Diversifying the Translation Field: A Conversation with John Keene, by Veronica Esposito

Interviews Veronica Esposito John Keene is the author of Counternarratives, which received an American Book Award and the Republic of Consciousness Prize. He is also the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. He is the translator of Hilda Hilst’s Letters from a Seducer, and he is an essayist advocating for increased diversity in translated literature. Veronica Esposito: As you argue in your essay for the Poetry Foundation, “Translating Poetry, Translating Blackness,” “we need more translation of literary works by non-Anglophone black diasporic authors into English.” What is the importance of these writers to the US translation scene and US culture more broadly? John Keene: I believe it is important to hear from as broad an array of global voices as possible, in part to increase our understanding of both the rest of the world and of ourselves, and to avoid what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has beautifully described as “the single story.” Whatever we might feel about globalism as an economic system and ideology, global interdependence is real; isolationist and neocolonial and neo-imperial approaches to the United States’ relationship with the rest of the world are bound to fall, no matter how much military hardware and hegemonic soft cultural power this country deploys. Climate change and global warming, to name but two pressing challenges, underscore this on a daily basis. It’s clear that the United States’... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2020-03-30 15:27:14 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Diversifying the Translation Field: A Conversation with John Keene, by Veronica Esposito"

New Literature Prize to establish "standard of excellence"

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 12/10/2011 - 11:55 A new literary award, The Literature Prize, has been set up to "establish a clear and uncompromising standard of excellence", with the advisory board claiming that the Man Booker Prize no longer does the job. The board, for... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Beauman, Kelman and Joseph make Desmond Elliott shortlist

Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 09:20 Two titles picked for BBC2’s "Culture Show" special on debut novelists, broadcast in March, have made it to the shortlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2011. Ned Beauman’s Boxer Beetle (Sceptre), also shortlisted for the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this