Round-Up: Chicago Public Library Giveaway, the 2016 PEN Pinter Prize, and Gregory Rabassa
From the Chicago Public Library's children's book giveaway to the passing of a central figure in Latin American writing, here's some of last week's most important literary news: Writer and activist Margaret Atwood was awarded with the 2016 PEN Pinter prize.
Mexican Indigeneous
It might be considered anathema to our neighbors south of the Rio Grande but Phoneme Media is having a veritable publishing celebration of indigenous Mexican poetry. This small, indie publisher with one of the coolest catalogues of world lit understands what Anthony Seidman wrote recently in World Literature Today.
How One Publisher Sparked a Rebirth of Turkey’s Greek History
On the flight back to Istanbul, I hold one of the first books put out by Istos Publishing in my hands. Out of the press’s slim, silver-colored bilingual Greek-Turkish edition of Nikos Kazantzakis’s The Ascetic (Ασκητική-Çileci), the publishing house’s logo pops out in gold, almost holographic. I turn the
Han Kang’s THE VEGETARIAN Wins Man Booker International Prize
Last week, the winner of the newly refocused Man Booker International Prize was announced to be The Vegetarian, a novel by the Korean writer Han Kang, translated into English by Deborah Smith. Originally published as three novellas, the book is the surreal story of Yeong-hye, a young Korean woman
On Failure: Being a Writer Who Translates and a Translator Who Writes
I spent a large part of last spring working in coffee shops all around the Finger Lakes region with a group of writers. One of them had published several novels; another had just signed with an agent and was making revisions to her novel-in-progress; the others were working on
The Best Poem I Read This Month: Sarah Sgro’s “Body as a Plant Expanding”
I’ve read Sarah Sgro’s poetry for about four years, and remain a consistent witness to its various evolutions and concentrations concerning femininity, food, sexuality, and waste. In the past year, Sgro’s work has flourished, wreaked havoc, and run amok through many journals. Because her pieces keep sharpening their
We miss out when US publishers lag behind in adopting global titles: an Interview with Jim Pascual Agustin
Why and when did you move from the Philippines to South Africa and how does one choose South Africa in particular? The quick answer would be because of a girl I met on holiday in the mountainous regions Philippines of the north. When I flew to South Africa on
Round-Up: Bookslut, BTBA Winners, and the Intersection of Poetry and Music
From Bookslut’s last issue to the important role poetry and music play in each other’s lives, here’s a look at the latest literary news: In March, founder of Bookslut Jessica Crispin announced she’d be stopping publication of the website, which she’s been running since 2002. She recently sat down with
Door Wide Open: On the Process of Working with Authors
As a reader, is there anything better than finding a book that resonates with you so intensely that you feel that you know the author, share a mind (or a heart) with them, that their words were written for you? As a translator, I can think of something even
Compensation and Nuance: An Interview with Michele Hutchison
Michele Hutchison is an editor, blogger, and translator of both Dutch and French living in Amsterdam. For this interview, we’re talking about one of her latest projects, La Superba, a novel written by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer recently published in the US by Deep Vellum. Pfeijffer is known in the