Author Talk & Bilingual Reading with Rim Battal and Liza Tripp
Spruce 130
Michelle Cheyne
mcheyne@umassd.edu
On Tuesday, November 10, 2026, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Department of Global Languages & Cultures welcomes Rim Battal, an award-winning French-Moroccan poet and novelist, and Liza Tripp, a locally-based literary translator, to campus in conjunction with Fall 2026’s “Contemporary Francophone Literary Voices in Translation” from 9:45-10:45 am, in Spruce 130.
Rim Battal and Liza Tripp, will discuss the English translation of I’ll Look Myself in the Eyes and offer a sneak-preview bilingual reading for this novel, which Galiot Press is launching in US bookstores on November 10, 2026. Finalist for the 2025 Arab Literature Prize, Battal’s fierce autobiographical novel about family betrayal and coming of age has been hailed by France’s Le Nouvel Obs as “a formidable, irreverent tale of emancipation, fueled by an intoxicating spirit of freedom”. Tripp’s translation crackles with the same energy and wit as the original.
Join us for a lively conversation and bilingual reading with Battal and Tripp followed by a raffle for five copies of the novel and a book-signing. This free event, organized by the College of Arts & Sciences and the Department of Global Languages and Cultures with the support of Galiot Press is open to the UMass Dartmouth community. The talk begins at 9:45 and ends promptly at 10:45 in Spruce 130.
For further information, please contact Dr. Cheyne, Professor of French with the UMass Dartmouth Department of Global Languages & Culture at mcheyne@umassd.edu.