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 ]
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 ]
More news stories like this
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 ]
More news stories like this
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 ]
More news stories like this
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 ]
More news stories like this
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 ]
More news stories like this
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 ]
More news stories like this
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 ]
More news stories like this
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 ]
More news stories like this
Joni Eareckson Tada brings a children’s book about heaven to the Good Book Company, an introduction to African American literature lands at IVP, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-10-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
LET’S DISPENSE WITH the small surprises up front. The latest outing from Smith Henderson, acclaimed author of what others might call literary fiction — his award-winning 2014 debut, Fourth of July Creek — is indeed a thriller. And it’s not a solo endeavor — he’s teamed up with a friend, Jon Marc... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-11 12:30:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Mainstream economics is suffering an identity crisis, which began with The Great Recession and has reemerged during the current pandemic. In response, a growing collection of voices has advocated looking beyond the field—in particular, to science fiction—as a way to imagine it anew. Although... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-05 08:48:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Bi and lesbian books from the last two decades for fans of literary fiction, from haunting collections to atmospheric historical fiction like Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-10-02 10:38:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Essay To mark the upcoming 2020 Neustadt Lit Fest and the announcement of the 2021 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, here is an excerpt featuring the children’s and young adult books selection from 100 Essential Books by Iranian Writers,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-09-30 13:21:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Interviews Adib Khorram is an author, graphic designer, and tea enthusiast. Iranian American, he was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. A theater kid in high school, he went on to study design and technical theater at Southern Illinois... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-09-25 11:55:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In order to fit more texts into my Asian American literature course, I sometimes assign the play adaptation of Jessica Hagedorn’s novel Dogeaters. The novel is canonized within Asian American literature and features an imagined version of the Philippines made from film and radio tropes, found... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-17 11:00:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Books written by incarcerated writers raise vital questions about how we can build a more just society: Your weekly guide to the best in books Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2020-09-11 17:15:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this
These YA books with trans protagonists by trans and non-binary authors range from contemporary to speculative fiction, including titles like When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-09-10 10:38:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“There isn’t much literary fiction that deals with evangelicalism. ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain,’ by James Baldwin, was the first book I read that spoke to that part of my life and it moved me so deeply to see faith rendered on the page with such care and brilliance.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-08-20 09:00:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Leaders will need to be resilient, open-minded, and creative. Poetry can show them the way. “I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-07-28 03:00:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Amanda Brainerd’s novel, Age of Consent, is out now, so we asked her a few questions about reading, writer’s block, and David Bowie. * Who do you most wish would read your book? Teenage girls—there are so few adult books written about them. What do you always want to talk about in interviews but... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-24 08:48:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this