“Lusting after a Tart of Peacock Tongues”: A Conversation with Publisher Barbara Epler, by Veronica Esposito

Interviews Barbara Epler started working at New Directions after graduating from college in 1984, and she has been its president and publisher since 2011. In 2015 Poets & Writers awarded Epler their Editor’s Prize, and in 2016 Words Without Borders gave her the Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature. Veronica Esposito: You became editor-in-chief with New Directions almost twenty-five years ago, in 1996. What are some of the biggest changes in the translation world since then? Barbara Epler: Without yet being a large enough share of what’s published in America overall, there has been a great growth in the amount and quality of translations appearing here. To my mind, that’s due mostly to two factors: a miraculous growth in new companies here (mostly small and agile) largely or entirely devoted to translated literature, as well as a sort of general cultural nausea about how parochial the USA tends to be. Back in the mid-1990s, great groundbreaking presses interested in translation were fairly thin on the ground. We did not yet have Archipelago, And Other Stories, Deep Vellum, Fence, Dorothy Project, New Vessel, Restless, Nightboat, New York Review of Books Classics, Open Letter, Other Press, Two Lines, Tilted Axis, Ugly Duckling, Wakefield, Wave, and more (apologies to houses I am forgetting!). Back in 1996, all these marvelous publishers were still a gleam in their founders’ eyes. Of course, back then... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2021-01-11 14:39:22 UTC ]

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The L.A. Times announces its 2019 Book Prize finalists and a new award for science fiction.

It’s an exciting year for the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes! This will be its 40th year of celebrating the literary community. The Times announced their 2019 Book Prize finalists today; the winners will be announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles on April 17th. Additionally, bestselling crime... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-19 17:41:26 UTC ]
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How Colum McCann Shaped Loss Into a Book

“Apeirogon,” the latest novel from the National Book Award winner, delves into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of two grieving fathers. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-02-17 13:14:09 UTC ]
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How Colum McCann Shaped Loss Into a Book

“Apeirogon,” the latest novel from the National Book Award winner, will be released next week by Random House. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-02-17 11:01:40 UTC ]
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Your Homie from Another Heart: On Danez Smith’s “Homie”

DANEZ SMITH’S LATEST poetry collection, Homie, is actually not titled Homie at all. As the National Book Award finalist confirms point-blank in a note on the title: “this book was titled homie because I don’t want non-black people to say my nig out loud. This book is really titled my nig.”... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-02-13 18:00:06 UTC ]
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Reagan Arthur named as publisher of Knopf.

The smoke has been spotted at the corner of Broadway and 56th Street, and Reagan Arthur has been announced as the new publisher of Knopf. Amazingly, Arthur is only the fourth person to helm one of the most important publishing houses in America in its 105-year history, following an impressive... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-23 16:20:54 UTC ]
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Audible settles copyright lawsuit with publishers over audiobook captions

Seven publishers had sued the audiobook giant last July, claiming that its audio-to-text service Captions was unauthorisedAfter months of back and forth, Audible has settled in a copyright lawsuit with major publishers over its plan to introduce captions to their recordings, a proposal that the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-01-15 14:00:06 UTC ]
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Hiding the Body: My Susan Sontag Story, by John Weir

Essay John Weir Adapted from a photo by Jake weirick on Unsplash Like a dead pop star, Susan Sontag left behind a lot of fans who claim they knew her. After the release last September of Benjamin Moser’s new biography, Susan Sontag: Her Life and Work,... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-01-07 22:09:56 UTC ]
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Poem: The Far Norway Maples

From the poet's 10th book of poems, “Sight Lines,” selected as the National Book Award winner for poetry in 2019. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-01-01 10:00:08 UTC ]
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Larry Heinemann, Novelist of the Vietnam War, Dies at 75

His “Paco’s Story” was the surprise winner of the National Book Award for fiction in 1987, beating books by Toni Morrison and Philip Roth. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-12-17 23:53:36 UTC ]
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Telling the Story of Hong Kong, by Will Hagle

Cultural Cross Sections Will Hagle Photo courtesy of the author Following decades of British colonial rule to the rapidly tightening grip of mainland China and all the stories told about that chunk of land along the way, Hong Kong has grown accustomed... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2019-12-17 15:28:20 UTC ]
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Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise is coming to your television.

Congrats to Susan Choi for ending the year on a high note: her novel Trust Exercise, which won this year’s National Book Award for Fiction, is in development to become a limited television series with FilmNation Entertainment. Choi will write the series for FilmNation Entertainment, which was... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-12 21:43:30 UTC ]
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Electric Lit’s 15 Best Short Story Collections of 2019

Is your attention span ravaged by living in our hellscape of a modern era? Good news: 2019 brought us plenty of brilliant short fiction. We polled current and former Electric Lit staff and contributors about their favorite collections of the year, and their picks include debuts, National Book... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-12-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
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World Literature Today’s 75 Notable Translations of 2019, by Michelle Johnson

News and Events Michelle Johnson In 2019 WLT continued publishing fiction, poems, interviews, and essays in translation—publishing more than 50 pieces from languages ranging from Albanian to Zoque—along with pieces by translators about their work. In... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2019-12-10 14:32:34 UTC ]
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Creating Literary Community for Writers Raising Children

On November 12, at the Pen Parentis Literary Salon in Lower Manhattan, I hear author Jimin Han say something I’ve never heard a writer admit before. “I didn’t really commit to being a writer until I had children,” Han says to a room of 20 or so writers, all of whom are parents. There is […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-06 09:47:14 UTC ]
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2019 National Book Award Winners Announced

The 2019 National Book Award winners have been announced! Hosted by LeVar Burton, the 70th National Book Award ceremony was a night of storytelling! Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2019-11-21 12:22:37 UTC ]
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Choi, Broom and Sze among National Book Award winners; Teicher and White honoured

Last night’s 70th National Book Awards in New York saw Susan Choi, Sarah M Broom, Arthur Sze, Laszlo Krasnahorkai and Martin W Sandler annnounced as winners, respectively, in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people’s literature. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-21 10:45:49 UTC ]
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Susan Choi Wins National Book Award for ‘Trust Exercise’

Sarah M. Broom won the nonfiction prize for “The Yellow House,” one of several memoirs in the category. Arthur Sze won in poetry for “Sight Lines.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-11-21 03:34:36 UTC ]
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2019 National Book Award Winners Announced

The 2019 National Book Award winners were announced in New York City tonight. The big prize for Fiction went to Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (Bonus: Read our 2019 interview with Choi).  In his opening remarks for the 70th annual ceremony, host Levar Burton spoke about the power of books... Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2019-11-21 03:04:39 UTC ]
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Here Are the National Book Award Winners!

The 2019 National Book Awards—aka the Oscars for books—have officially been awarded! This year’s winners are as follows: Young People’s Literature: Martin W. Sandler for 1919, The Year That Changed America. * Poetry: Arthur Sze for Sight Lines. * Translation: Laszlo Krasznahorkai and Ottile... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-21 02:41:21 UTC ]
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Remembering National Book Award Winners of the Past

On the day the 2019 honorees are to be unveiled, we recall recipients who have died in recent years. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-11-20 23:04:27 UTC ]
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