RIPTON — The Middlebury Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference and Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers’ Conference will each offer free lectures and readings to the public when they are in session June 3-9. Both conferences are modeled on the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the oldest writers’ conference in the country.
The Translators’ Conference, now in its third year, is the first such forum to highlight the important role that literary translators of poetry and prose play in the United States and beyond. The fourth annual Environmental Writers’ Conference is designed for those who want to bring more depth of knowledge and understanding to their writing about the environment and the natural world. The two gatherings will take place concurrently at Middlebury’s Bread Loaf campus in Ripton.
The intensive week-long sessions incorporate the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference model of small, focused workshops coupled with readings, discussions, lectures, and specialized classes focusing on the craft of writing at the Environmental Conference, or, in the case of the Translators’ Conference, on the art of literary translation. Each morning there are lectures in the Barn and Little Theatre on the Bread Loaf campus given by faculty from the Translators’ and Environmental Conference’s respectively. Each evening there are readings offered by both conferences in the Little Theatre.
The Translators’ Conference will feature such faculty as Maureen Freely and Christopher Merrill ’79. The author of seven novels, Freely has translated or co-translated a number of Turkish memoirs, classics and rising stars but is perhaps best known for her translations of five books by the Turkish novelist and Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. She will give a reading on Sunday, June 4 and a lecture on Monday, June 5. Merrill has published six collections of poetry, five works of nonfiction, and many edited volumes and books of translations. His own writings have been translated into nearly 40 languages. Merrill’s many honors include a Chevalier from the French government in the Order of Arts and Letters. He will give a reading on Wednesday, June 7 and a lecture on Thursday, June 8.
Megan Mayhew Bergman and Camille Dungy are among the faculty of the Environmental Conference. Bergman is the author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise, Almost Famous Women, and a forthcoming novel, The Exhibition. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Best American Short Stories, Paris Review, Oxford American and on NPR. Bergman will give a reading on Monday, June 5. Dungy′s newest collection of poetry, Trophic Cascade, was published in March 2017. Guidebook of Relative Strangers, her debut collection of personal essays, is forthcoming in June 2017. She is also the author of Smith Blue, Suck on the Marrow, and What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison. Dungy will give a lecture on Monday, June 5 and a reading on Wednesday, June 7.
The complete schedule of the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference and Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers’ Conference lectures and readings is available at www.middlebury.edu/bread-loaf-conferences. 
 
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Events are subject to change. To confirm dates and times, contact the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences at (802) 443-5286, [email protected] or [email protected].