Author photo by Canan Marasligil
Canan “Ja’anan” Marasligil (she/they) is a multilingual writer, artist, literary translator based in Amsterdam.
Every other week, I publish a newsletter and podcast titled The Attention Span, where I take the time to reflect, to analyse and to imagine our societies through writing, art and culture.
Whether you are a writer, a translator, a reader, a professional working in the arts, culture or literature, or someone who likes to take the time to reflect on the world we live in through the lens of culture, art, translation, poetry and literature, The Attention Span Newsletter is for you.
HIGHLIGHTED PUBLICATIONS
BOOK - Real by Karin Karakaşlı (tr. Canan Marasligil and Sarah Howe) published on 1 May 2024 by Poetry Translation Centre
It took me more than a decade to finally have a collection of Karin Karakaşlı’s poetry published in translation. I had first pitched her work to French publishers in 2011, and only managed to get one poem published… In 2013, I was a translator in residence at London’s Free Word Centre, and there I met the wonderful people at the Poetry Translation Centre. I gave my first translation workshop with them, focusing on a few poems by Karin… and then another workshop, and another, until we published a first chapbook in 2017, where I was joined in this journey by poet Sarah Howe, and we translated the poems together. Most recently, we collaborated again with Sarah to finally have a collection of Karin’s poetry published in English. Always invited by the passionate people of the Poetry Translation Centre, who have created the space for this journey to happen.
PODCAST & ESSAY - The Protagonist of the Erotic: on Anne Carson (published Spring 2023)
20 years ago, I wrote my Master’s thesis on translating Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red: a Novel in Verse. In Spring 2023, I penned an essay for Extra Extra Magazine “Anne Carson In Sensual Gestures”: one version in print, and another one for the podcast The Protagonist of the Erotic, which I have embedded below. Although they both are written from a translator’s perspective, they are different, so do read and listen if you can.