Sergio Chejfec’s had a busy year. In the States, he’s been traveling from coast to coast for My Two Worlds (trans. M. Carson), which was nominated for a Best Translated Book Award back in February, and teaching with NYU’s Creative Writing in Spanish MFA program. And then there’s the latest novel, La experiencia dramática, which … More the dramatic experience
SEVILLIAN SKETCH The sun leaves violet rings under the eaves of the houses, withers the skin of shirts left hanged in the middle of the street. Windows with the lips and breath of a woman! Dogs with ballerina hips pass by. Chulos in pants glistening with shoeshine. Nags that will lose their entrails in the … More readings: Oliverio Girondo (two)
Earlier this week, The Quarterly Conversation published a piece I wrote about Juan José Saer (whose Scars, published in Steve Dolph’s translation by Open Letter Books, was nominated for a Best Translated Book Award this year), in which I mention a few barbs the author directed at the likes of Nabokov and Mario Vargas Llosa. … More readings: Saer on Robert Walser
Words Without Borders (an invaluable resource for those interested in literature in translation) just put up a review I wrote of César Aira’s Varamo, “an effervescent morsel best devoured in one sitting, confected of a series of loosely related and generally madcap episodes, and laced with moments of surprising conceptual density.” (Do I quote myself? … More a day in the life of an accidental writer
So, Jonathan Franzen held a press conference today. Though he might have been well served to hold off just a bit longer – at least until he shored up a few flaws in his logic. Speaking at the Hay, a British festival of the arts, he expressed some unsurprisingly conservative views about the long-term cultural … More oh, Jonathan.
Conversational Reading recently published an interview with Natasha Wimmer on her latest translation of Bolaño, The Third Reich (FSG 2011). Recommended. Not only does it offer insight into the inner workings of the novel (which, I’ll admit, I haven’t yet read), it also reminds us how articulate Wimmer is on the subject of translation. As … More speed reading with Natasha Wimmer
“Faced with the alternative between becoming translators or alcoholic bums, some at least favored the first option.” . . . From Varamo by César Aira trans. Chris Andrews
Abstraction, for Jesús Rafael Soto.
Las acacias dir. Pablo Giorgelli (2011, 82′) If ever a notion of writing formulated while drunk and likely brandishing a firearm sparked a radical change in the way stories are told, it would have to be Hemingway’s ‘iceberg theory.’ In an interview with George Plimpton for The Paris Review, Hemingway describes his approach as a … More fallen, in the forest
Waking dreamscape: first light in San Telmo.
Heather Cleary 