196 countries, countless stories...
As the heatwaves rippled across Europe, one summer novel held me gripped. It comes from Foundry Editions, an indie publisher set up in 2023 to champion literature from around the Mediterranean and notable, like fellow leading internationalist houses Fitzcarraldo and And Other Stories, for their distinctive covers (in this case designed to capture the visual [ ]
It s been my pleasure to be involved with a number of podcasts focusing on reading and/or translation in recent months in various capacities – as a guest, interviewer and producer. As such, I thought I d give a roundup of some of my favourites, not least because I suspect people who like this blog would enjoy [ ]
For anyone who s interested, there s a rare opportunity to join one of my Incomprehension Workshops online next week. Hosted by the Interfaith Center in Oxford, Ohio, US, this virtual, 90-minute workshop is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. Simply register here. Full details below. Hope to see you there! The Incomprehension Workshop with Ann [ ]
If you ve never heard of Jeyamohan, I wouldn t be surprised. Until recently, his work wasn t widely available in English outside India. That is starting to change: next month Hachette in the UK (and FSG Originals in the US) is bringing out his novel White Elephant, translated from the Tamil by Priyamvada Ramkumar. This was the [ ]
Last month I had the honour of introducing the Indie Press Network s spring showcases, two virtual events presenting some of the key titles coming out from small presses in the UK and Ireland in the next few months. As indie presses have long been the heartland of translated literature, I was only too pleased to [ ]
Eight months after the launch of the paperback of Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not-knowing, the ebook edition has hit the virtual shelves. It’s been lovely and humbling to see responses to the book so far. Prospect magazine called it ‘a genius move… In 12 short chapters it rips up the rules about reading and [ ]
I wonder if you’ve considered any books from Tibet so far, Chris Peacock wrote in a comment on this blog a few weeks back. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of translations from so-called “minority” peoples and languages in China such as Uyghur, Mongolian, and Tibetan. Still a small number, relatively speaking, [ ]
This book came onto my radar during the brilliant event about writing female experience I attended at Hong Kong International Literary Festival earlier this month. The panel featured three local authors, who spoke arrestingly about how they capture the pressures facing young women in Hong Kong today. As soon as I heard the premise of [ ]
Just a week after I returned from the Dibrugarh University International Literature Festival in Assam, India, I jetted off again, this time to take part in the 25th annual Hong Kong International Literary Festival. My engagements there began with an intense schedule of school visits. Jetlag notwithstanding, I was picked up at 7.15am on my [ ]
Moldova was one of the trickiest European countries to source an English translation from when I set out to read a book from every country in 2012. After months of searching, I blind-bought The Story of An Ant by Ion Drutse, translated from the Moldovan by Iraida Kotrutse, a volume that I couldn t help feeling [ ]