October 24, 2022

How Should We Approach Black Literature and Art Now?

John Brooks

In the United States, there’s a tendency to assume that Black literature and art are valuable primarily because they’re pedagogical, as if Black creative expression exists first and foremost to educate racist whites. This approach may be well meaning, but...

October 18, 2022

Bernard Shaw, the Tiananmen Crackdown, and the CNN Effect

Mike Chinoy

Bernard Shaw, who for twenty years was CNN’s top anchor, died on September 8, his death largely overshadowed by the passing of Queen Elizabeth the same day. Shaw is best remembered for his live reporting of the start of the...

October 10, 2022

Announcing Our 2022-2023 Philosophy Catalog

Letter from the Philosophy Editor: It is with great pleasure that I present the Columbia University Press philosophy catalog for 2022. These titles, which span subjects from critical theory to political philosophy to philosophy of religion, aesthetics, environmental and animal...

September 29, 2022

The Multifaceted Advice of the Zhuangzi

Richard John Lynn

This translation is “new” in that it differs significantly from previous translations since it is based on one particular traditional Chinese commentary, the earliest complete philosophical commentary by Guo Xiang 郭象 (265–312). The translation technique is also “new” in that...

September 27, 2022

Interpreting the Nuances of Historical Texts

David Brophy

In the wake of the Qianlong emperor’s invasion of Xinjiang in the mid-eighteenth century, Qing-appointed Muslim governors preserved certain trappings of Islamic rule while serving alongside a rotation of Manchu and Mongolian ambans. In the 1780s, one of the local...

September 22, 2022

Becoming Vermin

Perhat Tursun as a Franz Kafka Character

Darren Byler

The imprisoned Uyghur author and poet Perhat Tursun hates it when people call him “the Uyghur Franz Kafka.” He thinks Uyghur writers should be recognized as world-class intellectuals on their own terms, not as derivative world literature representatives of a...

September 20, 2022

“Researching” for Translation

Anders Hansson and Bonnie McDougall

A few months ago, Bonnie received a request from the research administration at her university to submit information on any recent publications. She duly let them know about our translation of A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams are Made...

September 15, 2022

The Power of Female Same-Sex Love

Stephen Roddy and Ying Wang

In premodern China, descriptions of homoeroticism can be found in multiple examples of histories, poetry, fiction, and drama, but nearly all of these treat exclusively male-male relations. On female same-sex desire, the written record is almost completely silent. The few...

September 13, 2022

Translating a Narcissist: The Italian Invert’s Companion

Nancy Erber

The Italian invert and I have a history together. I first came across his story under the title “Roman d’un inverti” in the 1980s in a hot and stuffy Paris library as I was scrolling through the Archives d’Anthropologie criminelle,...

September 8, 2022

Q&A: Giuseppe Caruso on The Botany of Beer

Pour a pint, and read about its incredible plant origins. Giuseppe Caruso’s The Botany of Beer: An Illustrated Guide to More Than 500 Plants Used in Brewing provides a lovely look into the raw materials that can spice up your...

September 6, 2022

Tommy, Helen, Frank, and Me

S. R. Gilbert

It was as inconceivable to Helen Lowe that she address her author as “Tommy” as it would be for me to open an email with “Cher Frank.” Without question, those writers whose work undergoes translation during their lifetimes must endure...

September 2, 2022

Announcing Our 2022-2023 Politics and International Affairs Catalog

Letter from the editors: We are proud to present this year’s selection of titles in political science, international relations, and political theory. Our American politics list is split between domestic politics and American foreign relations, but both lists consider issues...