Manufacturing Cinema, Teaching Translation, and Aspiring to Freedom from Language

We continue our series of conversations with IWP staff and collaborators by interviewing Nataša Ďurovičová, who recently retired after serving as the program's editor for twenty-two years. We discuss her academic history and interest in cinema, the roles of writers in public life as imagined by different cultures, how the IWP has changed over the years, and the difficulties of escaping from language.

The Lit_Cast Slovakia episode discussed is here: https://www.litcentrum.sk/en/article/litcast-slovakia-9-natasa-durovicova

The 55th Anniversary virtual exhibit is here: https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/gallery/exhibit/iwp55years/ 

Say the World: An International Writing Podcast is made by the International Writing Program. The hosts are IWP Director Christopher Merrill, most recently the author of ON THE ROAD TO LVIV (Arrowsmith Press, 2023) and IWP Communications Coordinator Mike Meginnis, most recently the author of DROWNING PRACTICE (Ecco, 2022).

IWP programming is primarily funded by the University of Iowa and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) at the U.S. Department of State, with additional funding provided by organizations like the Doris Duke Foundation, as well as donors like you. If you’d like to donate to IWP, go to bit.ly/iwp-support.

Learn more about IWP at iwp.uiowa.edu.