Articles by Bud Parr
A look at Mario Vargas Llosa
We are experimenting here with a new way of collecting news called Storify. While it certainly wouldn't replace long form writing, it seems to be a nice webby way of creating broad brush strokes around a story. Let us know what you think.
Articles by Bud Parr
Lydia Davis blogging on Translating Madame Bovary at The Paris Review
We're very excited about the new translation of Flaubert's Madame Bovary by Lydia Davis, whom, you may recall, also translated Proust's Swann's Way. Davis is blogging over at the (newly redesigned) Paris Review website, beginning with "Why a New Madame Bovary?" Here's an excerpt:…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
A Conversation with Alex Epstein, author of “Blue has no South”
Last week, Rohan and I sat down with Alex Epstein who was in New York City visiting from Tel Aviv. We had a very nice discussion on his book, Blue has no South, on mythology, angels, Jorge Luis Borges and lots of other authors and influences, short-form literature and poetry. This video captures…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
BookExpo in Brief: Reading Lit in Translation is “Groovy Again”
The mood at the BookExpo America conference this year was decidedly upbeat and busy. The shortened, mid-week schedule seemed to work better than anticipated by exhibitors*, reports of good sales numbers weren't hard to find, and conference rooms were packed to the point of being fire hazards. At…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Discovering “The Black Minutes” at the PEN World Voices Festival
I went to see the NBCC's* "This Critical Moment" panel for the single reason that last year I hadn't and missed Rigoberto González's discussion of Álvaro Enrigue (whose work we've published). I felt what he had to say about Enrigue was important and well thought out, the sort…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Resonances: Contemporary Writers on the Classics at PEN World Voices Festival
My goal each day of the PEN World Voices Festival is to find one writer or one book I've never heard of that sparks my interest. What more could one ask for? Thursday's find was Marcel Möring whose novel, In a Dark Wood, owes its conception to Dante's Inferno. I found Möring at…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Some of the Things We’re Excited About For the Upcoming PEN World Voices Festival #PWVFEST
We are as always excited about the upcoming PEN World Voices Festival, to be held this year from Monday, April 26th, to Sunday May 2nd. Notably this year the festival will travel to six other cities around the United States. Sure to be an important discussion, the festival will begin with Lorraine Adams,…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
$9.99, A Film Based on the Short Stories of Etgar Keret
I taught my son a simple rule when he, at the age of four or so, began to see the barrage of books that are part of the marketing effort behind movies. If the book came out first, the book is better, if the movie came out first, the movie is better. These are tough waters to navigate with a kid and of…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Searching for rue Simon-Crubellier
"Play with all your mind, play" I think, echoing here the epigraph to Life A Users Manual with my own substitution, that Georges Perec would have liked the "Searching for rue Simon-Crubellier" project where two artists search in Paris for the fictional street where the novel takes place.…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Classics in Translation: Georges Perec
When I began reading Words Without Borders some years ago my first reaction was always "who the hell are these people?" - the writers, that is, all these authors I'd never heard of. Well my mother always said a stranger is just someone you don't know yet, but we all know sometimes…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Marías in America
It is significant, we learned from Javier Marías's U.S. publisher Barbara Epler recently at the New York Public Library, that he was in America. Marías refused to come to the United States for the eight years Goerge Bush was in office, much, I'm sure, to his publisher's chagrin…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Around the Web: Marías, Bolaño, Best Translated Book Long-list
I'll be reporting here a bit more about Javier Marías, but ran across this today (when reading a letter to the editor of TLS by the wonderful writer Gabriel Josipovici) and think it will be of interest to Marías fans: Marías’s mentor Sir, – Reviewing Your Face Tomorrow 3 by Javier…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Weekend Reading and Listening
Agur Schiff and Edward Gauvin, reading at a recent Words Without Borders event in Hudson, N My favorite piece of the week is a conversation between Michael Silverblatt, Álvaro Uribe and Cristina Rivera-Garza on KCRW's Bookworm program [link to podcast]. Uribe is the editor of the recent -…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Bolaño Mi Bolaño
Articles by Bud Parr
Weekend Reading, Sept. 4th
End of summer here in upstate New York and the cool weather is already beginning to show its face. That means more reading soon instead of our usual summery frolicking. But until then we leave you with an abbreviated weekend reading suggestion. This week we offer something by one of our absolute favorites,…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Weekend Reading (listening, watching)
Our late August weekend reading suggestions continue to be brief as we’ve spent our mental energy willing Hurricane Bill out into the ocean, so here are a few tidbits that you might enjoy: Listening: Rare interview with Nobel Laureate J.M.G Le Clézio at the BBC World Service Watching: A…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Weekend Reading: The Wall in My Head
My shiny new galley of The Wall in My Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain arrived yesterday. This of course isn’t any ol’ galley, this is Words Without Borders' very own anthology to be published this fall by Open Letter. No matter how many books I’ve accumulated…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Romanian Literature is Hot: Filip Florian’s “Little Fingers”
Filip Florian, Michael ScammellWhere did the New York Times Book Review decide to publish its very first foreign-language edition? In Romania, of course. Of course? Yes! Writing about the Review, Jennifer Schuessler quotes the Times' film critic A.O. Scott saying íRomania is one of those countries…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Alane Mason on Publishing Literature in Translation
At the "Big Think", Alane Salierno Mason, a founder of Words Without Borders talks about Words Without Borders and the challenges of publishing literature in translation. View it here.
