“I was flying along at Uncle Gleb’s side, holding his hand. He yanked me off the escalator—you can’t look back—and into the underground snow palace, a kingdom of marble and white stone, with pillars instead of columns, with a never-ending dome stretching to infinity instead of a ceiling. Never in my life, my life on […]
The 2013 Typographical Translation Award has been announced and the winner is The Devil’s Workshop by Jáchym Topol, translated from the Czech by Alex Zucker. That makes two Topol posts in a row here, which by official Literalab rules should disqualify him from being written about for the rest of the year. However, my Best […]
At 2 Paragraphs there is a cool interview series in which international writers respond to a the following Tolstoy quote and follow-up question: “I know that my unity with all people cannot be destroyed by national boundaries.” Is a similar belief essential in your work? Or are cultural and national distinctions a critical component of […]
During my recent trip to Bratislava’s Bibliotéka book fair I was interviewed by the weekly cultural magazine of the daily Pravda. Here is a link to the interview, in Slovak translation naturally. All I can summarize from it is that they give some biographical details that I may or may not have made up (I […]
The inaugural Sofia International Literary Festival is underway in the Bulgarian capital, comprising literary participants from Bulgaria and Balkan countries from December 10 – 15. Among the many writers in attendance are Bulgaria’s Georgi Gospodinov, Kristin Dimitrova, Miroslav Penkov and Milen Ruskov; Serbia’s Vladimir Arsenijević, Macedonia’s Goce Smilevski, Croatia’s Ante Tomić and Romania’s Dan Lungu […]
“The Romany and their tragicomic lives, the lives of the wheeler-dealers, the inhabitants of settlements and other peculiar characters and figures are the subject matter of the book. The trafficker Ferdy was promised the young and beautiful Sabina as compensation of a debt, but she fled and found the love of her life. The book […]
“‘Istanbul is an incredible city,’ he said. ‘Here you’ll find the sort of people who’ll share their last crust of bread with you, as well as the sort who’ll cut out your kidneys and dump you in the canal.’ He was looking for the first kind;” From “The Assassin from Apricot City” by Witold Szabłowski, […]
“Why don’t the clouds form shapes anymore? People are like worms. They toe the line, walk the straight and narrow, and swarm like flies… They make me sick. What’s happened to Anets? It’s as if she really is just a wall. I’m not going to work, I hate it. But I hate sitting around at […]
Tonight, November 23rd, B O D Y hosts a Transatlantic Poetry reading featuring JOSHUA WEINER (US) and EMILY BERRY (UK). The reading will be streamed live over the Transatlantic Poetry site, Facebook and from Google+ event page. The reading begins at 8pm GMT / 3pm EST. This is an innovation in poetry readings, allowing poets […]
Witold Szabłowski’s The Assassin from Apricot City: Reportage from Turkey, translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones is about to be released by Stork Press, and in the run up to publication there will be a book launch tonight, November 21, at London’s Free Word Centre. Both the author and translator will be there, as […]
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