“She had a face that would haunt me for the rest of my life”: Looking for Annemarie Schwarzenbach
Grappling with the complexities of Annemarie Schwarzenbach’s life–falling in love with her, in a way–entails addressing not just her political and ideological stances in light of her personal relationships, but also the realities of queerness within history, and the interplay of both of these aspects.
East and West: What Tagore Loved to Eat
Over the past several months, I have steeped myself in Tagore, trying to imbibe his songs and poetry and to know him as a man. As a Nobel Prize winner and a towering literary figure, Tagore is a cultural icon of Bengal. I have sought his soul and prided
Small-Town Life: Polish Edition
It’s obvious on the page that Springer has fallen in love with the town, with its story. Some chapters read like a brochure for a place that no longer exists.
“A Novel in Poetry”: An Interview With Dr. Mutlu Konuk Blasing and Poet Randy Blasing
I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Mutlu Konuk Blasing and Randy Blasing, the formidable translators of Nazım Hikmet. The Blasings have translated six books of Hikmet's poetry together, and on their own they have a long record of contributions to scholarship and poetry.
Editorial Argonáutica: A Tiny Interview With Efrén Ordóñez
Editorial Argonáutica is the brainchild of Efrén Ordóñez and Marco Alcalá, both accomplished writers and translators in their own right who decided in 2015 that the world needed a publishing house that would be global in its outlook and that would celebrate the translation and promotion of writers whose
“Becoming A Parent Made Me A Ruthless Editor of My Own Work”: An Interview with Elizabeth Onusko
Elizabeth Onusko’s poems are sharp-edged, sometimes bleak, but also very funny; they feel timeless, but also of the moment in their portrayal of the complicated emotions surrounding infertility, pregnancy and impending parenthood. We caught up to talk writing, editing, parenting, and how that third activity reshapes the other two.
The Chapter in THE SECOND SEX Men Should Read
Up until recently, I’d always stacked Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex on the same mental shelf as War and Peace and In Search of Lost Time—books unwieldy in size and densely written, requiring a nearly extinct attention span.
Novel May Peeve Feminists and Destroy the Garden of Eden
Could a novel simultaneously peeve feminists and slash our image of the Garden of Eden? You might think so when you read Eve out of Her Ruins, a novel by Mauritian author Ananda Devi. The short and gorgeous book empowers women in a way that might infuriate feminists.
You vs Me, An Intellectual: Rewriting Pop Culture in Poetry
Pop culture, like poetry, can work like excavation; it authorizes us to ask questions, to uncover, and to translate.
Translating Turkish: An Interview With Agency Owner and Translator Amy Spangler
Amy Spangler is the co-founder of the Turkish literary agency, AnatoliaLit, and a translator of several novels from Turkish to English. Amy's latest translation, Noontime in Yenişehir, was published by Milet Publishing last year.