A vital new project to resurrect the works of a great Romanian poet in the English language, a slew of ambitious and global-minded book festivals in India, and a fair to highlight Oaxacan writing and languages in Mexico—our editors are bringing you the latest from a literary landscape that continues to expand in richness, variety, and intercultural exange.
MARGENTO, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Romania
In 1889, Mihai Eminescu—the iconic late romantic/early modernist Romanian poet—died at the age of thirty-nine, leaving behind only one published collection but tens of thousands of unreleased manuscripts. As they were gradually unearthed and released over the decades following his death, the posthumous publications only increased Eminescu’s fame and critical acclaim. Despite this unparalleled stature in Romanian literary history, however, the poet is relatively unknown to English-language readers—an issue that paradoxically has nothing to do with a lack of translations. In fact, a sizeable portion of Romanian and Anglophone translators and writers have tried their hand at this hugely demanding task, but they’ve all largely failed in two essential respects (to smaller or larger extents): first, in rendering the oceanic vastness and depth of the oeuvre, and, second, in capturing the exquisite euphony to an extent by which a non-Romanian reader could sense the original’s inescapable fascination.
One of the most important recent events in Romanian letters has now set out to address both those shortcomings in a spectacular fashion; K.V. Twain (Diana Cârligeanu’s pen-name), a young poet, writer, and translator educated in the US and Japan, has undertaken the task of translating Eminescu’s collected poems in an eight-volume series to be published by Eikon Press, and the first instalment was launched in January under the aegis of the Romanian Literary Translators Association in Bucharest. The association’s director, multilingual poet and performer Peter Sragher, was the event’s enthusiastic host, while literary critics Christian Crăciun and Vianu Mureșan contributed generous praise for the project.
This first volume features Eminescu’s sonnets in facing-page translation, accompanied by a substantive and much needed critical apparatus that includes a review of previous translations, a historical and biographical background, an overview of established criticisms, and more (all in both Romanian and English translation as well). Twain’s compelling assessments of Eminescu’s previous translations are generally straightforward and strongly opinionated without being dismissive, while both her critical arguments and translational choices are subtle and thoroughly considered. A remarkable aspect of her approach is related to diction, drawing parallels between Eminescu and contemporaneous Anglophone poets from Emily Dickinson to Robert Browning; it’s a thoughtful touch that will potentially prove relevant and helpful to the international reader. Based on the excerpts I had the opportunity to read myself, this awareness of context and down-to-earth approach has transpired in translation choices that are both felicitously colloquial and musical—if occasionally puzzling or metrically inconsistent (potentially another nod to Eminescu and the unique way in which he himself was an orchestrator of irregular meter).
A formidable, promising, and much-awaited initiative, Eminescu’s collected poems in Twain’s English translation fared impressively well with its recently launched first volume, and represents a milestone in the Romanian classic’s international reception. Luckily, a second volume is already forthcoming, featuring the emblematic book-length philosophical poem, Memento mori.
Sayani Sarkar, Editor-at-Large, reporting from India
January and February herald the time for literary festivals and book fairs in India. The final day of the Jaipur Literature Festival on 3 February saw a variety of events involving both national and international members of the literati: a talk on translation in the Indian publishing landscape with translators David Hernández de la Fuente, Radha Chakravarty, and Arunava Sinha; a discussion with Ukrainian author Yaroslav Trofimov’s on his recent book, Our Enemies Will Vanish; and a dialogue between Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and Nathan Thrall, the author and translator of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama—winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in General Non-Fiction. Meanwhile, the Banaras Lit Fest has announced the shortlists for its 2025 book awards, in categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translation.
This year’s forty-eighth International Kolkata Book Fair—one of Asia’s largest literary events—had drawn a record of 2.7 million visitors when it concluded on 9 February. Germany was this year’s focal country, with representative attendees including authors Ulrike Almut Sandig, Tonio Schachinger, Christopher Kloeble, and David Wagner, as well as graphic novelists like Aisha Franz, Bea Davies, and Maren Amini. I had a fantastic time visiting the fair this year and ended up buying a few German-language books while strolling the pavilion, beautifully decorated with illustrations by various graphic novelists on life and culture in contemporary Germany. It was a delight to see readers from all walks of life interested in the translated literature section of the book stalls, buying up books by Han Kang, Seishi Yokomizo, and Hwang Bo-Reum, among others.
For the first time, a book in Mising—a dialect spoken by a Sino-Tibetan linguistic group inhabiting in the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh as well as Tibet—won the best printed book of the year at this year’s Publishing Next Industry Awards. Entitled Rinjang Jang, the work is a children’s book published by the book development team behind the Hummingbird School and its the non-profit Ayang Trust, who operate the school in Kulamua village, Majuli. Also joining the ranks of exciting new publications is Mudritha: A Novel by Jissa Jose, translated by Jayasree Kalathil from the Malayalam. Released on 6 February, it is both a mystery and feminist exploration of women’s lives, set in contemporary Kerala.
René Esaú Sánchez, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Mexico
Although major book fairs serve authors, publishers, and general participants in the book trade, it is their audience—those who attend presentations, book signings, conferences, and events—who can truly transform these gatherings into something meaningful. I believe this is the case with the International Book Fair of the Mining Palace (FILPM), which will begin on 21 February in Mexico City.
Organized by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the fair has become an integral part of the city’s cultural scene, primarily because its audience consists mostly of teenagers and young students searching—among the stands and the crowds—for their next literary adventure.
I know that some of my contributions to Asymptote highlight Mexico’s linguistic diversity, and this will be no exception, as this year’s guest state is Oaxaca, home to over ten indigenous languages with more than one hundred and seventy variants, as well as one of the largest Afro-Mexican populations in the country. If we think about it, inviting a state like Oaxaca to an event filled with young people is quite significant: it’s the perfect setting to showcase its cultural richness to new generations.
And which notable authors will be there? Among the seven hundred who will be making an appearance, some standouts include Vicente Quirarte, Alberto Chimal, Ana Clavel, Bernardo Esquinca, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Juan Villoro, and Mónica Lavín.
From my experience, what also makes the fair unique is its venue: a neoclassical palace built between 1797 and 1813, which now serves as a museum, library, and home to the Mexican Academy of Engineering. Add to that a crowd of young students, literary activities, and the occasional musical performance, and it feels like a setting straight out of a movie—or a coming-of-age novel.
As a small anecdote, last year at the fair, I discovered that a colleague at a magazine I write for also leads a double life as both a columnist and an author of erotic novels—a genre that also has its audience among young adults and not-so-young adults alike.
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