Howell Joins M.F.A. Program as Assistant Professor in Literary Translation and Poetry - University of Arkansas Newswire - Translation

June 20, 2022

Charles Bertram

Rebecca Gayle Howell

The Program in Creative Writing and Translation, a nationally-ranked M.F.A. program in the Department of English, is pleased to welcome literary translator and poet Rebecca Gayle Howell, who joins the faculty as a tenure-track assistant professor this fall.

Howell earned a B.A. and M.A. at the University of Kentucky, an M.F.A. at Drew University and a Ph.D. at Texas Tech University. She is a 2019 United States Artists Fellow and the author of two award-winning novels-in-verse, American Purgatory (2017) and Render (2013). She is also the English-language translator of Amal al-Jubouri's verse memoir of the Iraq War, Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar After the Occupation (2011). 

"We feel incredibly fortunate to welcome Rebecca to our community of writers. Her presence on our faculty will expand the work of the Program in Creative Writing and Translation and enhance its national reputation. She is an extraordinary poet, an accomplished translator and a brilliant teacher," said Davis McCombs, director of the Program in Creative Writing and Translation.

Howell's work has received critical acclaim from such outlets as The Los Angeles Times, Poetry London (U.K.), The Courier-Journal, Asymptote, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, The Millions, Arts ATL, MINT (India) and The Kenyon Review. 

Among her other honors are the The Sexton Prize (U.K.), the Pushcart Prize, the Carson McCullers Fellowship and two winter fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Since 2014, Howell has served as Poetry Editor for Oxford American, where she commissions and curates a new profile of Southern poetics. She and her fellow editors received the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2016, and in 2021 they were shortlisted for the CLMP Firecracker Award. 

William Quinn, chair of the English Department, welcomed Howell, saying, "The entire English Department is thrilled to have Rebecca Gayle Howell join us as the newest colleague, a shining jewel in the crown of our Translation Program." 

Founded in 1966, the U of A Program in Creative Writing and Translation in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences consistently ranks in the top 40 M.F.A. programs nationwide, according to Poets & Writers magazine. The Atlantic Monthly named the U of A among the "Top Five Most Innovative" M.F.A. programs in the nation. Noteworthy graduates include Barry Hannah, C.D. Wright, Lucinda Roy and Nic Pizzolatto.

Adblock test (Why?)

Dominican sister helps with work on new translation of Book of Revelation - Crux Now - Translation

NASHVILLE — For the past five years, Sister Mary Dominic Pitts, of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, has been deep in study of the Book of Revelation.

She and 250 others are working on a new translation of the last book of the Bible in a project known as “Le Bible et ses traditions” (“the Bible and its traditions”), or the French abbreviation BEST.

The project is sponsored by École Biblique, the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem.

“École Biblique is a center of research, translation and study of Scripture and archaeology. It is best known for its publication of the Jerusalem Bible,” Pitts explained.

The school was founded in 1890 in Jerusalem by Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange, a French Dominican priest, who was a Scripture scholar and pioneer in biblical exegesis. Its administration and much of its teachings are still in French.

Pitts had already spent two years writing notes on the Book of Revelation when Dominican Father Anthony Giambrone, vice director of École Biblique, called on her to do more in October 2019.

He said it was up to her to translate all five original languages of the book — the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta and the three versions of the Greek New Testament — into English, as well as write notes on interesting grammar, words and more.

“Father Giambrone stressed the fact that they ‘needed a linguist’ to comment on the language-related aspects of the project. I think that my skill set with a doctorate in linguistics and in-depth study of the analysis of languages was what suggested my participation on the project,” Pitts said.

“It helps that I am an experienced editor, which helps keep the footnotes well written but short,” she told the Tennessee Register, diocesan newspaper of Nashville.

Pitts’s knowledge of the three languages came from years of study. In 2001, she studied Syriac with one of the world’s experts in the language, Dominican Father Stephen Ryan, during a summer course at Providence College in Rhode Island.

“That was an accidental acquisition,” she said, noting that she “signed up just for fun, never guessing that I would actually use it 16 years later.”

