a launch event with award‑winning translator Damion Searls, discussing his new book The Philosophy of Translation. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street.

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ACCESSIBILITY:

Strand Book Store is an ADA compliant venue. The event space is accessible via elevator.

ASL interpretation is available for this event by request only. Please reach out to our events team at [email protected] by October 15 to request.

Please ask a Strand employee upon arrival for directions to accessible seating if preferred.

For further information on accessibility in this space, or to make a request, please contact [email protected]

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Avoiding theoretical debates and clichéd metaphors, award‑winning translator Damion Searls has written a fresh, approachable, and convincing account of what translation really is and what translators actually do. As the translator of sixty books from multiple languages, Searls has spent decades grappling with words on the most granular level: nouns and verbs, accents on people’s names, rhymes, rhythm, “untranslatable” cultural nuances. Here, he connects a wealth of specific examples to larger philosophical issues of reading and perception. Translation, he argues, is fundamentally a way of reading—but reading is much more than taking in information, and translating is far from a mechanical process of converting one word to another. This sharp and inviting exploration of the theory and practice of translation is for anyone who has ever marveled at the beauty, force, and movement of language.

Photo credit: Beowulf Sheehan

Damion Searls has translated sixty books from German, Norwegian, French, and Dutch, including by Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Rilke, Proust, Victoria Kielland, Saša Stanišić, Jelinek, Mann, Modiano, and Jon Fosse. He has been a Guggenheim, Cullman Center, and two-time NEA fellow, and his own writing includes fiction, poetry, and a widely translated biography of the creator of the Rorschach test.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway, New York, United States