Everything Full of Weight: On Translating Mia Couto
"My great satisfaction in translating this collection is not simply to be able to propose a different way of looking at our own familiar world, but to be part… More
Kaleidoscopic Vision: On Translating Agustín Fernández Mallo
"Fernández Mallo simply needs to be heard in English because he has become so important in Spain, all the while representing a great interest in and awareness of globalization.… More
Simorgh, Thirty Birds: On Translating Farid ud-Din Attar
"As a poet, I believe that the act of translation is that of recreation. A translator of poetry can become the unwitting destroyer of poems, or alternately, a creator… More
Turns of Verse: On Translating Per Aage Brandt
"There’s hardly anything in the world that fails to interest [Per Aage Brandt], and nothing that he fails to make more interesting once he’s written about it." More
Lunfardo y Vesre: On Translating Guillermo Saccomanno
"It’s a (perverse) joy to slip into the skins of the myriad characters who populate this abundant novel, to speak in their voices and occupy, albeit momentarily, their place… More
In Cold Blood: Practicing Our Humanity on the Page
In a great book, even the most despicable characters have a chance for redemption, perhaps, one might argue, more of a chance than he or she might get in… More
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home
Books with any kind of diversity are disproportionately challenged versus books by and about straight white males. More
The Prince of Finesse: Hugging the Shore
If it please the court, I ask that it be stricken from the record that I ever mocked/denigrated John Updike for his devotion to Doris Day, which I have… More
The 72-Hour Trial
Paralyzed? Unable to walk? Unable to have sex? Unable to work, run, play or swim? The papers became a blur, then I noticed it was from my tears.… More
Come Break Me Down
I try to envision hanging myself from a locker that is shorter than I am. It seems impossible even in my head, despite any amount of dedication. I decide… More