Interviews Veronica Esposito Photo by Camila Valdés Megan McDowell has translated many contemporary authors from Latin America and Spain, including Alejandro Zambra, Samanta Schweblin, and Lina Meruane. Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, her translations have been published in the New Yorker, Tin House, the Paris Review, Harper’s, and McSweeney’s, among others. Veronica Esposito: As a translator, you’ve primarily worked with writers from Chile and Argentina, a region with a very rich literary history, and you are the primary translator for two of the standout authors to recently emerge from the Southern Cone—Alejandro Zambra and Samanta Schweblin. What is special about this region and its literatures? Megan McDowell: I’m not an academic or a critic, so I’m very reluctant to try to draw connecting lines through the literary histories of countries I live in but that aren’t mine. Every time I make a generalization, all the exceptions spring to mind. But, my assumptions or predispositions go something like this: Chilean writers tend to look inward, to play with autofiction, to write the domestic and the personal. Argentine writers tend toward the surreal, toward madness and fantasy and the uncanny. Both, I think, can get pretty experimental with form. Both have histories of dictatorship and state violence, which can rear its head in fictions in various ways. If you look at the writers I’ve translated, these... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-22 15:20:00 UTC ]
Welbeck Flame has acquired three picture books written by actress and comedian Isla Fisher and illustrated by Paula Bowles. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-18 08:23:08 UTC ]
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Fiona Sampson’s biography reads like a thriller, a memoir and a provocative piece of literary fiction. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Interviews Emilio Fraia’s Sevastopol, out this summer from New Directions, is the sort of book that beguiles and dazzles in equal measure. Consisting of three disparate stories—of a mountain climber attempting to scale Mt. Everest, a mysterious loner... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-08-09 20:31:30 UTC ]
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In choreography, the gray areas of copyright law make it difficult to determine what constitutes copyright infringement or plagiarism. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2021-07-23 12:13:47 UTC ]
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The canon of popular American literature not only unified the culture, it helped create the national narrative of individualism and self-reliance. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2021-07-16 14:03:05 UTC ]
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Pandemic Dispatches Photo by Daniel Tafjord / Unsplash Unrequited love I download a book. One of those books—for women. Certainly not porn, but you know. Never mind the shirtless guy gracing its cover (his lumpy, bumpy abs—oh my!), or the wanton... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-06-16 13:40:35 UTC ]
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If you want to do some serious reading to reflect on humanity and its many aspects, these 5 contemporary literary fiction books are for you, including A Burning By Megha Majumdar. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-05-28 10:38:00 UTC ]
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A scholar of American literature at Stanford says it’s worth publishing. The agents representing the Steinbeck estate strongly disagree. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-05-27 14:53:04 UTC ]
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Sally Rooney, Lauren Groff, and Atticus Lish were among the authors whose upcoming works of literary fiction were highlighted during this Editors' Picks panel hosted by 'PW' reviews editor David Varno. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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At the Chicago Review of Books, Eric Nguyen discusses his new novel, Things We Lost to the Water, and how Vietnamese American literature processes the ongoing influence of colonialism, as seen in two of the book’s characters, Công and Ben. “Công’s narrative is parallel with Ben’s, who doesn’t... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-05-17 20:30:35 UTC ]
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From Sally Rooney to Raven Leilani, female novelists have captured the literary zeitgeist, with more buzz, prizes and bestsellers than men. But is this cultural shift something to celebrate or rectify?In March, Vintage, one of the UK’s largest literary fiction divisions, announced the five debut... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-05-16 06:00:48 UTC ]
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Independent publishers are "crucial and critical" for literary fiction writers, Costa-winning author Monique Roffey has said, enabling them to take risks no mainstream publisher would allow. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-11 11:27:01 UTC ]
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The debut melts down striving immigrant tales, Old West mythology and madcap thrillers to produce an invaluable new alloy of American literature. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-04-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Why do we assume that a work of literary fiction must be based on its author’s life? Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-14 12:00:33 UTC ]
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These queer historical figures each lived fascinating lives and deserve to be highlighted in nonfiction. Join me in exploring their legacies. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-02-25 11:34:00 UTC ]
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Cameron Williams, a former staffer at Chattanooga Public Library and a local Black Lives Matter activist, has been fired from his library job three months after being accused of “improperly” burning books written by Donald Trump and Ann Coulter. In December, as the Chattanooga Times Free Press... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-17 17:26:28 UTC ]
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Reading books is for nerds, right? Well, that depends on your definition of "nerd," I suppose. While I must confess to not being a regular reader, I greatly admire those that are. Reading is surely a better way to spend time than mindlessly watching sports on TV -- something I am quite guilty of... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2020-12-09 18:41:58 UTC ]
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The UK, like many other parts of the world, has a long history of banning books for "obscenity". The last time it happened in the UK, at least officially, was in 1990, when Lord Horror by David Britton was censored up until 1992. But if "obscenity" was the main reason for censorship before,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-04 11:31:35 UTC ]
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Here are five books written by BIPOC authors that each detail the intricacies of different complicated families. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-12-01 11:37:00 UTC ]
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Tomorrow marks sixty years since civil rights icon, activist and writer Ruby Bridges was the first Black child to integrate a Southern elementary school—and today, Scholastic announced three forthcoming books written by Bridges, which will be released from spring 2022-23. The three new books are... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-13 17:02:57 UTC ]
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