Individual residencies / Olot
ZUZANNA GAWRON
From Tuesday, 21 January 2025 to Monday, 27 January 2025
Bio
Zuzanna is a freelance poetry translator and conference interpreter. She holds three master degrees: two of them earned at the University of Granada (Hispanic Philology and postgraduate studies in Translation and Interpreting) and one at the University of Warsaw (European Masters in Conference Interpreting). She translated poets from Argentine, Spain and Malta.
She also studied under Moisés Mato, the founder of Teatro de la Escucha and Sala Metáforas social theater school in Madrid. After that, Zuzanna developed different projects in Spain and abroad based on Mato techniques. She worked mainly with young adults on topics such as migration or women.
As a translator, she is particularly keen on women’s poetic expression and their contribution to literature.
Project
Uns ulls nous – a new perspective at Maria-Mercè Marçal's poetry
Zuzanna will be working with local young people on Marçal's work. They will choose a verse or write their own micropoems, after reading a sample of her poems and working in groups.
Then the participants will be encouraged to express their thoughts with theatre-image.
Thanks to their interpretation, Zuzanna will gain a new perspective of Marçal's work, which will only enrich Zuzanna's Polish translation of Marçal's poems.
My stay in Olot allowed me to concentrate fully. I was able to get to know and enjoy the Olot landscape from practically a bird's eye view to settle on various ideas in a highly conducive environment. All this in a pleasant atmosphere thanks to the warm welcome from Pepa and Andreu and from the many people who work daily in the institutions that made it possible.
The company and the presence of professionals from across different areas of the humanities and arts, and from literary translation itself, allowed me to gain new insights into my task and my work. Seeing such diverse people working with such passion was a great source of inspiration.
Being able to share reflections on the work of translation and other creative work was especially enlightening. Discussing very concrete and specific topics (of literary translation) let me see that we often fall at the same hurdles and have the same challenges and successes. Sharing all this was very helpful for me to continue with my work.
Spending a week in such optimal conditions and good company was a true gift.
For all this and more, I thank you. Thank you for giving strength along the way.