A podiatrist’s story. She stopped writing to start looking after other people’s feet. She needed to make a living. Her fellow authors were not impressed. But from that experience, she crafted some impressive portraits of people and place. When many…
Blog Archives
Marzahn, Mon Amour
Tagged with: Berlin, books, German, Hanser Verlag, Jo Heinrich, Katja Oskamp, Marzahn, Peirene Press, Translation
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted in Uncategorized
Childhood, Youth, Dependency
Tiny books with pastel covers that pack a punch. I wish I had found these sooner, and that the author could still write more. I discovered the Danish Tove – Ditlevsen – through a rave review of Katriina Huttunen’s new…
Tagged with: books, Childhood, Copenhagen Trilogy, Danish, Denmark, Dependency, Finnish, gift, Katriina Huttunen, Lapsuus, Michael Favala Goldman, Nuoruus, Tiina Nually, Tove Ditlevsen, Translation, Youth
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted in Uncategorized
Malambo
For Black History Month, here’s a story from a time and place that’s often been forgotten. Malambo is set in sixteenth-century Peru among artists, friars, healers, swindlers, silversmiths, traders and fisherfolk who just happen to be Black – alongside indigenous…
Tagged with: Black History Month, books, Emmanuel Harris II, Lucía Charún-Illescas, Malambo, Peru, Spanish, Swan Isle Press, Translation
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted in Uncategorized
Poems from the edge of extinction
The last line of the refrain in the Welsh national anthem is O bydded i’r hen iaith barhau (“O may the old language endure” in W.S. Gwynn Williams’ translation). I remember learning it when I was about seven or eight;…
Tagged with: Ainu, books, Chiri Yukie, faroese, Frankie Sewell, Gearóid Mac Lochllain, Hobyot, Ireland, Irish Gaelic, Japan, John McMurray Press, Kim Simonsen, Kristang, Kyoko Selden, Martha Fernandez, Miranda Morris, Poems from the Edge of Extinction, Poetry, Singapore, Translation, W.S. Gwynn Williams, Wales, Welsh, Yemen
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Searching for Sappho
New poems by a woman who died over two millennia ago – of course I was interested. And this book does get off to a cracking detective-like start, which reminded me of a book I loved, Sisters of Sinai: What happens after…
Tagged with: Anne Carson, Greek, Mary Barnard, Philip Freeman, Sappho, Searching for Sappho, Translation
Posted in books, gender, history, poetry, Uncategorized
Posted in books, gender, history, poetry, Uncategorized
A prickly translation: The hour of the star
“I write because I’m desperate and I’m tired, I can no longer bear the routine of being me and if not for the always novelty that is writing, I would die symbolically every day. But I am prepared to slip…
Tagged with: Benjamin Moser, Brazil, Brazilian Portuguese, Clarice Lispector, Rio di Janiero, The Hour of the Star, Translation
Posted in books, literature, Uncategorized
Posted in books, literature, Uncategorized
New Chinese writing: A Yi
At Read Paper Republic, you can find a new Chinese writing every week for a year. The editors want to introduce Chinese short stories, essays and poems for free, to people who don’t know where to start. And they start…
Tagged with: A Yi, Anna Holmwood, Chinese, Literature, Michelle Deeter, Read Paper Republic, Translation
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Williams translating Williams
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has a new book of poems out this month, first presented at the Edinburgh Book Festival, where I got my hands on a copy. The Other Mountain, published by Carcanet, includes a couple of…
Tagged with: books, Edinburgh Book Festival, Literature, Poetry, Rowan Williams, The Other Mountain, Translation, Waldo Williams, Wales, Welsh
Posted in books, Edinburgh Festival, faith, literature, poetry, translation, Uncategorized
Posted in books, Edinburgh Festival, faith, literature, poetry, translation, Uncategorized
found in translation 