She learned Greek at Providence College as well, a requirement for her master’s degree in biblical studies. “I’ve tried to keep it up since then,” she said. “I have good dictionaries and grammar (books) to work with all these languages.”

She also has been studying Latin since high school and has continued her studies during her time at the convent.

Pitts spends roughly a month translating each chapter.

“I translate them myself a verse at a time from all five versions to insert into the BEST platform in English,” she said. “The texts that I translate are the original ancient languages in their own spellings and alphabets.

“Any significant variants are ‘stacked’ vertically in the text over the word or phrase where they actually occur, one language on top of another for ease of comparison.”

She said the five versions “are translated as literally as possible to ‘stay true to the text’ especially from Syriac, a language not known as well as Greek or Latin.”

Extensive footnotes at the end of each chapter also are part of the translation.

“They are keyed to cover the verses and cover many linguistic and sociocultural facts never before commented on, including grammatical features, derivations and meanings of words, figures of speech, historical or other contextual facts, and Jewish and Christian tradition,” Pitts said.

Quoting the project’s website, she said the purpose of the translation is to “create the most extensive and helpful set of notes for the entire Bible, with information of interest both to biblical scholars and casual readers.”

As she continues to work on the translations, Pitts said, she expects to complete the project by mid-fall and has high hopes for what it will contribute to  the church.

“Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XII issued encyclicals inviting modern study of the Bible so that Scriptures would be opened up to the faithful in the same methods that Father Lagrange pioneered at the École Biblique,” Pitts said.

“The BEST approach contributes to the richness of Scripture in, for example, ‘biblical polyphony’ resulting from the different versions and will restore the Catholic feel and appreciation of God’s many voices in Scripture,” she added.

– – –

Editors note: For more information about the BEST project, visit https://ift.tt/HlV2kNo.

– – –

Peterson is on the staff of the Tennessee Register, newspaper of the Diocese of Nashville.

Adblock test (Why?)

Editor's column: The insurrectionist's dictionary – Tennessee Lookout - Tennessee Lookout - Dictionary

Those of you who were among the 20 million Americans to tune into Thursday night’s opening hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol and those of you who plan to continue watching will likely become familiar with a number of terms. 

And if you read newspapers or pay attention to chitchat on social media from those who dispute the attack was an insurrection, you are going to hear many of the same terms but may notice differing interpretations. 

So, in an effort to best prepare you to follow the hearings and ensuing conversations from talking heads, we offer up the insurrectionist’s dictionary. 

Tour group. They say: The mob around and in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were tourists. 

We say: Many of us have gone on tours of Washington, DC, and when I lived there, I gave plenty of them to visiting family and friends, promenading them down the Mall, around the Tidal Basin and, for the very special, even going into the West Wing of the White House.

Things we did not do on those tours include beating Capitol Police officers with the American flag, spraying them in the face with bear spray, threatening to hang the vice president of the United States and breaking out windows and stealing statues in the Capitol. Yet, those were some of the activities of the supposed “peaceful protesters.” 

Do these look like tourists to you? (Photo: Alex Kent)

Violent insurrection. They say: Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 were as bad if not worse than the Capitol attack and that protesters should be arrested. 

We say: We now know the pro-Donald Trump faction plotted to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power.

The Black Lives Matter protests were not such a plot to subvert any type of transfer of power. 

The Black Lives Matter protests after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer and Breonna Taylor by Louisville police were a response to those killings and other injustices perpetrated by police against Black Americans. And at least in Nashville, authorities did arrest protesters who set the Historic Metro Nashville Courthouse on fire: They were white. 

Innocent young woman. They say: A woman killed in the Capitol by Capitol Police was trying to stop the riot.

We say: When a supporter of former President Donald Trump refers to an “innocent young woman” in context of the insurrection, they are likely talking about Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed during the attack. From that description, if you knew nothing else, you might think Babbitt was a bystander, martyred by a savage shooting. 

In reality, Babbitt was a 35-year-old Air Force veteran who was shot by a Capitol Police officer when she tried to climb through a broken window into the lobby of the U.S. House of Representatives. She did so despite being warned multiple times, as is documented through numerous reports, not to do so. 