Articles by Bud Parr
Weekend Reading
I've recently begun reading Eduardo Galeano's beautiful Mirrors, which is one of those books that defy categories as well as time. Instead of one long narrative, the book is full of short myth-like tales with titles like "Voice of Wine" and "When Ships Navigated by Land." I find that I like to read just…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Fight For Your Independents: Archipelago Books
Archipelago books is a non-profit publisher that has brought into English 50 books so far from 21 languages. I think Jill Schoolman, Archipelago's founder, puts it best when she describes their mission: "We are striving to locate, support, and preserve literary talent worldwide and allow it to enter…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Looking for Something to Read?
Then head over to the Three Percent blog and see what the Best Translated Book Award panelists are reading. I think this constitutes something like a pre-long-list list, so get in on the action early. Click here.
Articles by Bud Parr
Call for Submissions: two lines World Writing in Translation
This is great news - the next volume of two lines will be edited by Natasha Wimmer and Jeffrey Yang. Natasha Wimmer of course translated Roberto Bolaño's monumental 2666 and The Savage Detectives, and Jeffrey Yang is an editor at New Directions, a translator and poet whose most recent book, An…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
The Reckoning
I want to take a moment to let you know about a project that I've been involved with that I believe is important and that you might find of interest. I bring it up now because the film that this project surrounds will be aired tonight in the US on PBS's POV program. Click this link to find your local…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Weekend Reading
The Brooklyn Rail's Jed Lipinski interviews translator Susan Bernofsky Rail: As a fiction writer, have your translations had any effect on your writing style? Bernofsky: Walser has such a strong, idiosyncratic style that I actually think he's somewhat dangerous as an influence. If you wind up imitating—rather…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
The Wall in My Head
This is very exciting. Words Without Borders' next book is being published by Open Letter Books this fall and is available for pre-order now. What's more, there will be a "The Wall in My Head Blog" at... www.thewallinmyhead.com. Here's Rohan's first post from the blog, which will also serve to give you…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Susan Harris on “Radio Without Borders”
Jean Feraca of Wisconsin Public Radio's "Here on Earth" program (subtitled, coincidentally, "Radio Without Borders") chats with our own Susan Harris about Words Without Borders, summer reading and some of the stories we've published, including Zhao Ying's "Red Bean Sticky Cakes and Running", Behnam Dayani's…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
The Observer Translation Project Roundtable
The Observer Translation Project just posted a roundtable discussion on our favorite topic, including our very own Susan Harris along with Chad Post of the Three Percent blog and Open Letter publishers, as well as translator Susan Bernofsky whose translation of Yoko Tawada's The Naked Eye I just read…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Weekend Reading
I happen to be reading Francisco Goldman's The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? and ran across this interesting dialogue between Goldman and Silvana Paternostro, the author of My Colombian War at BOMBSITE the online home of BOMB Magazine: SP Yes, my book's opening words are the same as…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Of Note…
Georges Perec fans will be glad to know that Godine will release a revised 20th anniversary edition of Life A User's Manual this fall. The Review of Contemporary Fiction is updating its Perec issue for their Spring '09 edition as well. ---------------------- The Latin American Review of Books reviews…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Words Without Borders Staff Picks for Summer Reading
It was awkward at first. Halfway through our annual Memorial Day Words Without Borders vs Doctors Without Borders softball game, Joshua – our shortstop – starts asking us all what we’re recommending to our friends to read this summer. You can guess the outcome of the game, but I did…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Book Critics Circle Asks: Which Work in Translation has had the Most Effect on your Reading and Writ
James Marcus (who recently contributed to our PEN World Voices Festival coverage) asked members of the Book Critics Circle "Which work in translation has had the most effect on your reading and writing?" He found some great responses, including Mann's Dr. Faustus, works by Camus, Kundera, as well as…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
