News

What’s New with the Asymptote Team?

September 3, 2015  |  in News  |  by Katrine Øgaard Jensen

See what our team has been up to, outside of Asymptote!

An excerpt from poetry editor Aditi Machado‘s translation of Farid Tali’s Prosopopoeia recently appeared in World Literature Today. The entire work is forthcoming from Action Books in 2016.

Over at his blog, contributing editor Adrian West joins Michael Orthofer in bemoaning the relative obscurity into which German writer Peter Weiss has fallen and argues that Weiss’s Aesthetics of Resistance might be the most radical novel of the twentieth century.

Drama editor Caridad Svich will be giving a talk entitled “Staging Place: Theatrical Crossings in Translation and Adaptation” at Mary Baldwin College’s Francis Auditorium at 7 PM on Sep 21.

Commissioning editor J.S. Tennant translated Enrique Vila-Matas’s “Writers from the Old Days” for The White Review recently.

Assistant editor Kara Billey Thordarson (K.T. Billey) had poems appear in Cosmonauts Avenue and Prelude. In August, she was named a finalist for the 2015 Pamet Prize from YesYes Books. Kara also read for Columbia University’s Studio A Arts radio show recently, sharing poems and talking philosophy of language, logic, and gender. READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 28th August 2015: Is It Stealing from the Amazon?

August 28, 2015  |  in News  |  by Patty Nash

This week's literary highlights from across the world.

Happiest of Fridays, Asymptote pals. Did you hear about the good news? It’s more than Close Approximations, our superstar-big-bucks translation contest (judged by the likes of Michael Hofmann, Margaret Jull Costa, and Ottilie Mulzet). Might be worthwhile to check out the Journal‘s recruitment call, which harks far and wide and all across the globe. We’re even searching for fresh blood talent at the blog, where we’ll be hiring some assistant blog editors to pitch in with pitching stories, proofreading interviews, and all things bloggy. Even if you can’t dedicate the kinds of hours our volunteer staff does, tirelessly, be a pal and contribute to our second reader survey—we want Asymptote to listen to its readers, too. And pitch an ear to our latest podcast while you’re jetting off to wherever you’re jetting off to—it’s uncanny, and you won’t regret it.  READ MORE…

3 Asymptote Announcements (You Don’t Want to Miss)

August 24, 2015  |  in News  |  by Katrine Øgaard Jensen and Patty Nash

After announcing Close Approximations, our $4,500 translation contest, we're thrilled to share more exciting news!

As you might remember, we recently announced Close Approximations, our $4,500 translation contest judged by Michael Hofmann, Ottilie Mulzet, and Margaret Jull Costa. But we have more exciting news for you: Our podcast and annual reader survey are back! And to prepare for new ventures, we’re hoping to enlist new team members via our final recruitment drive of the year (deadline: 1 September 2015). Check out the details here: READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 14th August 2015: the Books You Read, the Books You Ban

August 14, 2015  |  in News  |  by Patty Nash

This week's literary highlights from across the world.

Hey, happiest of Fridays, Asymptote readers! Hope you’re enjoying what’s now—or about to be—the second half of August. For our readers in the United States, that might include a road trip, and what’s more American than a jaunt on the Interstate, as in Vladimir Nabokov’s famed Lolita? Over at the Literary Review, Nabokov falls for America. Or just stay at home, invite friends, open a bottle of wine, and chitchat about your latest favorite read—somehow. What, even, is the social function of the novel?

In Ukraine, that dinner conversation might include a list of books that no one around the table has read—as the country’s recently released a list of 38 banned books, all of which hail from Russian publishers and are deemed “hate” books. The whole thing is rather suspect, especially coupled with news that a Russian publisher has released several pro-Putin tomes using Western-sounding names.

In Japan, everyone’s favorite Nobel point of speculation/runner/baseball fan/novelist Haruki Murakami has published an eight-part e-book release of responses to the questions he had been asked in a crowdsourced, massively hyped advice column earlier this year. Italian anonymous phenom Elena Ferrante is of a slightly different slant when it comes to self-promotion, perhaps: before publishing her debut novel, Troubling Love, in 1991, she “made a small bet” with herself that “books, once they are published, have no need of their authors.” But we’re frothing at the mouth to meet you!

Trivia—more or less. You may have read French surrealist Mallarmé in the English translation (which one?), but have you read English in Mallarmé, Peter Manson’s erasurist, collaborative response? And have you wondered what the great English bard William Shakespeare may have been or possibly was smoking?

Finally, if your novel isn’t taking off yet, blame the trailer. You just don’t find them like this anymore.

Weekly News Roundup, 7th August 2015: Nah Nah Nah NEA!

August 7, 2015  |  in News  |  by Patty Nash

This week's literary highlights from across the world

What’s New with the Asymptote Team?

August 5, 2015  |  in News  |  by Katrine Øgaard Jensen

See what our team has been up to, outside of Asymptote!

Contributing editor Aamer Hussein was interviewed by Kindle Magazine about his latest short story collection, 37 Bridges.

Poetry editor Aditi Machado‘s translation of Farid Tali’s Prosopopoeia has been accepted by Action Books for publication in Fall 2016.

Contributing editor Antony Shugaar has not one but two translations scheduled for publication in August: Nobel laureate Dario Fo’s The Pope’s Daughter (Europa Editions) and Fausto Brizzi’s 100 Days of Happiness: A Novel (Penguin Random House).

Over at his blog, contributing editor Adrian West weighs in on Rainald Goetz winning the Büchner Prize 2015—a controversial choice—and makes a case for Goetz’s relevance.

