Translators In Fiction: Tales Of Bart With José Alaniz

RSVP on NOTIS.ORG >>

The Northwest Literary Translators are proud to present Tales of Bart a new novel by local translator and University of Washington professor José Alaniz. We'll hear about his latest book and discuss trends in fictional portrayals of translators. Please bring food or drink to share.

In Tales of Bart, a Parisian café waiter discovers a mysterious package of documents left by a fugitive-like stranger, unraveling a kaleidoscope of multilingual wordplay, historical intrigue, dystopian visions, and literary puzzles. Tales of Bart—a nod to Alexander Pushkin’s Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin—follows the scandalous exploits of “evil” translator Fruitvale Bart. Spanning Republic-era Texas, 19th-century Russia, far-future Atalanta, and 1990s Los Angeles, each vignette is tied to Bart’s provocative translations. Alaniz’s novel probes the nature of translation—faithful reproduction or creative reinvention—and explores art, colonial legacies, postmodern alienation, and the horrors of the self in dazzling, thought-provoking layers.