Posts featuring Alexis Almeida

To Follow the Poet Into the Tunnels: On the American Translation of Carlos Soto Román’s 11

By discourse I mean a poem, a textual device that runs through a particular set of psycho-historical contingencies.

The following essay investigates the indelible wounds of the 1973 Chilean coup—which brought to end the democratic socialist government of elected president Salvador Allende and marked the beginning of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorial regime. Seen through the fragmentary, poetic method of poet Carlos Soto Román’s collection, 11, Sarug Sarano examines the public role of the text as reflection, bringing pieces of recollection, ghostly testimonies, and sustaining structures to their archival and political context, ensuring that one does not forget about the terrors and erasure that continue to infiltrate the present.

I searched for you among the ruined, I spoke with you. What was left of you saw me and I held you.

—Raúl Zurita, “Song For His Disappeared Love” (tr. Anna Deeny Morales)

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Weekly Dispatches from the Frontlines of World Literature

Your weekly guide to biggest news in world literature.

We’re starting this month with news of literary awards, festivals, and translation parties to distract you from the last few weeks of winter! From the Bergen International Literary Festival and a Mother Tongues translation party to the European Union Prize for Literature and the PEN America Literary Awards, we have you covered with all of this week’s most important literary news.

Jacob Silkstone, Assistant Managing Editor, reporting from the Bergen International Literary Festival, Norway

A literary event in Bergen, Norway’s second largest city and Europe’s wettest, doesn’t quite feel complete without a few minutes spent outside the venue—some people smoking, some talking with the writers, some watching the rain drip slowly into their beer. At Bergen’s first International Literary Festival, all participants were presented with free umbrellas, but the weekend (an extended weekend, beginning on Valentine’s Day and ending on February 17th) was miraculously close to remaining rain-free.

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What’s New with the Crew? A Monthly Update

Another month and another slew of publications and projects by our team members!

Very quickly: two pieces of housekeeping news before our regular update! First, thanks to 84 backers, we’ve managed to raise $12,896 for our upcoming feature on the Muslim-majority countries banned by Trump, with 20% of funds raised donated toward the ACLU and Refugees Welcome. (This fundraiser has received coverage in The Bookseller and more will be forthcoming at The Chicago Review of Books and at the Ploughshares Blog. If you’re from a high-profile media outlet and would like to help us spread the word, please drop us a note!) The more we raise, the bigger and more comprehensive our April showcase can be; in fact, we’ve already launched our call for new work in response to Trump’s executive order (Deadline: Mar 15). Only 33 days remain to contribute to our fundraiser; don’t wait, make your stand against the #MuslimBan today!

Second, we’ve updated our ongoing recruitment call (deadline: Mar 17) to include two more positions: Assistant Blog Editor and Assistant Managing Editor. Check out all available volunteer positions here.

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Poetry Editor Aditi Machado was recently featured in conversation with Jane Wong on LitHub. She also spoke on a panel with Pierre Joris, James Shea, and Jennifer Kronovet about ‘Translation as a Political Act‘ at the AWP Conference 2017.

Assistant Editor Alexis Almeida‘s translation of Roberta Iannamico’s Wreckage has been selected for publication in chapbook form by Toad Press. It will be released in late summer or fall of this year.

Slovakia Editor-at-Large Julia Sherwood‘s new translation of Balla’s award-winning novella In The Name Of The Father, co-translated with Peter Sherwood, has been announced as forthcoming from Jantar Publishing, scheduled for May.

UK Editor-at-Large M. René Bradshaw‘s review of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie at the Duke of York’s Theatre, directed by John Tiffany, recently appeared in The London Magazine. 

Chief Executive Assistant Theophilus Kwek has written an essay for the Stephen Spender Trust’s website on translation and displacement. He has also launched the second issue of his co-edited poetry journal, The Kindling, and published a new poem in Wildness Journal. 

Indonesia Editor-at-Large Tiffany Tsao has published a translation of a poem by Norman Erikson Pasaribu in Cordite Poetry Review‘s special issue on “Confession”.

Chile Editor-at-Large Tomás Cohen has published poems in the most recent issues of Edit (Leipzig), and PARK (Berlin), in translation by the prize-winning poet and essayist Monika Rinck, a contributor in our Fall issue. Further poems of Tomás have been published bilingually in NOX, a journal for young literature from Hamburg.

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