That’s not to say her death wasn’t dreadful, a tragic outcome of her brainwashing by bizarre Q-Anon stories that led her to the Capitol in January 2021.

Traitor. They say: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Jan. 6 committee Vice Chair U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and anyone who voted for Biden.

We say: An elected official who plots to retain power by any means necessary despite losing a free and fair election, exhorting a crowd to storm the Capitol, disrupt the certification of the election, and suggesting the crowd might be right in suggesting one’s vice president be hanged. Abbreviated version: Trump. 

Patriot. They say: People who beat U.S. Capitol Police officers and vilified them in the process of breaking into the Capitol. 

We say: U.S. Capitol Police and members of the Jan. 6 committee.

The President of the United States. They say: Donald J. Trump. 

We say: No. The President is Joe Biden, who won both the popular vote and the Electoral College, the former by more than  7 million votes and the latter by 74 votes. 

Note: Definitions are subject to change as the Jan. 6 committee proceeds. Please stay tuned for semantic updates to the dictionary.

Adblock test (Why?)

Dominican sister helps with work on new translation of Book of Revelation - Crux Now - Translation

NASHVILLE — For the past five years, Sister Mary Dominic Pitts, of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, has been deep in study of the Book of Revelation.

She and 250 others are working on a new translation of the last book of the Bible in a project known as “Le Bible et ses traditions” (“the Bible and its traditions”), or the French abbreviation BEST.

The project is sponsored by École Biblique, the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem.

“École Biblique is a center of research, translation and study of Scripture and archaeology. It is best known for its publication of the Jerusalem Bible,” Pitts explained.

The school was founded in 1890 in Jerusalem by Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange, a French Dominican priest, who was a Scripture scholar and pioneer in biblical exegesis. Its administration and much of its teachings are still in French.

Pitts had already spent two years writing notes on the Book of Revelation when Dominican Father Anthony Giambrone, vice director of École Biblique, called on her to do more in October 2019.

He said it was up to her to translate all five original languages of the book — the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta and the three versions of the Greek New Testament — into English, as well as write notes on interesting grammar, words and more.

“Father Giambrone stressed the fact that they ‘needed a linguist’ to comment on the language-related aspects of the project. I think that my skill set with a doctorate in linguistics and in-depth study of the analysis of languages was what suggested my participation on the project,” Pitts said.

“It helps that I am an experienced editor, which helps keep the footnotes well written but short,” she told the Tennessee Register, diocesan newspaper of Nashville.

Pitts’s knowledge of the three languages came from years of study. In 2001, she studied Syriac with one of the world’s experts in the language, Dominican Father Stephen Ryan, during a summer course at Providence College in Rhode Island.

“That was an accidental acquisition,” she said, noting that she “signed up just for fun, never guessing that I would actually use it 16 years later.”

She learned Greek at Providence College as well, a requirement for her master’s degree in biblical studies. “I’ve tried to keep it up since then,” she said. “I have good dictionaries and grammar (books) to work with all these languages.”

She also has been studying Latin since high school and has continued her studies during her time at the convent.

Pitts spends roughly a month translating each chapter.

“I translate them myself a verse at a time from all five versions to insert into the BEST platform in English,” she said. “The texts that I translate are the original ancient languages in their own spellings and alphabets.

“Any significant variants are ‘stacked’ vertically in the text over the word or phrase where they actually occur, one language on top of another for ease of comparison.”

She said the five versions “are translated as literally as possible to ‘stay true to the text’ especially from Syriac, a language not known as well as Greek or Latin.”

Extensive footnotes at the end of each chapter also are part of the translation.

“They are keyed to cover the verses and cover many linguistic and sociocultural facts never before commented on, including grammatical features, derivations and meanings of words, figures of speech, historical or other contextual facts, and Jewish and Christian tradition,” Pitts said.

Quoting the project’s website, she said the purpose of the translation is to “create the most extensive and helpful set of notes for the entire Bible, with information of interest both to biblical scholars and casual readers.”

As she continues to work on the translations, Pitts said, she expects to complete the project by mid-fall and has high hopes for what it will contribute to  the church.

“Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XII issued encyclicals inviting modern study of the Bible so that Scriptures would be opened up to the faithful in the same methods that Father Lagrange pioneered at the École Biblique,” Pitts said.

“The BEST approach contributes to the richness of Scripture in, for example, ‘biblical polyphony’ resulting from the different versions and will restore the Catholic feel and appreciation of God’s many voices in Scripture,” she added.

– – –

Editors note: For more information about the BEST project, visit https://ift.tt/HlV2kNo.

– – –

Peterson is on the staff of the Tennessee Register, newspaper of the Diocese of Nashville.

Adblock test (Why?)

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Will Guide Oxford University Press Over New African American English Dictionary - Black Enterprise - Dictionary

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the Hutchins Center for African and American Research at Harvard University, will provide editorial direction to Oxford University Press as it devises a dictionary that will exclusively be dedicated to “African-American Vernacular English,” according to the Washington Times.

Mellon and Wagner Foundations provided grants for the undertaking. The Oxford Dictionary of African American English (ODAAE) is a seminal erudite initiative focused on documenting the evolution of the vast and historical influential lexicon of AAVE and compiling it into a dictionary, the Oxford English reports.

 “African American English has had a profound impact on the world’s most widely spoken language, yet much of it has been obscured. The ODAAE seeks to acknowledge this contribution more fully and formally and, in doing so, create a powerful tool for a new generation of researchers, students, and scholars to build a more accurate picture of how African American life has influenced how we speak, and therefore who we are,” Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages at Oxford University Press, said in a released statement.

The glossary will contain “quotations taken from real examples of language in use,” in conjunction with meanings, pronunciation, spelling, proper usage, and the historical context of each word within the Oxford dictionary notations, as mentioned by the Oxford English Dictionary. 

Gates will lead a group of researchers and editors recruited from Oxford and Harvard, the Washington Times reports.

Gates explained, “Every speaker of American English borrows heavily from words invented by African Americans, whether they know it or not. Words with African origins such as ”goober’, ‘gumbo’ and ‘okra’ survived the Middle Passage along with our African ancestors. And words that we take for granted today, such as ‘cool’ and ‘crib,’ ‘hokum’ and ‘diss,’ ‘hip’ and ‘hep,’ ‘bad,’ meaning ‘good,’ and ‘dig,’ meaning ‘to understand’—these are just a tiny fraction of the words that have come into American English from African American speakers, neologisms that emerged out of the Black Experience in this country, over the last few hundred years.”

The dictionary will be available in 2025.

Adblock test (Why?)

Lil Nas X Wants 'Bussy' Added to the Dictionary For Pride Month - Out Magazine - Dictionary

Lil Nas X Wants 'Bussy' Added to the Dictionary For Pride Month

Pride Month 2022 is all about the bussy!

That’s the message Grammy-winning artist Lil Nas X is sending, at least, and we are on board 100 percent! Over the weekend, the "Industry Baby" rapper and singer tweeted that “for Pride Month it’s really important that our government finally takes a stand and adds bussy to the dictionary.” We couldn’t agree more!

Now, Dictionary.com has decided to step up and be a true ally, replying “we added WAP to the dictionary, so anything’s possible.” Happy Pride indeed!!!

If you’re not familiar, “bussy” is a portmanteau of the words “boy” and “p*ssy” used to describe the anus. The first time the word was used online goes way back to 2007 where an Urban Dictionary user uploaded the definition “Slang term used by gay men to connote Boy-P*ssy. In reference to their anus. Bussy has been used for at least 15 years by gay men to describe their man hole of love!”

While the phrase has been popular in gay and trans communities for years, it reached widespread audiences in 2019 when Taron Egerton did a video for BuzzFeed entitled “Taron Egerton Reads Thirst Tweets.”

One of the tweets he read in the video said “Taron Egerton is a white boy that I trust to destroy my bussy.” After he read it, Egerton asked, “What does that mean?”

Now the word has become so ubiquitous that cis, straight people are misusing it. But don’t worry, Lil Nas X is here to save us and make sure the word is used correctly. He even uses the word in an upcoming song.

