This year sees a tremendous and welcome project for the work of Val Mulkerns – the translation of her volume of collected short stories in in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Memory and Desire has been translated and published by the University of Banja Luka and is now part of the English Department’s curriculum.
The book’s translation is the brainchild of Professor Petar Penda, of the English Literature Department in Banja Luka, who is a broadly published academic in the area of English Literature.
Dr Penda has tak
en a particular interest in work by Irish authors. With a view to including more Irish authors on the English Literature curriculum, he edited a previous volume of collected short stories by Irish writers, Irske kratke priče. It includes work from William Trevor, Val Mulkerns, Anne Enright and Colm Tóibín. This title was launched in November, 2021.
Following on from this first project, Professor Penda wanted to explore further translation possibilities of work by an individual Irish author, and approached the estate of Val Mulkerns with a view to taking on Memory and Desire. The project received the full cooperation of the Irish Embassy in Banja Luka.
The proud new title of the book, launched at the end of 2021, is Sjećanje I Požuda
Since the publication of the book, two more stories by Val have been translated and will be published by a literary journal in Montenegro, thereby fulfilling some of the original hopes of Professor Penda – to make the work of Irish writers more available in the region.
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