That Other Word was a collaborative podcast between theCenter for Writers and Translators at The American University of Parisand the. The podcast offered discussions on classic and contemporary literature in translation, along with engaging interviews with writers, translators, and publishers. It aired from 2012-2013 and featured the following guests:
Hosts:Daniel Medinand Scott Esposito
Production Assistant:Madeleine LaRue
Audio Technician:Mathieu Motta
March 2012
In this first episode, Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito chat about the accidental poetry and reasonable plausibility of, the miraculous strangeness of, and the hopping city at the heart of. They also mention recent and upcoming events at their respective centers, including the CWT’s publication of the latest in,, and the upcoming visit of Jay Rubin and J. Philip Gabriel, translators of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, at the CAT.
Afterward, Scott Esposito is joined by Lorin Stein, editor ofand former senior editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. They discuss editing the English version of(translated by Mitzi Angel), procuring the rights to Roberto Bolaño’s works and editing, failure and what separates translation from other kinds of writing, ‘living with books’, and why The Paris Review publishes what it does. The conversation concludes with Edouard Levé, touching on his aphoristic influences, his humor, his suicide, and his book Autoportrait, which Stein has recently translated from the French.
April 2012
In this episode, Scott Esposito eagerly anticipates the Dirty War in, and Daniel Medin shares a delightful description of a freeloader from. They discuss Daniel Sada’sAlmost Neverand the general robustness of contemporary Mexican fiction, attempt to explain why readingis like running downhill in the dark, then hesitate over whether to calla memoir or a work of criticism, but agree that it is about Oulipo and very candid.
Daniel Medin then speaks to Petra Hardt, head of the rights department at Suhrkamp Verlag and author of. Suhrkamp is one of the most prestigious presses in Germany and in Europe, and since its founding in 1950 has published not only many of the greatest German-language writers of the twentieth century — among them Paul Celan, Theodor W. Adorno, and Thomas Bernhard — but foreign authors as well, including Samuel Beckett, Marcel Proust, and Julio Cortázar. In a series of wonderfully engaging anecdotes, Petra describes her work in rights and foreign rights, how that work is changing in the digital age, and why her book is intended for new presses in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
May 2012
In this rather German conversation, Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito discuss the melancholy and pleasure in the most recent collection of W.G. Sebald’s poetry to appear in English,. History is a found object in Sebald, and also in, a wintry advent calendar of thirty-nine short stories by Alexander Kluge and thirty-nine photographs by Gerhard Richter.may induce laughing out loud at the wilderness, and the thirtieth anniversary ofshould inspire some very leisurely drives from Paris to Marseilles.
In the second half of the episode, Scott Esposito interviews Benjamin Moser, author of. Moser has recently re-translated Lispector’s last novel,, and is currently editing a series of(Near to the Wild Heart, A Breath of Life, Agua Viva, and The Passion According to G.H.). He talks about falling in love with Lispector, his missionary urge to promote her work, The Hour of the Star’s stylistic strangeness and surprising pathos, and why online grammar forums make the work of translation less lonely.
June 2012
This episode’s opening conversation celebrates literature from Eastern Europe: Daniel Medin, speaking from Book Expo America in New York City, is impressed with, and Scott Esposito loves Marek Bieńczyk’s genre-bending Transparency. They hope thatwill make its way into English soon, and in the meantime they enjoy the biting humor ofand. Finally,Contemporary Georgian Fiction, the latest in Dalkey Archive Press’ series of regional anthologies, provides a welcome introduction to writing from an often-overlooked country.
Daniel Medin then speaks to Antoine Jaccottet, who founded the Paris-based pressin 2008 and has since brought out an admirable collection of works in translation, collected works, memoirs, poetry, and philosophy.He speaks about the publishing program of Le Bruit du Temps, the importance of translation,,,,,, and. The conversation concludes with a bilingual reading: Medin recites’s poem “In Alexandria” in the original English, and Jaccottet reads the beautiful French translation by Emmanuel Moses.
September 2012
Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito return to the second season of That Other Word energized by the translators’ duels at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the great work being done at the UK-based press And Other Stories. They look forward to new works in translation this fall, including, Basque author and Edinburgh guest, and the latest from. Daniel Medin hopes that several novels generating interest in Germany and France —,, and— will soon be translated as well.