There are still about two weeks left in Pride Month, so that’s plenty of time for the dictionary to officially add bussy.

RELATED | 34 Pride Collections That Actually Benefit the LGBTQ+ Community

Adblock test (Why?)

Web3 Dictionary for Musicians: Explaining gas, DAO, hot wallet, KYC, rug pull, more - hypebot.com - Dictionary

Get up to date on one of the biggest players of the future of the music industry-Web3, with this Glossary of artists you must know.

by Janelle Borg from AmplifyYou

If you’re confused about the web3-related terms that pop up on Twitter or Instagram, you’re not alone. Web3 has led to a lexicon of new words that are quickly becoming part of the jargon of several industries – including the music industry. So if you want to stay ahead of the curb, here’s a simple web3 glossary to get you started!

A – Address

A string of characters representing a crypto wallet. These characters are randomly generated and are essential when it comes to sending or receiving digital assets.

B – Blockchain

A digital ledger system that makes it impossible to change or hack information. It is a form of distributed database that records all transactions.

C – Crypto

Short for cryptocurrency, it is a digital currency secured by cryptography. Cryptocurrencies are different from “normal” currencies, in that they are not regulated by central or third-party authorities and run on the blockchain.

D – DAO

Stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. DAOs are blockchain-based organisations that are community-led and do not have a central authority. They are governed by members who decide on the current and future direction of the DAO.

E – Ethereum

Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Its native cryptocurrency, Ether, is the token most commonly used in the Ethereum blockchain network.

F – Fiat money

This refers to government-issued, “traditional” currencies such as dollars, pounds and euros. Fiat money is largely controlled by central authorities, such as banks and governments.

G – Gas

Gas is the fee required to make a transaction on the Ethereum network. The exact price of the gas fee depends on demand and supply.

H – Hot wallet

A hot wallet is a wallet connected to the internet. It enables holders to send, receive and store tokens. Hot wallets are secured by public and private keys that facilitate transactions.

I – Interoperability

This refers to techniques that enable different blockchains to work together and transfer assets to each other for maximum functionality. Interoperability is one of the building blocks of web3 as it leads to inter-industry collaboration.

K – KYC

Know Your Customer (KYC) refers to a set of standards in financial services used to verify customers. In crypto, it is the process of verifying identities before allowing users to use a crypto exchange.

L – Liquidity

This refers to the speed with which an asset can be converted into standard cash without affecting the market price. Essentially, liquidity is how quickly you can get cash in your hands.

M – Metaverse

The metaverse refers to a shared virtual environment that can be accessed using technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality. One of the main tenets of the metaverse is social connection. Therefore, the concept refers to a future iteration of the Internet that is universal and more like an immersive virtual world than it is today.

N – NFT

NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. An NFT is a digital asset that exists on the blockchain. Since NFTs are secured by cryptography, they are totally unique and therefore cannot be replicated.

P – P2P

P2P or peer-to-peer refers to a direct exchange of an asset between individuals, without the involvement of third parties. Unlike traditional online transactions, P2P transactions are safeguarded by being recorded on every peer’s network.

R – Rug Pull

A rug pull is a common scam in the crypto and NFT spaces. This is when a project owner promotes a new project to investors, hypes it up, and then abandons it after taking all the funds.

S – Smart Contract

A smart contract is a transaction protocol in the form of code that runs when certain conditions are met. Smart contracts automate the execution of a workflow so that the individuals involved know what the outcome is going to be.

T – Token

A token is a representation of an asset that is held, traded, or staked to earn interest. Technically, it’s just another word for crypto. However, it is mostly used when referring to cryptocurrencies other than Ethereum and Bitcoin. “Token” is also used to refer to digital assets or collectibles.

V – Virtual Reality

Virtual reality or VR is a simulated experience that can be accessed using headsets or multi-projected environments. VR is computer-generated and can be interacted with in a “real” way via specialised equipment.

W – Web3

The impending iteration of the Internet, which is based on blockchain technology, token-based economics and interoperability. Coined in 2014 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, web3 gained a lot of popularity from 2020 as blockchain technology and crypto became mainstream.

Adblock test (Why?)