“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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Palestinian-American writer Randa Jarrar was dragged out of a PEN event.

Despite mounting objections from within the American literary community (as well as public condemnation from two prominent novelists who recently cut ties with the organization), on Wednesday evening PEN America’s Los Angeles branch went ahead with its hosting of a conversation between stand-up... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

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Two novelists have cut ties with PEN over its Mayim Bialik event and Gaza silence.

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[ Literrary Hub | 2024-01-31 20:56:06 UTC ]
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Justin Torres’s Art of Exposure and Concealment

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[ New Yorker | 2023-12-31 11:00:00 UTC ]
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AAP Honors Brave Publishing Around the World

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: December 14, 2023

To the members of the literary community we lost this year, we say a last thank you, and goodbye. | Lit Hub Shaan Sachdev pens an ode to Chandler Bing, “one of sarcasm’s most effective global exporters.” | Lit Hub Film & TV What Rachel Zucker is reading now and next, from Mary Ruefle’s The […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-14 11:30:20 UTC ]
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Notable Literary Deaths in 2023

To the members of the literary community we lost this year, we say a last thank you, and goodbye. You will be missed. * “Belated literary star” Edith Pearlman, who broke out with Binocular Vision at the age of 74, died on January 1. She was 86. Suzy McKee Charnas, award-winning author of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

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Fresh Off a National Book Award Win, Omnidawn Looks Toward the Holidays

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-04 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Year of the Rabbit: Why We’re Seeing So Many Bunnies on Books

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-29 09:51:35 UTC ]
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A Redacted Past Slowly Emerges

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[ The Atlantic | 2023-11-16 19:12:00 UTC ]
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Justin Torres, Author of ‘Blackouts,’ Wins National Book Award for Fiction

Ned Blackhawk received the nonfiction award, with “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-11-16 12:36:45 UTC ]
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On Literary Empathy and the Performative Reading of Palestinian Authors

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-15 10:00:51 UTC ]
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Zibby Media Withdraws National Book Award Sponsorship over Potential for 'Hate Speech'

With several National Book Awards finalists planning to call for a ceasefire in Gaza at tomorrow's ceremony, Zibby Media has withdrawn its sponsorship of the event over what CEO Zibby Owens called the "inappropriate conduct and collusion of its nominees." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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David Ferry, Poet and Translator Who Won Acclaim Late in Life, Dies at 99

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[ The New York Times | 2023-11-11 18:29:17 UTC ]
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Sigrid Nunez’s Art of Noticing

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Ananda Devi Wins the 2024 Neustadt Prize

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Oprah Announces 103rd Book Club Pick

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Read the last words of writer Heba Abu Nada, who was killed last week by an Israeli airstrike.

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-24 15:54:33 UTC ]
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Lauren Groff on Writing Her Own Robinson Crusoe

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An Open Letter in Support of Adania Shibli From More Than 350 Writers, Editors, and Publishers

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