Afterward, Scott Esposito sits down with Margaret Jull Costa, a distinguished translator from Spanish and Portuguese who has brought Javier Marías, José Saramago, and Eça de Queiroz into English. She is the winner of numerous literary awards for translation, including the IMPAC Dublin award for her version of. She speaks about her twenty-five year career, her pragmatic approach to translation, her favorite authors and her love of the nineteenth century, as well her thoughts on the evolution of Javier Marías' style and his latest novel, which she has translated as The Infatuations.
October 2012
In this episode, Daniel Medin and Scott Eposito revisitin its new illustrated paperback edition, and look forward to another take on that author’s work, the strange and musical “monologue for multiple voices” that is. They discuss the reconstructed romances in Jacqueline Raoul-Duval'sKafka In Loveand the well-earned praise for. They hope that Dalkey Archive Press’ Arvo Pärt in Conversation will bring about a resurgence in the genre of conversations, and tip their hats to Seagull Books for publishing two works by the 2012 Nobel Laureate Mo Yan,and the forthcoming
Daniel Medin then speaks to two booksellers in Paris about introducing and promoting literature in translation, challenges to bookselling in the age of Amazon, and the idea of the bookshop as community center.
Géraldine Chognard manages(near the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris’ twentieth arrondissement) and co-runs the small press Cambourakis, which specializes in literature in translation and has published Stanley Elkin and László Krasznahorkai, among others. She speaks about Librest, a cooperative effort among seven bookshops in eastern Paris, and ways to promote new works in translation. She mentions Le Comptoir des Mots’ successful poet-in-residence program, which has already hosted Frédéric Forte, a member of Oulipo, and Benoît Casas, and comments on Cambourakis’ upcoming publishing projects, including the French translation of Krasznahorkai’s War & War.
Sylvia Whitman took over, Paris’ best-known anglophone bookshop, from her father, George Whitman, five years ago. She talks about appreciating the shop’s history and her efforts to expand its mission, the joys of reading in multiple languages, and the unique position of anglophone booksellers in France. She reveals Shakespeare and Company’s bestselling titles and recommends some of her staff’s recent favorites.
November 2012
This month, hosts Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito begin by talking about books they haven’t read, but are eager to: the young Mexican novelist, which continues to attract praise from all corners; and two works byand the forthcoming Silences, or a Woman’s Life, both of which have been translated by Chaix’s husband, the American Oulipian Harry Mathews. Daniel Medin enthuses about two stories in the latest issue of Granta,: Daniel Galera’s dynamic “Aponea” and Michel Laub’s “Animals,” which Adam Thirlwell calls a “matryoshka feat.” Continuing along in the Portuguese vein, Scott Esposito introduces Mia Couto’s The Tuner of Silences, a recently-translated novel from a fascinating Mozambican writer.
Scott Esposito then speaks to Stephen Henighan, a novelist, critic, and translator from Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. Since 2006, Henighan has been general editor for the International Translation Series at the Canadian-based press. He talks about immigrant experiences in Canada and his own “deeply-rooted rootlessness,” the Canadian relationship to English and translation, and the challenges of procuring and producing translations for the Canadian market. He discusses Mia Couto’s “rural modernism,” his literary influences, and why the author travels well, despite being essentially “untranslatable.” Finally, Henighan tells the comical and haphazard story of how he came to learn Romanian, and describes the process of translating and trying to publish.
January 2013
Hosts Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito return in the new year enthralled by the “absolutely insane” game of literary telephone in the latest issue of, in which texts are translated in and out of English and by, among others, J.M. Coetzee, Enrique Vila-Matas, and Lydia Davis. They look forward to games of a slightly different nature in several forthcoming Oulipian works: the 65th anniversary edition of;, the dream journal that inspired much of his fiction; and, a critical examination of the movement co-written with Lauren Elkin.promises to be one of the author’s best since his widely-respected Small Lives;is story of clinical dream-invaders from one of Japan’s premier science fiction writers. Daniel Medin also announces the launch of the eighteenth volume in,, next month at the Goethe-Institut in Paris.
Nick Barley is the director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the largest and perhaps best-known literary festival in the world. He gives a lively account of Edinburgh’s literary heritage and the influence it still exerts on the atmosphere of the festival, and testifies to the continuing importance of such festivals for both authors and readers. He explains the origins of 2012’s International Writers Conference, at which authors from around the world were asked questions about the relationship between art and politics and the future of the novel. He reflects on the surprising appetite last year’s audiences showed for translation-related events, and shares several of his own favorite works, of both Scottish and foreign origin, from 2012.
