Anne Weber & Tess Lewis : Portraying the Self, Portraying Others

The Center for Writers & Translators is delighted to sponsor a conversation with acclaimed author Anne Weber about the strategies, challenges, and risks of writing autobiographically. In addition to examining approaches to self-portraiture in fiction, the discussion will consider its distinction from writing about the life of another person. It will also feature Weber's 2020 German Book Prize-winner, Epic Annette, and its translation, from the German and the French (Weber writes her books in both languages), into English. Epic Annette is the extraordinary true story of Annette Beaumanoir: brilliant and fierce, she was a medical student living in a world at war who, at nineteen years old, joined the French Resistance and saved the lives of two Jewish children in Paris on the eve of their deportation to the camps. As a doctor and mother devoted to justice and equality, Annette was later found guilty of treachery for supporting the Algerian FLN in France and sentenced to ten years in prison. The story of her dramatic escape, trial in absentia and decades in exile, separated from her children, resembles that of the great heroes whose love for individuals had to compete with their destiny and love of humanity.

Anne Weber will be joined by Tess Lewis, translator into English of Epic Annette'.

External guests are welcome. Please RSVP to dmedinaup.edu at least 24 hours before the event if you wish to attend, and bring a picture ID.