Hot for Translator

Natasha Wimmer, translator of Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives and 2666, is interviewed over at Granta: How much did you have to get absorbed in the atmosphere of the book, and how did you achieve that? NW: If you mean did I have to dim the lights and put on Barry White, I hate to disappoint you. I won’t say that the mood of a scene doesn’t affect me, but I’m not the translating equivalent of a Method actor. And […]

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Yo Bret Easton Ellis, What’s up With Them Shoes Playboy?

Bret Easton Ellis talks to Vice.  He discusses his books and “complicated tweets.”  Makes no mention of his terrible shoes: The Salinger one. On the day he died, you posted: “Yeah!! Thank God he’s finally dead. I’ve been waiting for this day for-fucking-ever. Party tonight!!!” Some people didn’t get it. I thought it was the greatest thing I’d read in a long time. Good. That’s good. That’s what I was hoping for. Did you get grief from friends over that? […]

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The Black and White Literature of Chicago

Criminal Class Review Vol. 3 is 175 pages of stories and poetry by familiar names like Stephen Elliott, Jim Goad, and a host of people who’ve appeared in numerous lit. journals and mags that I like.  It’s sparse black & white layout makes the claim that it’s celebrating “the art of noir fiction” seem totally valid. Is it too late to submit this to The Faster Times literary magazine guide?

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Emily Gould Causes Blogger Existential Crisis

Obviously there is love between Vol. 1 Brooklyn/Impose/Josh Spilker (Deckfight).  This is why after read Josh’s thoughts on Emily Gould and her new book, And the Heart Says Whatever, I became worried about the guy.  I have these (very meta) visions of Josh sitting under a tree in the Carolinas (North or South, you pick), giving this subject too much thought, sweating nervously as he types away: I don’t get memoirs about how a big blog treated you badly. I […]

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