PEN World Voices Festival: Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction
When you're around a lot of authors it may be easy to forget what a rare and precious thing that is, being a published author. Even more so is being a published author in the United States if you write in a language other than English, being that out of the hundreds of thousands of books published here…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
PEN World Voices Festival: Photos from 1,000 Words: The Power of Visual Storytelling
Photos by Mary Reagan, text from the PEN Website. "What can pictures provide that words cannot? Our panelists have all used pictures to tell challenging and compelling stories: Shaun Tan, from Australia, has imagined the experience of immigration in his wordless book The Arrival; Jonathan Ames, from…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
PEN World Voices Festival Roundup for Friday
My second day at the PEN World Voices Festival. Tired from being up late talking about Thursday's events with our contributors Nicolle Elizabeth and David Varno, blogging friend Sam Jones and earlier, my friends Pam Yates and Paco de Onís whom I met at the Quiet Revolutions event. Going from one…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
PEN World Voices Festival: Evolution/Revolution Event Photos
Before our written report comes in from last night's PEN World Voices Festival event, Evolution/Revolution. Here's PEN's description of the event: Join us to celebrate the fifth annual PEN World Voices Festival. An extraordinary group of internationally acclaimed writers will come to the stage for an…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
PEN World Voices Festival
As you may know we at Words Without Borders have dedicated our April to the PEN World Voices Festival. We began with our monthly issue full of writing from festival participants and we've just started to post event coverage here on our blog, starting with James Marcus's piece on Nobel Laureate Jean-Marie…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
April Book Reviews: Robert Buckeye on Ingo Schulze’s New Lives
This month's issue of Words Without Borders explores the work of writers who will soon gather in New York City for the PEN World Voices Festival. This year's festival explores the theme "how the world changes and how we change" against the backdrop of "landmark anniversaries - Darwin's On the Origin…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
My Favorite Etgar Keret Story: A Brief Appreciation
When I saw Etgar Keret at the PEN World Voices Festival last year I was disappointed because he chose to read “Hat Trick,” a story that is as unsettling in its implications as it is gruesome. The reason for my dismay, besides the squirminess that story makes me feel, was that the brutality…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Words Without Borders Video: Miriam Schlesinger and Philip Lopate discuss Etgar Keret
Here's part one of a video with Miriam Schlesinger and Philip Lopate discussing Etgar Keret as part of our Conversations on Great Contemporary Literature Series. Links to other posts in our Girl on the Fridge discussion: Keret events this March in Boston and Chicago. Adam Rovner puts Etgar Keret…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Oulipo In New York: A Workshop Of Experimental Literature
The French Embassy in New York is sponsoring "Oulipo In New York: A Workshop Of Experimental Literature" from April 1st through the 4th in locations around the city. The Oulipo, Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle, is a collective of writers and mathematicians founded in 1960 by François…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Photos from our “Conversations on Great Contemporary Literature” Discussion Series
You know Words Without Borders knows no boundaries so it should come as no surprise that we're on Flickr as well as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Here's a Flickr slideshow from some of our latest Conversations on Great Contemporary Literature series: *** Links to other essays, interviews and features…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Words Without Borders Video: Edith Grossman on Don Quixote as Tragedy and Comedy
Here's a clip from our last Conversations on Great Contemporary Literature with Edith Grossman discussing Don Quixote as Tragedy and Comedy. There are more videos from this event at our Words Without Borders Youtube Channel. And be sure to check out our next event in the Conversations on Great Contemporary…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Keret Contest: What’s your favorite Etgar Keret Story?
