Essay Seamus Heaney, pseudonym 鈥業ncertus鈥� June 13, 2022 When he first began to publish poems, Seamus Heaney鈥檚 chosen pseudonym was 鈥業ncertus鈥�, meaning 鈥榥ot sure of himself鈥�. Characteristically, this was a subtle irony. Read More
Essay Why I hoard words June 09, 2022 I took an Old English module on a whim during my first year at university. I came across it at a foreign language informational session, and having never seen or heard Old English before, I was astonished to learn that my own mother tongue could be considered 鈥榝oreign鈥� to me. Read More
Podcast Listen in: Translating Myself and Others June 01, 2022 Translating Myself and Others聽is a collection of candid and disarmingly personal essays by Pulitzer Prize鈥搘inning author Jhumpa Lahiri, who reflects on her emerging identity as a translator as well as a writer in two languages. Read More
Podcast The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English May 24, 2022 Old English is the language you think you know until you actually hear or see it. Unlike Shakespearean English or even Chaucer鈥檚 Middle English, Old English鈥攖he language of聽Beowulf鈥攄efies comprehension by untrained modern readers. Read More
Essay Jhumpa Lahiri: Where I find myself May 16, 2022 Having written my novel Dove mi trovo in Italian, I was the first to doubt that it could transform into English. Naturally it could be translated; any text can, with greater or lesser degrees of success. Read More
Essay Beyond The Dragon Daughter and Other Lin Lan Fairy Tales May 02, 2022 The lack of Chinese fairy tales in English translation has been a reality that hinders not only academic studies of the fairy tale, but also the cross-cultural understanding of Chinese traditions in general. Read More
Essay Kafka鈥檚 鈥淯ltimate Things鈥�: A new reading of the Z眉rau aphorisms April 27, 2022 As av福利社 celebrates the launch of a new annotated and freshly translated edition of Kafka鈥檚 aphorisms, the Press has invited me to supply a couple of amuse-bouches from the two introductory passages to the collection, namely my Translator鈥檚 Note plus a brief excerpt from Reiner Stach鈥檚 Foreword. Read More
Podcast A Vertical Art: On Poetry April 26, 2022 In聽A Vertical Art, acclaimed poet Simon Armitage takes a refreshingly common-sense approach to an art form that can easily lend itself to grand statements and hollow gestures. Read More
Essay Poems from After Callimachus April 20, 2022 In After Callimachus, esteemed poet and critic Stephanie Burt鈥檚 attentive translations and inspired adaptations introduce the work, spirit, and letter of Callimachus to today鈥檚 poetry readers. Read More
Essay A look inside Lives of Houses March 31, 2022 The writing of lives often involves writing about houses. Bringing a聽house聽to life through observation, familiarity, memory, or excavation can be聽a聽vital part of narrating the life of an individual, a family, or a聽group:聽life-writing as housework. Read More
Essay Arnold Weinstein on The Lives of Literature January 29, 2022 The Lives of Literature: Reading, Teaching, Knowing as the subtitle suggests, is after large game: why we go to literature, what its value might be in a world increasingly devoted to 鈥渋nformation,鈥� and what a career in teaching has taught me, as well as my students. Read More
Essay Bambi: The lonely destiny of outsiders January 14, 2022 Today, almost all the animals in the world do not and cannot determine their destinies. It was not always like this. Before the emergence of human beings thousands of years ago, animals were free to roam the planet as they wished. Read More
Podcast 鈥淏ambi鈥� isn鈥檛 about what you think it鈥檚 about January 05, 2022 Most of us think we know the story of Bambi鈥攂ut do we?聽The Original Bambi聽is an all-new, illustrated translation of a literary classic that presents the story as it was meant to be told. Read More
Podcast Billy Wilder on Assignment December 19, 2021 Before Billy Wilder became the screenwriter and director of iconic films like Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot, he worked as a freelance reporter, first in Vienna and then in Weimar Berlin. Read More
Essay Jane Austen鈥檚 beginnings December 10, 2021 There is an excellent cartoon, first published in Punch magazine, that depicts Jane Austen sitting in her publisher鈥檚 office and getting what we might call some mixed feedback on her latest submission: 鈥榃e like the plot, Miss Austen, but all this effing and blinding will have to go鈥�. Read More
