When one considers the Latin origins of the term – translatio, meaning “to carry across, remove, transport, or transfer meaning” – then translation can be understood to reside at the heart of Auster’s work. The author himself has translated several French texts into English, including Philippe Petit’s On the High Wire (1985), Jacques Dupin: Selected Poems (1992) and Pierre Clastres’s Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians (1998). Additionally, recurring references to the Tower of Babel in his poetry, and in prose works including Squeeze Play (1982) and The New York Trilogy (1987) indicate the enduring thematic interest in translation which has wider significance for Auster’s creative practice and the fundamental questions of human intersubjectivity pervading his œuvre. For if language is inherently slippery and words and things do not match up; if “[t]he tongue / is forever taking us away / from where we are,” and “each word / is an elsewhere” (“Facing the Music” 151), then surely all attempts at communication partake of the translatory, such that translation is a determining aspect of life. It goes without saying, then, that translations of Auster’s work have far more than a secondary or instrumental relation to the texts in English: they are models of what Delphine Grass calls “creative-critical translation practice” (3); they are integral elements of the intricate and complex Austerian intertext; and they are essential contributions to the ongoing discussion in Auster’s work about the necessity, the frustrations, and the beauty of language.

We invite proposals for 20-minute online papers on any aspect of Austerian translation. Topics might include, but are in no way limited to:

– Specific challenges facing translators of Auster’s writing
– Fictional translations in Auster’s work (for example, Cécile Juin’s diary in Invisible)
– Translation in its spiritual sense of conveyance to paradise, or transcendence
– The relationship between representations of movement, migration, and translation in Auster’s writing
– Specific readings of Auster’s translations

Please submit a title, an abstract of maximum 250 words and a short bio to Dr. James Peacock: j.h.peacock@keele.ac.uk. We strongly encourage proposals from PGR and early-career researchers. The revised closing date for submissions is Thursday 26 November 2026.