Jenny Erpenbeck and I were both interviewed by David Naimon for his radio show and podcast Between the Covers — if you don’t know it already, he does great in-depth conversations with authors, and sometimes with their translators, too. The interview with Erpenbeck is online here. The bonus segments are generally only available to supporters, but he’s kindly given me permission to post the interview he did with me, so if you’re interested, have a listen!
My translation of Jenny Erpenbeck’s book Not a Novel is out this month from New Directions, and it’s already gotten some great reviews. Kirkus calls it “an ideal introduction to the life and work of an exceptional artist.” Lithub calls Erpenbeck “a powerful voice singing the past into the present’s melody.” Necia Chronister in World Literature Today says “The pieces in this collection are best savored one by one, and by taking time to consider Erpenbeck’s views on writing, artistic influence, social justice, the meaning of childhood, and more. Her words stay with you.” John Domini in The Washington Post says “the impact is of a master at work, someone who ought to be considered for the Nobel.” Read more about it here.
I have two new(ish) articles out that deal with Concrete poetry from different angles: one in German about Max Bense’s Terry Jo, and one in English in the Journal of Lusophone Studies that discusses Bense and Eugen Gomringer, with some connections to Brazilian Concrete poetry. A third is on the way…
My book Wireless Dada Telegraphic Poetics in the Avant-Garde is out now from Northwestern University Press. Read more about it on their website. You can order the paperback edition directly from the publisher at a 25% discount using the discount code NUP2019.
This Saturday I’ll be presenting at the symposium “Art and the Contemporary Refugee: Narratives, Memorials, Communities” at the Kemper Art Museum, an event organized by Sabine Eckmann and Svea Bräunert in connection with the museum’s current exhibition, Ai Weiwei: Bare Life. My talk is entitled “Imagining Migration: Human Rights and Refugees in Erpenbeck and Ai Weiwei.”
My translation of a brief essay by Jenny Erpenbeck on the fall of the Berlin Wall was published in The Guardian on November 9, 2019. Read it here.
My latest article, published in April in The German Quarterly, discusses Regina Ullmann’s fiction, a Heimatfilm called Hoch droben auf dem Berg, and contemporary digital art by Monica Studer and Christoph van den Berg. It’s an exploration of how the concept of Heimat interacts with the idea of mediation, with the alliterative title “High‐Tech Heimat: Mountains and Mediation in Literature, Film, and Digital Art.”
“My writing began with reflections on borders, reflections on how we change over the course of our lives, voluntarily or involuntarily, reflections on what identity is, and how much we can lose without losing ourselves.” Read my translation of Jenny Erpenbeck’s 2018 Puterbaugh Keynote lecture, online in World Literature Today.
My latest article is now online (behind a paywall) in Configurations: “‘Do the New Poets Think? It’s Possible’: Computer Poetry and Cyborg Subjectivity.” Kurt Vonnegut, Alan Turing, Max Bense, computers writing poetry, disaster on the high seas, this article has it all.
On November 11 I’ll be at Deutsches Haus with Reiner Stach to read from and discuss his book Is that Kafka? 99 Finds. My English translation of the book came out this year and has gotten some excellent reviews. Admission is free, so please come join us!
