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those places that inspire us
This week, I finished up with a project that was 3 years in the making. Now that my brain has started to temporarily rebuild itself (part of the process is drinking wine, listening to Hall & Oates...
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Distractions : The Cheever Letters
I once had a roommate whose mother didn’t find Seinfeld funny at all. Needless to say–and for various other reasons–I did not like this roommate’s mother. She couldn’t even explain herself! (she also...
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Martin Amis in New York
Now that Martin Amis has relocated to Brooklyn from the UK, he found time to do an interview in last week’s New York. He chats about many topics including but not limited to: “Terrorism, Pornography,...
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Gore Vidal, 1925-2012
Regardless of the fact that when I would see Gore Vidal on television in recent years , he wasn’t looking in the best of health, he was still as quick a wit as ever. A few months ago, he was the...
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A New Year for Acid Free Pulp
Yes, I have been particularly scattered brain, lazy, anxious, procrastination-prone, etc. etc. Maybe not the best way to start off a new year? However, being on a pseudo-vacation for the next month,...
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Aaron Swartz’s Top 40 Books
Over at Zola Books, they posted the top 40 favorite books of the recently deceased computer whiz and activist, Aaron Swartz. He was a great lover of books and often wrote short personal reviews (you...
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a poem by August von Platen-Hallermünde
It has been almost a year since I posted a translation. This is a poem by August von Platen-Hallermünde, an early 19th Century German writer. I dare say that I know very little about him but apparently...
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Anne Carson has been showing her face lately
Anne Carson’s black and white visage has been popping up a bit lately. Yesterday, I caught her on the front page of the New York Times website and now, today on the train, I was catching up on the...
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Translating Dead German Poets
So what happens when you’ve been super busy, not responding to emails, getting back to people or being a suitable human? Procrastinate, of course. I’ve decided to collect my three previous translations...
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Distractions : Vintage Librarians
Even while running around all week trying to tie up loose ends in anticipation of my super sunny vacation, I paused to go through the Flavorwire 25 Vintage Photos of Librarians Being Awesome....
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Reading & Chatting at the Bridge Series
Yesterday was all rain and chill in New York City. So what better way to spend a damp evening than to go to The Bridge Series event hosted by Goethe Insitut. The Bridge Series “is the first independent...
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For Franz Kafka, on his 130th
“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
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Federico García Lorca, Poet in New York
You still have two days left to see the fantastic and free exhibition at the New York Public Library dedicated to Spanish poet Federico García Lorca’s time he spent in NYC in 1929. Since April, a...
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Chitting and Chatting with writer Emily Thibodeaux about Louisiana French and...
I was thrilled and excited to recently hear that my friend and writer, Emily Thibodeaux (along with others) had started a new literary translation journal. Based in Louisiana, Embrasser “aims to...
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Kafka in Persian
فرانتس کافکا When it comes to the search terms that bring people my way, it’s usually something about Moby Dick, Kafkaesque, or something completely unintelligible (and, maybe, the occasional search...
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The quandary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Disintegration Machine
It doesn’t matter how many times I read Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story “The Disintegration Machine,” do I constantly bat the quandary back and forth in my mind. It is set up perfectly for an ethical...
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Distractions : Match the Author’s Pen Name
I am completely inundated with books to read and review, novels to write, Kahlua iced coffee to drink, but I have taken an afternoon pause. Shouldn’t you, too? I just finished playing “Can you match...
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Traveling Sprinkler by Nicholson Baker
“My great grandfather wrote light verse. I come from a long line of extremely minor poets.” A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture that Nicholson Baker was giving one night. He was...
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The Reluctant Cannibals by Ian Flitcroft
“Death was no stranger to the shadow faculty of gastronomic science…” It’s Oxford, the year is 1969, and Ian Flitcroft’s quick-witted and, dare I say, ingenious novel opens with the introduction of the...
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The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane
“Ruth woke at four in the morning and her blurry brain said, ‘Tiger.’ That was natural; she was dreaming. But there were noises in the house, and as she woke she heard them.” Australian writer Fiona...
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