Podcast

Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Kristin Vego

Just in time for the weekend, a sparkling conversation with current contributor Kristin Vego!

In the second podcast episode centering on contributors to Asymptote’s landmark 50th issue, Danish-Norwegian author Kristin Vego joins Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak in conversation. Her story, “All Things Lovely,” as translated by Jennifer Russell, represents her debut in the English language. Vego’s story also arrives at a moment when Norwegian literature is receiving global attention with last year‘s Nobel Prize in Literature going to Jon Fosse. Kristin Vego speaks of the “ghost of childhood” inhabiting a story of a young girl leaning into adulthood during a summer holiday within a Nordic landscape. Russell’s translation of Kristin Vego’s story sits alongside new work from 35 countries and 21 languages in the Winter 2024 issue, dedicated to the theme of coexistence. Listen to the podcast now.

Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with David Unger

The Asymptote Podcast returns after a hiatus of two years!

Esteemed translator David Unger joins our new Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak for a conversation with readings of the poetry of Jaime Barrios Carillo. Born in Guatemala City in 1954 and living in Stockholm since 1981, Carrillo is known principally as a writer and columnist. His Two Poems from the Spanish Language volume Ángeles sin dios (Angels Without God; Ediciones Fenix), make their English language debut in the milestone 50th issue of  Asymptote, himself well acquainted with the social and political landscapes of Guatemala, provides rare insight into Carillo’s vision and style, influenced by the tradition of what Chilean Nicanor Parra called the Anti-poem. David Unger’s translations of Carrillo’s Two Poems sit alongside new work from 35 countries and 21 languages in the Winter 2024 issue dedicated to the theme of coexistence christened “Me | You | Us.” Listen to the podcast now.

Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Bethlehem Attfield

Africa may have gotten itself another Nobel laureate, but African vernacular literature still needs advocacy, according to Bethlehem Attfield

It’s Steve Lehman’s final episode as our podcast editor, and we’re going out with a bang: a timely interview with the Ethiopian writer and translator Bethlehem Attfield. In this episode, Bethlehem talks with Steve about co-translating Mulugeta Alebachew’s short story “Heaven Without Prickly Pears” for our Summer 2021 issue. She also discusses the lack of representation of African vernacular languages in English translation, and her mission to change that by advocating for Ethiopian literature on the world stage. The episode wraps up with an excerpt of the short story, read first in the original Amharic by the author, followed by Bethlehem with her English cotranslation. Listen to the podcast now!

Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Kári Tulinius

Writing poetry is part of what it means to be human

Summer has arrived (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), and today we’re heading to Iceland! In this episode, Icelandic writer Kári Tulinius chats with podcast editor Steve Lehman about growing up in Iceland, the advantages of a tight-knit literary community, and how writing poetry is part of what it means to be human. Then, Kári reads one of his poems published in our just-released Summer issue, “Upon seeing Snæfellsjökull Glacier from an idling bus,” in both the original Icelandic and in Larissa Kyzer’s English translation. Listen to the podcast now!

Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Padma Viswanathan

Find out how Padma Viswanathan stumbled into translation and why she loves Brazilian literature

Today on the show, the award-winning author and translator Padma Viswanathan joins podcast editor Steve Lehman to talk about her love for Brazilian literature, the connection between writing and translating, and how translation helps her form an even closer relationship to Portuguese. Afterwards, stick around to hear an excerpt from the short story “The Woman Who Didn’t Know How to Die,” written by Adelice Souza and translated by Padma Viswanathan, in both Portuguese and English. You can read the full story, and many other great works in translation, at asymptotejournal.com.

Asymptote Podcast: An interview with Anton Hur followed by a reading by Yilin Wang

Welcome to the first podcast episode of 2021!

Join podcast editor Steve Lehman for a conversation with current contributor Anton Hur on his journey as a literary translator and his “Fictional Notes toward an Essay on Translation” that was published under the aegis of our “Brave New World Literature Feature” spotlighting the unique relationship between authors and their translators. Stay until the end to hear writer, editor, and Chinese-English translator Yilin Wang read five poems by Qiu Jin—also featured in our milestone tenth anniversary issue—in both Mandarin and English translation. For more literary discoveries spanning 31 countries, visit our new issue here.

Asymptote Podcast: Hiromi Itō on “Living Trees and Dying Trees”

For our final podcast episode of the year, we sat down with Japanese poet Hiromi Itō, whose essay was one of Fall 2020’s highlights.

In this episode, podcast editor Steve Lehman chats with acclaimed poet, essayist, and novelist Hiromi Itō about her development as a feminist writer, the importance of the environment in her life, and the moving experience of reading her own work translated into another language. Plus, hear an excerpt from Itō’s essay “Living Trees and Dying Trees,” translated from the Japanese and read by Jon L. Pitt. You can check out the full essay, along with new work from 32 countries, in our Fall 2020 issue.

Asymptote Podcast: Michele Hutchison on Curating Our Dutch Literature Special Feature

Our podcast returns helmed by our new podcast editor Steve Lehman!

