Third Thursdays & Transnational Series Live: On Poetry & Translation

Celebrate National Poetry Month with Brookline Booksmith! Join Third Thursdays Poetry, a monthly reading series at Brookline Booksmith, and the Transnational Literature Series for an in-store event with Alex Braslavsky, Jennifer Jean, and Nandana Dev Sen to discuss poetry and translation.

This event will feature the following poet-translators:

Alex Braslavsky is a poet, translator, and scholar. She is a doctorate student in the Slavic Department at Harvard University, where she writes scholarship on Russian, Polish, and Czech poetry through a comparative poetics lens. Her work on Polish literature has been supported by the Jurzykowski Polish Grant and the ©POLAND Translation Program. Her translation of On Centaurs & Other Poems by Zuzanna Ginczanka was released by World Poetry Books in February of 2023. She will be reading from On Centaurs & Other Poems, the first selected volume in English of Zuzanna Ginczanka, a visionary Polish-Ukrainian-Jewish poet of the inter-war years whose life was cut short by the Holocaust.

Jennifer Jean’s poetry collections include VOZ, Object Lesson, and The Fool. She has received honors, residencies, and fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Her Story Is collective, the Academy of American Poets, the Kolkata International Poetry Festival, and the Women’s Federation for World Peace, among others. She edits poetry for Talking Writing and translations for Consequence Forum. She is the senior program manager of 24PearlStreet, the Fine Arts Work Center’s online writing program. She will be reading from her new collection VOZ, an amped-up recollection of poet Jennifer Jean’s triste fado, or “sad fate,” in Los Angeles after a childhood spent in foster care.

Nandana Dev Sen is a writer, actor and child-rights activist. She has starred in 20 feature films, authored six children’s books, translated into more than 15 languages globally, and two collections of her translations of the poetry of her mother, Nabaneeta Dev Sen. As an ambassador, Nandana has worked with RAHI, Operation Smile, UNICEF, and Apne Aap International, to fight against child abuse. She has also served on the jury of numerous child-protection committees, international film festivals, and literary awards. She will be reading from Acrobat, a radiant collection of poetry about womanhood, intimacy, and the body politic by acclaimed poet Nabaneeta Dev Sen.

The Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith

The Transnational Series focuses on stories of migration, the intersection of politics & literature, and works in translation and is supported by the independent bookstore Brookline Booksmith. Subscribe to the Transnational Series newsletter for information on upcoming events, book recommendations, and more.

What You Need to Know to Attend

RSVP to let us know you’re coming! RSVPs don’t guarantee a seat, but you’ll be alerted to important details about the program, including safety requirements, cancellations, and book signing updates.

Reserve a Book

• Books will be available for purchase at the event, but you can ensure that you get a copy by preordering on this page. You can pick your book up after 6:30PM on the day of the event.
• Can’t make it to the event? Preorder the book here to have it signed, and choose to have it held or shipped from the store! Book orders are processed for pickup or shipping after ticket sales have closed.

Livestream!

Barring technical difficulty, this event will be livestreamed to our store YouTube channel.

Event Accesibility

This event will take place at street level. If possible, the event will be livestreamed to YouTube. ASL interpretation may be provided (based on the availability of interpreters) but must be requested at least 2 weeks in advance of the event. Seats are limited. Please email us at tickets@brooklinebooksmith.com as soon as possible if you require ASL interpretation, guaranteed seating, or other accommodations. We will do our best to serve your needs!

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING COVID & IN-PERSON EVENTS:

Please note that any Brookline Booksmith in-person event may be canceled by the bookstore, publisher, or author based on concerns about health and safety around the time of the event. Wherever possible, any in-person appearance canceled due to COVID will be moved to the Brookline Booksmith Zoom as a Webinar at the same date and time, and all tickets & registrations will be transferred to the online event. Book signing details may change. Refunds may be requested in the case of a virtual pivot or event cancelation.