VOICES FROM THE PAST: HEARING OUR ANCESTORS IN THE PRESENT

Whether as editors, translators, or anthologists, writers are often called to steward the works of their predecessors alongside creating their own work. Poet Benjamin Morris will moderate a panel exploring the challenges of shepherding books from the past into the present: fiction writer Kayla Min Andrews edited her late mother Katherine Min’s novel The Fetishist, now published posthumously. Poet and professor Ariel Francisco has a forthcoming translation of Haitian poet Jacques Viau Renaud, killed at age 23 in the Dominican Revolution. And Gina Ferrara has recently revived the New Orleans Poetry Journal Press, first founded by Maxine Cassin decades ago, with a new anthology of 100 contemporary New Orleans poets. Each of these writers will discuss how they brought these voices to modern ears, and what literary citizenship means for writer and reader today.