In tandem with the release of our milestone 40th issue, new podcast host Steve Lehman speaks with the Booker International Prize-winning translator Michele Hutchison about her work on Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s The Discomfort of Evening, curating this issue’s Special Feature on Dutch literature, and more. Plus, a poetry reading by contributor Mustafa Stitou in the original Dutch, followed by a reading in English by the translator David Colmer. You can find Mustafa and David’s work, and that of many other authors, poets, and translators from around the world, in our glorious Fall 2020 issue here.

Asymptote Podcast: That Which is Found and Gained through Translation

Translation as bridge and compulsion

Podcast Editor Layla Benitez-James reports back from the Unamuno Poetry Festival in Madrid with an excerpt from a panel she moderated, titled “TransAtlantic: Translation as Bridge and Compulsion.” She also explores the dynamic lecture on translation given by Jorge Vessel, poet and translator of Desperate Literature: A Bilingual Anthology—a book highlighting, rather than what is lost, that which is found and gained through the art of translation. Join us for all the happy accidents that can spring forth from this wonderful and sometimes eccentric practice, and get inspired in your own experiments with language.

Asymptote Podcast: Infinite Text

"I'm constantly trying to disrupt what I think I know."

During Madrid’s Year of Lorca, which commemorates the centenary of the poet’s arrival to the city, podcast editor Layla Benitez-James speaks with Rebecca Seiferle, whose brilliant essay on Lorca translations appears in Into English. A multi-award winning poet and noted translator of César Vallejo and other Spanish language poets, Seiferle is deeply passionate about teaching and served as the poet laureate of Tucson, Arizona between 2012 and 2016. On this edition of the podcast, she discusses how her translation practice has woven its way through her own writing and teaching, and reminds us of the importance of interrogating each and every word to get at the very heart and origin of a text’s language.

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Asymptote Podcast: Out from Under the Masochist’s Shadow

Slovene or Slovenian? Close Approximations' 2019 fiction winner Olivia Hellewell weighs in.

Podcast editor Dominick Boyle speaks with translator Olivia Hellewell, whose stellar translation of an excerpt from Katja Perat’s The Masochist earned her first place in the fiction category of our 2019 Close Approximations Contest and $1,000 in prizes. Set in an impeccably researched past, the novel gives Leopold von Sacher-Masoch—the (in)famously eccentric aristocrat after which masochism is named—a fictional daughter. The excerpt, featured in our Winter 2019 issue, depicts protagonist Nadezhda Moser as a woman of powerful wit and will to address issues that resonate with the present day. Dominick and Olivia sit down to discuss what drew Hellewell to translate from the Slovenian, what it’s like to translate from a language with a smaller stature on the world stage, and more.

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Asymptote Podcast: International Blacknesses

Poet and comparatist Aaron Coleman on translation as a tool for making vivid the relationships between Afro-descendants around the world

“I felt myself in translation all the time.”

Podcast Editor Layla Benitez-James sits down via Google Hangouts with poet and translator Aaron Coleman in this third and final installment of interviews inspired by John Keene’s essay Translating Poetry, Translating Blackness. In October’s conversation with Keene and our previous podcast with Lawrence Schimel, we explored the more radical social possibilities of translation. Our discussion continues with Coleman, a Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the 2017 Philip K. Jansen Memorial Fellowship, awarded to outstanding translators of color. He joins us to talk about his studies in international Blacknesses, interpreting on the red carpet at the MTV Music Awards in Madrid, and playing basketball in Extremadura. Tune in for this and much, much more!

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Asymptote Podcast: Back into the Archives

Access some of Asymptote's most iconic recordings from the last four years alongside Podcast Editor Dominick Boyle

On this episode of the Asymptote Podcast, we dive once more into the archives to tune into some of the riches that Asymptote has offered readers over the last 30 (now 31!) issues. Pick up where Podcast Editor Dominick Boyle left off in his last episode to listen to recordings from 2014 up to the present issue. Hear a thought provoking essay by Nobel laureate Herta Müller on the space between languages, along with an experimental translation of poetry by Nenten Tsubouchi that fully embraces this space. A fragmented, anonymous love poem in Old English translated by Christopher Patton and an electric reading by poet Steven Alvarez in English, Spanish, and Nahuatl round out the episode. Take a listen, and revel in the riches.

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Asymptote Podcast: Blackness Revisited

2018 MacArthur Genius John Keene on how translation underlies all artistic pursuit

“All art, all artistic production, entails the base of this word translation, a carrying over…”

In this latest edition of the Asymptote Podcast, we sit down with translator and writer John Keene on the heels of the tremendous news of his MacArthur Genius Award. Author of Annotations and Counternarratives, Keene was longlisted for the 2015 Best Translated Book Award for his translation from the Portuguese of Hilda Hilst’s Letters from a Seducer. But it was his essay Translating Poetry, Translating Blackness which inspired a panel at the most recent AWP Conference as well as our June podcast, so we wanted to get insight straight from the source. Join us as we talk about how translation carries over into a writer’s creative life, how English still holds powerful sway over writers working in other languages, and much much more! Listen to our latest podcast now!

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