Mary Winegarden Deals with the Death of a Sibling in The Translator's Sister

​ This book originated as a novel by an accomplished editor, critic, and translator of poetry. It was to be called The Translator's Apology. But the author suddenly died. Then her sister resumed it, in a way, with her own book, called The Translator's Sister. That survivor is the poet Mary Winegarden, a San Francisco State University lecturer whose new book of poems deals with the death of her sister, Katharine Washburn, openly and experimentally. She appears Tuesday evening at Bookshop West Portal.

The Translator's Sister is itself a work of translation, between forms -- prose, poetry, fiction, memoir -- and perhaps even between the basic states of death and life. Winegarden is joined by fellow SF State writers Jennifer Arin and Julyan Peard, also reading their own recent work.

The event begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bookshop West Portal, 80 West Portal (at Vicente), S.F. Admission is free.

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