French Poet Reads at Charlie Byrne's, Galway

galway | arts and media | event notice Sunday February 07, 2010 16:03 by Western Writers - The Western Writers' Centre - Ionad Scribhneoirí Chaitlin Maude westernwriters at eircom dot net Canavan House - Nuns Island - Galway 087.2178138

Translations by Fred Johnston

French poet Colette Wittorski reads from here work in Charlie Byrne's Bookshop, Middle Street, Galway on Thursday, February 18th, at 6pm. Admission free. She will read from 'Northern Lights,'a dual-language collection of her work with translations read by Fred Johnston, published by Lapwing Poetry.

Le poète français Colette Wittorski récitera de son oeuvre dans la Librairie de Charlie Byrne, la Middle Street, Galway, jeudi, le 18 février, à 18.00. Entrée gratuite. Elle récitera de 'Northern Lights/ l'Aurore boréale,' une collection de langue duelle avec des traductions lues par Fred Johnston.

Colette Wittorski - 'Northern Lights' published by Lapwing Poetry

Colette Wittorski was born in Le Havre before World War II, though her mother died giving birth to her; her father was of Lithuanian origin. Her family fled to the countryside during the Occupation and afterwards she worked for some years in Paris. Though married at the time with children, the events of 1968 in Paris, coupled with psychoanalysis, brought about a personal re-awakening, which resulted in her abandoning the state education system and devoting her time to working with North African workers in hostels. Her partner is the sculptor and painter, Olivier Danican, himself once a member of the Résistance, and they live in Brittany where she continues to write and publish widely.

Fred Johnston's own poems written in French have appeared in, among others, Hopala! (Brittany), L'Empreinte Orange, Fôret de Milles Poètes, Le Cerf-Volant (Paris), Éclats de Rêves, Ouste, In-Fusion, Le Grognard, and here in The Stony Thursday Book and Studies Review and the journal of Translation Ireland. Plans are in motion to bring out a selection of his short stories, translated into French by writer and film-maker, Kristian Le Bras, later this year or early next year, from Terre de Brume. He has read his work at the Franco-Irish Literature Festival in Dublin. He is founder of Galway's annual Cúirt festival and of the Western Writers' Centre. His novel, 'The Neon Rose,' is set in the Paris legal world and appeared from Bluechrome (UK) last year. New work will appear shortly in Hopala!