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Balkan Rhapsody: A roundtable on Balkan languages in translation with Iliyana Nedkova-Byrne
Join Iliyana Nedkova-Byrne and In Other Words for a conversation around Balkan women’s writing, exile, and translation, drawing on her translation of Balkan Rhapsody.
Balkan Rhapsody (Балканска рапсодия) is the debut novel by the Bulgarian-born author Maria Kassimova-Moisset, published by the independent Scottish press Tippermuir Books in Perth. It follows Miriam and her young family during the 1920s and 1930s, as they leave her native Burgas and journey to Istanbul. A historical novel that draws on autofictional narratives from the author’s own family, this is a moving story of everyday life affected by voluntary and forced migrations. Balkan Rhapsody is a feminist work of historical writing that does not shy away from complicated questions around belonging, nationalism, and the violence women suffer under patriarchical state structures. As Nedkova-Byrne has so compellingly shown:
“Kassimova-Moisset’s fiction allows us to feel what might have been like growing up and surviving in this multicultural, post-colonial and porous region known as the Balkans. This is a region steeped in history – a condition evidenced through its contemporary literature which often dwells in the past while uncovering its ‘Balkanness’.”
Our conversation will center around women’s writing in the Balkans and beyond, the politics of translation in a post-colonial and multicultural region, and the work of translators as curators and advocates. We are so excited to welcome Iliyana Nedkova-Byrne in Tills Bookshop, and look forward to exploring this moving historical novel, and its ties to the Scottish literary scene.
Doors will open at 6.45 pm and the event will start at 7.00 pm.
Join us!
Notes on ticketing:
Tickets are £5 and are redeemable against a copy of the book at Tills Bookshop. A limited number of concession tickets are available, no evidence is needed for concession. If you feel you would struggle to cover the full price, but want to take part in the event, please feel free to pay the concession price.
Join Iliyana Nedkova-Byrne and In Other Words for a conversation around Balkan women’s writing, exile, and translation, drawing on her translation of Balkan Rhapsody.
Balkan Rhapsody (Балканска рапсодия) is the debut novel by the Bulgarian-born author Maria Kassimova-Moisset, published by the independent Scottish press Tippermuir Books in Perth. It follows Miriam and her young family during the 1920s and 1930s, as they leave her native Burgas and journey to Istanbul. A historical novel that draws on autofictional narratives from the author’s own family, this is a moving story of everyday life affected by voluntary and forced migrations. Balkan Rhapsody is a feminist work of historical writing that does not shy away from complicated questions around belonging, nationalism, and the violence women suffer under patriarchical state structures. As Nedkova-Byrne has so compellingly shown:
“Kassimova-Moisset’s fiction allows us to feel what might have been like growing up and surviving in this multicultural, post-colonial and porous region known as the Balkans. This is a region steeped in history – a condition evidenced through its contemporary literature which often dwells in the past while uncovering its ‘Balkanness’.”
Our conversation will center around women’s writing in the Balkans and beyond, the politics of translation in a post-colonial and multicultural region, and the work of translators as curators and advocates. We are so excited to welcome Iliyana Nedkova-Byrne in Tills Bookshop, and look forward to exploring this moving historical novel, and its ties to the Scottish literary scene.
Doors will open at 6.45 pm and the event will start at 7.00 pm.
Join us!
Notes on ticketing:
Tickets are £5 and are redeemable against a copy of the book at Tills Bookshop. A limited number of concession tickets are available, no evidence is needed for concession. If you feel you would struggle to cover the full price, but want to take part in the event, please feel free to pay the concession price.