We live in an age of machine-enabled translation, with programs like Google Translate and ChatGPT always available at our fingertips. What does machine translation get right about language – and what does it miss? What makes for a good translation? How does the act of translating literature help us to think about the pleasures and the idiosyncrasies of words?

If anyone can help us to reach new depths of understanding about language and translation, it’s Daniel Levin Becker. At the age of 24, Levin Becker became the youngest member of Oulipo, a group of writers and mathematicians who experiment with the mechanics of language. His recent translation of Laurent Mauvignier’s nail-biting thriller The Birthday Party has been met with widespread praise. As Anthony Cummins reported in The Guardian, Levin Becker’s “endlessly segmented sentences, which snap and crunch with his convincingly apt choices, surely gave his ingenuity a workout.”

Join us at the Library to hear Levin Becker’s stimulating perspectives on wordplay, style, translation, and more.

About the Speaker:

Daniel Levin Becker is a writer, translator, and music critic. He is the author of Many Subtle Channels and What’s Good: Notes on Rap and Language and the translator of several works, including Laurent Mauvignier’s The Birthday Party. His forthcoming translations include Éric Chevillard’s Museum Visits and Jakuta Alikavazovic’s Like a Sky Inside. He has been a member of the Oulipo since 2009.

Learn more:

Daniel Levin Becker wrote a three-part “translation diary” that details his process for translating The Birthday Party. He reflects on his role as translator: “I’m responsible not only for what the words mean but also for the spaces between them, for the way they fit together or, as the case may be, don’t — and, if not, why not.” For more insights into Levin Becker’s process, check out Part I, Part II, and Part III of his translation diary.

The American Library had the pleasure of hosting Daniel Levin Becker last year for a fascinating conversation about his book What’s Good: Notes on Rap and Language. You can watch that program here.

Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Levin Becker will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.

Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

Copies of The Birthday Party will be available for purchase at the Library in the week leading up to this event and while the event takes place, generously provided by Smith&Son. All sales support this local independent bookstore.

Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.