"The Black Spider" by Jeremias Gotthelf [Books I'm Excited About]
I think it was two summers ago that I was last in Chicago for the annual Goethe Institut Helen and Kurt Wolff Translation Prize Extravaganza. (I love these gatherings. The award ceremony, the people involved with German literature, the panels, etc. It always seems to be a beautiful couple days weather-wise as well, which ...
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Japanese Literature in English [New Cool Things, Part III]
Another favorite translator—Allison Powell—has just launched Japanese Literature in English, a website that plays to all of my databasing and list making impulses. japanese literature in english is a searchable database that compiles all literary works translated from japanese to english and available in the ...
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New Vessel Press [New Cool Things, Part II]
One of the exciting new trends in publishing is the consolidation of mega-companies to create a totally misbalanced marketplace that mimics the unequal distribution of wealth in America that anyone who loves freedom obviously agrees with. Well, that or the new ways that international titles are finding their way into the ...
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Basti
The Urdu word basti refers to any space, intimate to worldly, and is often translated as ācommon placeā or āa gathering place.ā This book by Intizar Husain, who is widely regarded as one of the most important living Pakistani writers, traverses a number of cities, the connections between them, and the people who live ...
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The Whispering Muse
The Whispering Muse, one of three books by Icelandic writer SjĆ³n just published in North America, is nothing if not inventive. Stories within stories, shifting narration, leaps in time, and characters who transform from men to birds and back againāyouāve seen this sort of thing before in Ovid, Bulgakov, Kafka, and ...
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Clive James's and His Ignorant Comment
Hopefully that headline got your attention. But seriously, check out this bit from the By the Book feature that appeared in the New York Times this weekend: Are you a rereader? What books do you find yourself returning to again and again? I donāt do much rereading anymore because Iāve been ill and feel that ...
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Mundo Cruel by Luis NegrĆ³n
Luis NegrĆ³nās debut collection Mundo Cruel is a journey through Puerto Ricoās gay world. Published in 2010, the book is already in its fifth Spanish edition. Here in the U.S., the collection has been published by Seven Stories Press and translated from the Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine, winner of the 2012 PEN Center USA ...
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