Raymond Federman

I am thinking much of Raymond Federman these days. How he kept me motivated during my research for my diploma thesis, how he still influences my research today and how much I miss the possibility to just write him an email again.
I recently came across a blog post by Arie Altena - he translated the The Voice in the Closet into Dutch- in which he is sharing his personal memories of Federman and of his translation:
"he specifically urged me to be free with the translation, to feel free to turn it into flowing Dutch".

Federman and Beckett...

both self-translators and friends. In his wonderful memorial essay samuel beckett: the gift of words, written shortly after Beckett's death, Raymond Federman shares his memories and gives us insight into their friendship and Becketts struggle with his self-translations. Please read the essay here..

Remembering Raymond Federman

Truly sad news: Raymond Federman died yesterday after a long fight against cancer.
I was blessed to get in touch with him during my research for my diploma thesis. He was so kind to answer several questions concerning his self-translations. I also had the chance to meet him in person at a lecture in Berlin last year. He was so vivid and engaging and generous. That's how I will remember him. The world has lost another great writer. He will truly be missed. My deepest sympathy to his family.

"Language vanishes into death, and death vanishes into silence. Or is it, death that vanishes into language, and language into silence?" (Reflections on ways to improve death)
Read the whole text on:
http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/ezines/deluxe/five/reflections.html

Get to know him:
http://raymondfederman.blogspot.com/

People who had the chance to get to know him share their memories:
http://rougelarsenrose.blogspot.com/2009/10/raymond-federman.html
http://samizdatblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/raymond-federman-rip.html
http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/bernstein/blog/#10-07-09
http://mrvicedhonest.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/raymond-federman-1928-2009/
http://rhystranter.blogspot.com/2009/10/raymond-federman-1928-2009.html
http://cameliaelias.blogspot.com/2009/10/federman-dies.html

Journals on Federman passing away:
Buffalo News
Público

Raymond Federman and the Web 2.0

Raymond Federman is one of the most important postmodern writers and of course a self-translator. He was born in 1928 in France and emigrated to the United States in 1947.
Raymond Federman's favourite writer is Beckett. As we have seen Beckett functions as a link between Nancy Huston,Vassilis Alexakis and Raymond Federman.
Federman writes in English or in French. He mostly self-translates his poetry, but he has also self-translated some of his novels. I will tell you about his self-translations on a separate posting.
Raymond Federman is very interested in getting in touch with his readers. For this purpose he is one of the few writers who uses the means of the Web 2.0. He writes his own blog, of course he has a homepage, but you can also find him on Facebook and myspace and he has even published his email-adress, so you have many means to contact him directly.
If you ever have the chance to attend one of his readings, don't miss it, you will never forget it!

Raymond Federman on the web:
http://www.federman.com/
http://raymondfederman.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/raymondfederman