Drama editor Caridad Svich was interviewed by Philadelphia Magazine on the dismaying lack of female-written works in theater. READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 31st July 2015: Book the Booker & Submit to Our Emerging Translators Contest

July 31, 2015  |  in News  |  by Patty Nash

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Weekly News Roundup, 24th July 2015: Americans Make Up Things

July 24, 2015  |  in News  |  by Patty Nash

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy Friday, Asymptote pals! We’re one-and-a-half weeks past the release of our latest issue and it’s a stunner—including dazzling superstar names like Ismail Kudare, Patrick Modiano, and Valeria Luiselli, among so many others. Blog co-editor Katrine even wrote up a little feature on a personal favorite of hers (check it out here!). Or you could swing back with the five must-reads we blog team recommended at issue launch. Or you could close your eyes and click at random. You’re sure to land on a gold mine either way.  READ MORE…

July Issue Highlight: On Rainbows and Resistance

July 23, 2015  |  in Essays, News  |  by Katrine Øgaard Jensen

Blog editor Katrine Øgaard Jensen recommends one of her favorite reads from our brand new issue

In case you’re hungry for more recommendations after reading the blog’s 5 Must-Read Pieces from our New July Issue, here’s a write-up about something that’s stuck with me since its publication last Wednesday.

In our latest issue of Asymptote, I was particularly excited to discover three poems by Turkish Gökçenur Ç, author of six poetry collections and Turkish translator of Wallace Stevens, Paul Auster, and Ursula K. Le Guin. I was drawn in by Gökçenur Ç’s first poem, “We’re in the World, So Are Words, How Nice that We’re All Here,” in which intriguingly short, self-contained thoughts such as “Morning is hissing like an empty tap” and “The shadow of a hawk strikes your shadow, / neither you nor the hawk is aware of this” make up the entire piece. This is also the format of the third poem, “I Watch with Love Like a Stupid Student,” which wraps up the three poems nicely.

READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 17th July 2015: EXTRA! EXTRA!

July 17, 2015  |  in News  |  by Patty Nash

This week's literary highlights from across the world

It’s Friday, aren’t you glad? We’re glad. We’re especially glad because of the fresh-off-the-presses July issue we released this Wednesday! Don’t know where to start? You can check up on the blog’s helpful listicle highlighting just five must-reads from the July issue. Or you could simply take a gander, as there’s no way you can go wrong: we’ve got some heavy hitters this time around (like Ismail Kudare, Can Xue, Cia Rinne, and Patrick Modiano), so even blindfolded, you’re sure to land a home run—especially in this issue’s super-sparkly multilingual feature.  READ MORE…

5 Must-Read Pieces from our New July Issue

July 15, 2015  |  in Essays, News  |  by Hannah Berk, Katrine Øgaard Jensen, and Patty Nash

We've got a (new) issue. Here's where to start.

Hot off the digital presses!

 Asymptote‘s July Issue is now totally, utterly live! This one’s a good one, and highlights are almost too many to mention—almost. We’ve got your usual lot of literary celebs in the mix, including French Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano, Chinese Nobel Prize-worthy writer Can Xue, and an interview with longtime friend of the blog Valeria Luiselli in the mix—among so. many. others. Here are five must-reads to get you going, but this list’s by no means conclusive—and is presented in no particular order: READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 10 July 2015: THE MAN. THE BOOKER. THE MEGAPRIZE.

July 10, 2015  |  in News  |  by Patty Nash

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy Friday, friends! This should be a Friday like any other, but we’ve got a secret to share: Asymptote‘s July issue is just around the corner. There are a lot of top-secret and super-awesome things in store this quarter, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled on our home base in the coming days (!).

If Asymptote deals in world/global/international/whatever-you’d-like-to-term-it literature, domestic literature still does quite a bit in taking custody of national identity and mythology. So how is it that Vladimir Nabokov—admittedly as Russian as he was American—captured Americana so perfectly in his most famous novel, Lolita? And Spain‘s most famous novel—often considered the “first novel”—is terribly influential, but only two in ten Spanish readers admit to having read Cervantes’s Don Quixote. And if we agree that national literatures have any stability—which we don’t, at least not necessarily—we might be able to sustain the hypothesis that British television can attribute its popularity with American viewers to the fact that U.S. literature is simply “too dark.” Hm. READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 3 July 2015: When Did You Become a Blog Reader?

July 3, 2015  |  in News  |  by Patty Nash

This week's literary highlights from around the world

Happiest Friday, Asymptote pals! For those of us north of the equator, this summer season bodes lots of sweat and sunshine. Here’s some Internet reading to keep you occupied.

Japanese novelist and perennial point of Nobel speculation Haruki Murakami’s identified the very moment he became a novelist: at a baseball game. (Do you remember becoming a blog reader, dear one?). And over at the Paris Review, more behind-the-scenes author insight: here’s a full, unedited recording of an interview with Polish poet, translator, and all-around phenom Czeslaw Milosz.  READ MORE…

What’s New with the Asymptote Team?

July 1, 2015  |  in News  |  by Katrine Øgaard Jensen

So many accomplishments this month!

Contributing editor Antony Shugaar‘s translation of Massimo Carlotto’s Gang of Lovers was published by Europa Editions on 2 June 2015.

Assistant editor Bradley Schmidt recently had a translation of Florian Wacker’s piece “Transit” published in Exchanges Literary Journal.

Drama editor Caridad Svich has edited a new book for TCG with the title INNOVATION IN FIVE ACTS. The book just launched at their national conference in Cleveland June 18-20, 2015, and is now available on amazon for pre-order.

Senior editor (Chinese) Chenxin Jiang‘s translation of Xiao Bai’s acclaimed literary noir French Concession is published by HarperCollins in the US this month. Furthermore, an excerpt from Chenxin’s forthcoming translation of Swiss author Zsuzsanna Gahse’s novel Volatile Texts was featured on the Three Percent blog.

READ MORE…