February 2013
At the beginning of this episode, Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito are happy, along with the rest of the Anglosphere, to be rediscovering, newly translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. They also look forward to a recent success from the Netherlands that’s been making waves abroad,, and take an anecdote-filled trip through modernity in. They continue to be impressed by, the second volume in a hugely ambitious series that describes (albeit amid a number of digressions) how the author fell in love with his wife.
Scott Esposito then sits down with Ethan Nosowsky, a former Editor-at-Large at Graywolf Press who has recently been named Editorial Director at ѳɱԱ’s. Nosowsky discusses his early career and several of his experiences with editing translations at Graywolf, most notably with regard to Daniel Sada’s Almost Never. He talks not only about seeking out great Mexican writers and getting to know Sada’s work, but also about the working relationship he developed with translator Katherine Silver as she produced the English version. He muses on what makes a manuscript in general attractive to him as an editor and explains ѳɱԱ’s innovative publishing model. In conclusion, Nosowsky enthuses about the latest issue of ѳɱԱ’s Quarterly, which has been described as a long game of “translation telephone,” and resolves to pursue more literature from China.
April 2013
Prompted by the forthcoming publication of, hosts Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito embark on a discussion of literary lives and letters. They touch upon the marvelous correspondences of Thomas Bernhard and William Gaddis, and look forward to the lectures collected in. Reiner Stach’s, technically the final volume in a biographical trilogy, represents a welcome addition to English-language Kafka scholarship., a grotesque and haunting semi-autobiographical tale of the Second World War, returns after many years out of print. The introduction closes with a plea from the hosts to Anglophone publishers not to ignore biographies produced elsewhere:and Madame de Staël, among many others, they argue, deserve a broader readership.
Daniel Medin is then joined by Esther Kinsky, a poet and translator from Polish, Russian, and English into German. Her speciality is Polish literature from the First World War to the 1960’s, and she offers wonderful introductions to some of her favorite writers of that period, including Zygmunt Haupt, who lived in the United States and continued to write in Polish even though his own children did not speak the language, Wiesław Myśliwski, whose Stone Upon Stone recently appeared in English, and Joanna Bator, whose poetic works Kinsky is currently translating In their conversation, Kinsky and Medin discuss the lives and work of these writers, consider what has kept Eastern European (and particularly Hungarian) poetry and fiction so robust, and discuss the revival of reportage as a genre in Poland. Esther Kinsky also shares an enchanting story about what prompted her to become a translator, muses on the relationship between translating and writing, and mentions her own newest book of prose, whose German title, Fremdsprechen, she roughly translates as “talking something into foreignness.”
September 2013
Hosts Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito return after a summer of reading full of praise for a characteristically broad range of texts. First, they delight over, a newly-translated collection which features several original illustrations by Walser’s brother, and a long-awaited selected poems in English from an under-appreciated Italian poet,, translated by “a host of luminaries.”provides a dose of clever Eastern European gallows humor, andproves, at over 2500 pages, to be a brilliant addition to one’s nightstand. Finally, the hosts express their deep admiration and gratitude for a house favorite,, which represents a culmination of thirty years of the author’s work.
In the second half of the episode, Scott Esposito speaks to Will Evans, publisher and founder ofin Dallas, Texas. Their lively conversation opens with the story of how Deep Vellum got its “cheeky and irreverent” name and a discussion of Texas’ thriving literary and cultural scene. Evans speaks in detail about his decision to found a press, his close collaboration with Chad Post of Open Letter Books, and the historical, financial, and intellectual considerations in becoming a publisher of literature in translation. After waxing enthusiastic about his favorite presses and authors, Evans lays out Deep Vellum’s inaugural catalogue. Reflecting his profound commitment to equal gender representation among his authors, Evans introduces Anne Garréta, the politically radical Oulipian whose novel Sphinx is a genderless love story; Sergio Pitol, the great Mexican novelist whose Trilogy of Memory Deep Vellum will bring into English; Mikhail Shishkin, who is of particular interest to Evans due to his background in Russian, and whose short stories should appeal to anyone who loved Maidenhair; and Carmen Boullosa, another Mexican writer whose novel Texas supports Evan’s abiding wish to explore Texas’ relationship with its southern neighbor.