If you've read Etgar Keret's stories you know they're as addicting as they are short. You probably find yourself retelling or even reading them to your friends. Well how about sharing your favorite Keret story with us? Send the name of your favorite story to blog@wordswithoutborders.org…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
This Thursday: A Conversation on Miguel de Cervantes’s “Don Quixote” with translator Edith Gros
This is going to be a great event. There are few greater novels and fewer still where the translator plays such an important role. The Quixote in Spanish, in all its stories and stories within stories, is a telling of a story from one person to another in Spanish, but then from Spanish translated into…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Reading for BOMB’s issue dedicated to Montevideo, Santiago & Buenos Aires
The following event may be of interest to our readers in New York City: Please join us in celebrating the publication of BOMB #106, dedicated to Montevideo, Santiago & Buenos Aires Reading & Launch Party Reception, Thursday, Jan. 29 6:30–8:30pm Co-sponsored by NYU's MFA Program in Creative Writing…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Translated Around the Web
If you're reading 2666 yet not interested in the gossip columns on Roberto Bolaño, you may enjoy the thoughtful conversation going on about the book in this "bolaño-l" discussion group, hosted by the person who has a blog devoted to the author, "Las obras de Roberto Bolaño." There's…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Best Translated Book of 2008: Fiction and Poetry Finalists
Chad Post of Open Letter Books just announced the ten fiction and ten poetry finalists for the 2008 Best Translated Book of the Year award. The goal of the award is to help bring attention to great works of literature published in the United States over the past year. The award will culminate with the…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
From Ghazal to Zuihitsu: A Conference on Translating Asian Languages and Cultures
This recently came in from Roger Sedarat at Queens College: The Queens College MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation hosts a translation conference from March 26-March 28, 2009, with panels on translation pedagogy, Asian and Middle Eastern languages and literatures, translation in…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Yoko Ogawa Discussion on Video
If you missed the terrific discussion between Stephen Snyder and Allison Powell on Yoko Ogawa's The Diving Pool last week, you're in luck, because we're making a video available on YouTube. Here's part one and you can check in on our YouTube Channel for the rest as we post them (if you…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
The Lost in Translation Project, Questions for Frances Evangelista
The Lost in Translation reading challenge, created by Frances Evangelista who blogs at Nonsuchbook, is bringing together readers and bloggers to read and discuss literature in translation. There are over 50 participants and the site is full of great reading suggestions and resources for readers. We think…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
The Words Without Borders Staff Favorites of the Year
This time of the year the Words Without Borders staff sits around the Words Without Borders fireplace with our mugs of hot toddy, chatting about the books we've been reading. Into the wee hours on one such night, Joshua said, "Hey, why don't we mention some of our favorites from the year on the blog?"…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Thank You Caro Llewellyn!
From The Literary Saloon, we see that Caro Llewellyn, who has headed the PEN World Voices Festival in past years, is leaving for a new position in Melbourne. The way I understand it, planning for one festival begins about a week after the last one - it's a big job and when you're swirling among the great…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Horacio Castellanos Moya’s “Senselessness” chosen among “The Best Books of 2008” at NPR
For their Best Books of the Year list, National Public Radio (NPR) chose Horacio Castellanos Moya's Senselessness among the top five foreign novels of the year. Senslessness is the story of an unnamed writer copyediting oral accounts of crimes against humanity in (an also unnamed) Guatemala as he himself…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Three Percent’s Book-a-day
As we mentioned last week, the publisher devoted to literary translations, Open Letter, has introduced their "Best Literary Translation Award" starting last week with a long-list of 25 titles. Throughout the time before the announcement of the short-list on January 27th and the final winner on February…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
A Great Conversation on 2666
I think I could have listened to Francisco Goldman tell stories all night long, despite the heat raditating from over a hundred of us standing, eager Bolaño fans at Idlewild Bookstore Thursday night. While Goldman and Bolaño had never met - indeed, Goldman had not read Bolaño until…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
News from the Translation Front
The Elizabeth Kostova Foundation offers its second annual summer fiction-writing seminar in historic Sozopol in Bulgaria. The seminar consists of intensive daily fiction workshops, roundtable discussions, and readings/lectures by faculty and participants. Fiction writers from Bulgaria and fiction writers…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
Toussaint, Camus
Martin Riker from Dalkey Archive Press has an interesting piece at "The Front Table"* on his love for Jean-Philippe Toussaint's work. Regarding why it's important to publish several of Toussaint's books together, which Dalkey is doing, he says "This is not just about a book. Here's a writer who is doing…...read more »
Articles by Bud Parr
This Thursday: Francisco Goldman and Natasha Wimmer on Bolaño’s 2666
Novelist Francisco Goldman and translator Natasha Wimmer will discuss Roberto Bolaño's 2666 this Thursday at Idlewild Books in New York City. Brought together as part of the Words Without Borders "Conversations on Great Contemporary Literature" series, there are not too many people who could carry…...read more »