Dear reader,
You are about to enter the strange world of the Outranspo. Before you do, in lieu of a proper introduction, here are a few pieces of information that may help you better appreciate our project:
- The Outranspo is a group composed of thirteen people, which means that among us there are thirteen different styles, aesthetics, writing habits, and political positions. We cherish this diversity.
- The Outranspo, by definition, is multilingual: some of the pieces are in English, others in French, most are derived from or incorporate more than one language.
- Our love for languages encompasses a love for different medias, which is why you will find within our projects aspects of text, sound, music, image, video…
- The Outranspo has friends. Many friends. All over the world and in all languages. We arrogantly call them « paraOutranspians » but the truth is, many of them are « preOutranspians » and have greatly inspired us. Some of them have been invited to contribute to this issue, and we are extremely happy that many of them have accepted.
- The Outranspo flirts with visual poetry, and we are not computer scientists: this is why some of the texts have to be opened in PDF files.
- There is plenty more to come soon, and comments are extremely welcome and actively invited: visit us at our newborn website, still in its first infancy: www.outranspo.com
With that, and without further ado, enjoy the linguistic festivities!
What is the Outranspo?
The Outranspo (Ouvroir de translation potencial) is a motley group of multilingual translators, writers, researchers and musicians who joyously devote themselves to creative approaches to translation, primarily through monthly virtual meetings. Founded in the wake of the Oulipo in 2012, in Rochester (USA), and truly active since 2014 (more specifically at a conference entitled "Translating Constrained Literature" in Baltimore, MD), "A' no Proust!" is its battle cry, or, depending on where in the world the cry is cried, "No a Proust!"