October 2013
In their introduction to this episode, Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito explore two themes: storytelling and surreality. In the latter category are, a funny, unconventional portrait of contemporary Israel, and, the first volume in a sweeping trilogy about Romania, memory, New Orleans, and butterflies. The hosts then give a nod to works by two great Spanish-language storytellers: the Guatemalanproves irresistible from the beginning, and the Spanishis evidence that not all love stories are doomed to cliché.
Daniel Medin then speaks to Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the renowned Kenyan novelist, essayist, and playwright. Imprisoned by the Kenyan government in 1977 for his Gikuyu-language theatrical projects, Ngugi later argued powerfully for African literature in African (i.e. non- colonial) languages. Since then, he has published numerous works in Gikuyu and Swahili, in addition to a host of scholarly texts in English. Recently, he has turned to memoir, and these two volumes,and, form the basis of much of his conversation with Medin. The two also discuss at length Ngugi’s commitment to African languages, and touch on the forgotten tradition of pre-1950s African-language writing. Translation takes on increasing importance as a theme as well, particularly in the context of Ngugi’s self-translations. Near the end of the conversation, Ngugi shares some of his favorite contemporary African authors, and explains why it is easier to remember childhood than anything else.
As the year comes to a close, hosts Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito discuss some recent and unexpected favorite reads. As a judge for next year’s Best Translated Book Award, Daniel Medin recommends Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq’s, a four-volume, nineteenth-century classic of the Arab world whose cleverness and savage sense of humor has been likened to Rabelais and Sterne. Scott Esposito looks forward to Wiesław Myśliwski’s; the author’sStone Upon Stonereceived the BTBA last year. Hilda Hilst’s, in an especially brilliant translation by John Keene, prompts an exploration of scandalous writing: Hilst has been called the “Marquis de Sade of Brazil.” The hosts then make an exception to the podcast’s theme to praise an English-language novel, Ivan Vladislavić’sand its introduction by Teju Cole, from which Daniel Medin reads a paragraph. The introduction wraps up with Jung Young-moon’s, an eccentric collection of short stories from Dalkey Archive’s Korean library.
After that, Scott Esposito speaks with E.J. Van Lanen, a former editor at Open Letter and now publisher at, a new translation press based in Berlin. Frisch & Co. is unique in that it publishes exclusively e-books, drawing on the catalogues of some of Europe’s oldest and most respected publishers for its translations. E.J. Van Lanen explains the reasons behind choosing Berlin as a base and e-books as a product, and discusses his own history of reading electronically (and divulging his favorite e-reading software in the process). He then details several aspects of his publishing venture, from his relationships with the European presses, translators, and authors, to pricing and the online market, to the challenges of distribution and attracting readers. Near the end of the conversation, he speaks about some of Frisch & Co.’s first titles: Anna Kim’s, which examines an unplanned mass suicide in Greenland; Carlos Busqued’s, about a man’s descent into a criminal world in northern Argentina, plus Adrián N. Bravi’sand other forthcoming novels: Elisa Ruotolo’s, Joaquín Pérez Azaústre’s, and Uwe Tellkamp’s.
February 2014
This month, hosts Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito are sorry to have to finish, a deeply impressive book that re-imagines Wuthering Heights in postwar Japan. Through the brand new translations of, they enjoy re-discovering the honored classics of the French and Japanese traditions respectively.offers a surreal science fiction romp from the Russian writers who inspired Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, while the essays inexamine the surreal, the pessimistic, and the hilarious, from the former Yugoslavia into Europe and beyond.
In the second part of the episode, Daniel Medin speaks with Deborah Smith, a translator from Korean to English based in London. Smith gives a fascinating overview of the history of Korean fiction, including its particular formal and generic development in the twentieth century, and describes the major characteristics — and appeal — of contemporary Korean literature, to her mind one of the world’s finest and most consistently robust. The conversation then moves onto Jung Young-moon, one of the oddest but best-respected writers working in Korea today, whose collection of short stories, A Most Ambiguous Sunday, was recently published as part of Dalkey Archive Press’ Library of Korean Literature. Jung Young-moon is followed by Han Kang, whose novel The Vegetarian (forthcoming in Smith’s translation) is a clever, politically sensitive triptych revolving around one woman’s decision to give up eating meat.