Launch Party for I Was Alive Here Once: Ghost Stories

Bat Witch Ghost, Cuentero Productions, and the Center for the Art of Translation team up to create an artist-made haunted reading room built into the lobby of the KALW studio.

Inspired by the short story “The Loose-Haired Women” by Salomat Vafo, translated from the Uzbek by Sabrina Jaszi and published in I Was Alive Here Once: Ghost Stories by Two Lines Press's Calico Series, this installation reinvents the classic ghost story, abandoning tired tropes to confront modern political horrors and blurring the lines between the living and the dead.

In celebration of the opening of the reading room on March 19, Sabrina Jaszi will read her translation of “The Loose-Haired Women,” followed by a conversation with Two Lines Press Calico Series' Editor Sarah Coolidge. Tea and light snacks will be provided.

Sabrina Jaszi is a literary translator based in Alameda, CA, working from Uzbek, Ukrainian, and Russian. Her published translations include the works of Salomat Vafo, Suhbat Aflatuni, O‘tkir Hoshimov, Reed Grachev, Nadezhda Teffi, and Alisa Ganieva. Her co-translation with Roman Ivashkiv of Andriy Sodomora’s The Tears and Smiles of Things (Academic Studies Press) received the American Association for Ukrainian Studies’ Best Translation Prize for 2023–24. She is also a writer with stories and essays published in StoryQuarterly, J Journal, The Paris Review Daily, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder of Turkoslavia, a collective and journal devoted to Turkic and Slavic literature in translation. To learn more, visit Turkoslavia.com.

Sarah Coolidge is an editor at Two Lines Press. She received her BA in comparative literature from Bard College. She enjoys reading books in Spanish and English, and she writes essays on photography and international literature.

Donohon Abdugafurova is a scholar of religion, gender, and literature within Uzbek society. Her work has appeared in Central Asian Affairs, Journal of Georgetown Gender and Law, and Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies, among others. She holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies and works at Wake Forest University.

About I Was Alive Here Once

Ghost stories from Korea, Yemen, Poland, Japan, Uzbekistan, Iceland, Tanzania, and Thailand. A water ghost and a forest ghost fall in love as developers destroy the only world they know. A midwife helps a jinn give birth. When an ancient tree is cut down, it unleashes a family’s dark secret along with a vengeful spirit. Through eight contemporary stories exploring a range of genres, from fantasy and horror to eco-fiction and romance, this collection breathes new life into the ghost story, foregoing familiar tropes to speak to today’s unique political and ecological horrors. Both lighthearted and menacing, I Was Alive Here Once will lead you into the haze where the living and the dead meet.

About Two Lines Press

Two Lines Press is an award-winning press committed to publishing daring and original literature in translation in striking editions. Founded in 2013, Two Lines Press is a program of the Center for the Art of Translation, a San Francisco–based nonprofit that champions literary translation.

About Bat Witch Ghost

BWG is an arts organization building on the tradition of the American haunted house. They unite artists, neighbors, and local businesses in collaborative creation, artistic stimulation, and neighborhood connection. Their mission is to use recycled and discarded materials whenever possible and to provide paid opportunities for artists and craftspeople. Through a sustainable revenue model, they aim to become a lasting San Francisco tradition that celebrates the city’s creative spirit and love of costumed performance. Bat Witch Ghost demonstrates how community-driven art can be both financially viable and socially transformative, designing gathering spaces where creativity and community intersect.

About Cuentero Productions

Cuentero Productions is an award-nominated, multilingual, multimedia production house. It draws its name and spirit from the Colombian tradition of the cuentero—storytellers who fill town squares and theaters with the magic of stories. Rejecting one-mold-fits-all models, the company focuses on a deeply collaborative co-creation process to tell entertaining fiction and nonfiction tales exactly as the creators want them told. The house’s creative vision is led by Creative Director Camilo Garzón, an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, writer, and filmmaker. Beyond their current collaboration at KALW, Cuentero Productions has a prolific history of adapting complex narratives. This includes notable past literary and multimedia projects with the Center for the Art of Translation’s Two Lines Press such as “Husband in a Box,” “Cigarettes Until Tomorrow,” and “Soroche.”

The Haunted Reading Room installation will also be open to the public, free of charge March 19–March 21, 11:00 am–5:00 pm.

Contact the host of The Loose-Haired Women: A Haunted Reading Room at KALW