Call For Papers:
Iamb that Iamb: A Hands-on Verse Translation Practicum
(3-hour session)
Organized by the Committee on the Translation of Classical Authors
157th Annual Meeting of the SCS, San Francisco, CA, January 7-10, 2026
The Committee on the Translation of Classical Authors will introduce a new type of session at the 2026 meeting: a hands-on practicum in the art of verse translation. We invite all thoughtful readers who are attentive to the challenging art of turning poetry into poetry to submit proposals to present a short passage of Greek or Latin poetry (~10 lines) of their choice for collaborative verse translation. Old hands and beginners alike will gain a richer understanding of the passages presented (which may be well-known or relatively obscure) and of the processes involved in verse translation. The audience is encouraged to participate! The presenters’ role will be to explain the passage they have chosen; facilitators will be present to help with the hands-on workshop part.
The session will begin with an introduction to writing metrical verse in English by an established verse translator. Each of three presenters will lead a close reading of their chosen passage for ten minutes, starting with reading their passage aloud, explaining any difficult or unusual constructions or vocabulary, and providing the audience with a basic semantic translation. Features that presenters might address include context and artistic features—euphony, allusion, tone, register, ambiguity, word-play, structure, meter, etc.—and the challenges these pose to a verse translator, with special attention to poetic form. Presenters may propose a formal approach and discuss its implications, perhaps even giving their own verse translation of lines that immediately precede the passage in question. After each presentation, the participants in the audience will divide into small groups and work together to craft a verse translation of all or part of the passage, followed by a brief session in which the groups will share their results with all in attendance.
Presenters are not required to be published translators. Abstracts should present a useful close reading and an awareness of the salient interpretive problems your passage poses for the translator. You should choose a passage you have not already published in translation. The groups will be led by facilitators chosen by the organizers, and presenters will be encouraged to share their own expertise with the groups during the workshop.
Abstracts of up to 500 words should follow the guidelines for individual abstracts (https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/guidelines-authors-abstracts), to the extent that they apply to this type of presentation. All abstracts will be judged anonymously and should not give any indication of the presenter’s identity. Please send abstracts to Sean Gurd, <sean.gurd@austin.utexas.edu>, by February 17, 2025. Chosen presenters will be identified, along with a thematic title, in the program, but abstracts and specific passage references will not be disseminated in advance. In the interest of spontaneity and true real-time translation, no one other than the presenters and organizers will know in advance what the specific passages will be. The organizers will review all submissions anonymously, and their decision will be communicated to the authors of abstracts by March 17, 2025, with enough time that those whose abstracts are not chosen can participate in the individual abstract submission process for the upcoming SCS meeting.