Tag: WITMonth19

August 29, 2019

Book Excerpts! KLOTSVOG and THE MAN WHO COULDN’T DIE

 “Since its launch, the series has already enhanced the scope of Russian literary texts available in English, and it promises significantly more to come, with planned titles ranging from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, by both new and established translators.” ~Katherine Bowers, Translation and...

August 28, 2019

Q&A: Marian Schwartz on The Man Who Couldn’t Die

“Darkly sardonic . . . . oddly timely, for there are all sorts of understated hints about voter fraud, graft, payoffs, and the endless promises of politicians who have no intention of keeping them. It is also deftly constructed, portraying...

August 27, 2019

Why A Novel About Post-War Trauma—Filled With Difficult Personalities—Makes a Great Beach Read

“Klotsvog is a story of everyday darkness told by the ultimate unreliable narrator… As Maya vibrates on a frequency between ruthless self-determination and charming narcissism, Klotsvog infects its audience with a compulsion to determine which dominates.” ~Foreword Reviews August is...

August 23, 2019

Weekend Reading List: Sinophone Fiction in Translation

Week three of Women in Translation month is coming to a close, but don’t fret. We’ve got a list to keep you reading through the weekend. China’s literary tradition includes many engaging works from contemporary female writers. Here a few...

August 22, 2019

Exploring Shanghai Gossip Through Literature

“Cast with ordinary people and steeped in lyrical simplicity, Howard Goldblatt’s superb translation of Fu Ping commands a disarmingly quiet beauty. It is as if Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg had miraculously resurfaced, not in the cornfields of Ohio but in the...

August 21, 2019

Book Excerpt! Fu Ping

 “Deftly translated by Howard Goldblatt, this love song to Shanghai continues Wang Anyi’s evocation of women’s struggles for individuality and sensual freedom, and further establishes her as one of the world’s great writers.” ~Douglas Unger, author of Leaving the...

August 20, 2019

Q&A: Howard Goldblatt on Translating Literary Works and the Fiction of Wang Anyi

“Wang Anyi is one of the most critically acclaimed writers in the Chinese-speaking world.” ~Francine Prose, New York Times Book Review   Today’s Women in Translation Month featured title is Wang Anyi’s Fu Ping, translated by Howard Goldblatt. Fu Ping follows...

August 16, 2019

Book Excerpts: Translations From Heian-Era Japan

Heian-era Japan saw a flowering of literature, especially at the imperial court. Women wrote diaries, essays, poems, romances, and novels that circulated widely during and after the authors’ lives. To honor these writers, we’re closing the second week of Women...

August 15, 2019

Book Excerpt! The Pillow Bookfrom The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays: Zuihitsu from the Tenth to the Twenty-First Century

“The focused ramble of the traditional Japanese essay format called zuihitsu (literally, ‘following the brush’) has appealed to writers of both genders, all ages, and every class in Japanese society. Highly personal, these essays contain dollops of philosophy, odd anecdotes,...

August 14, 2019

The Marvels of the Sarashina Diary

“As the author herself says of Mount Fuji, this unique work ‘looks like nothing else in the world.’” ~David Damrosch, Harvard University   This week, we’ve been featuring works from Heian-era Japan, a period that produced an enormous amount of...

August 13, 2019

Q&A: Gergana Ivanova on Unbinding The Pillow Book: The Many Lives of a Japanese Classic

“Ivanova elucidates the complex reception of [The Pillow Book] as an ongoing dialogue between the irretrievable past and the dynamic present. I cannot think of a better match between a scholar and her subject. It is a dazzling accomplishment.” ~Paul...

August 9, 2019

Book Excerpt! A Double Life

“Published in the revolutionary year of 1848, A Double Life traces the awakening of a young noblewoman who by day submits to the prose of high society matchmaking, while at night she is a poet in her dreams of true...