We give you the ten most popular articles published this year at Asymptote:
1. Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s An Open Letter to Beatrice Ask (translated into English by Rachel Willson-Broyles and into 17 other languages by volunteers who stepped forward to participate in our JHK Translation Project)
I am writing to you with a simple request, Beatrice Ask. I want us to trade our skins and our experiences.
2. An interview with David Mitchell (by Lee Yew Leong, Florian Duijsens and Dolan Morgan)
As a writer I can be bad, but I can’t be wrong. A translator can be good, but can never be right.
3. Chika Unigwe’s Love of a Fat Woman
She was not his type, but he could see the potential in her.
4. László Krasznahorkai’s I Don’t Need Anything from Here (tr. Ottilie Mulzet)
I would leave here the exit routes, the evenings in the kitchen, the last amorous gaze, and all the city-bound directions that make you shudder.
5. Naoki Higashida’s The Reason I Jump (tr. David Mitchell and K.A. Yoshida)
Once I’ve made a mistake, the fact of it starts rushing towards me like a tsunami.
6. Aamer Hussein’s review of Ismat Chughtai’s short stories
These hands were neither legitimate nor illegitimate; they were only hands, living hands that wash away the filth from the face of this planet.
7. An interview with Can Xue (by Dylan Suher and Joan Hua)
I turn towards the dark abyss of consciousness and plunge in. In the tension between those two forces I build my fantastic, idealist plots.
8. An interview with Anne Carson and Robert Currie (by Megan Berkobien)
Hegel is interesting. Plus, I love saying his name, as opposed to Althusser, which you never want to pronounce.
9. Will McGrath’s Good & Bad Joala (also translated into Chinese by Francis Li Zhuoxiong)
She knows your malfeasance before you fease it mal.
10. An interview with Tan Twan Eng (by Nicole Idar)
You know, some people ask me for writing tips, how to be a better writer. I always say, “Watch more stand-up comedy.