BookBlast® Podcast

Bridging the Divide #12 | Georgia de Chamberet interviews publisher Philip Gywn Jones

Georgia de Chamberet interviews Philip Gwyn Jones who has extensive experience at the heart of literary publishing having started his career at the late, lamented Flamingo imprint at HarperCollins, then founding Portobello Books and merging it with Granta Books, moving on to Scribe, and since June this year, heading up the Picador imprint at Macmillan.

“You were the first British editor to offer a book contract to Jenny Erpenbeck, Ove Knausgaard, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Kathryn Schulz and Zadie Smith, amongst others. Tell us about some of your recent discoveries published by Scribe and what makes each one so special.”

“Tommy Wieringa - author of The Blessed Rita which you have published in Spring this year - is one of europe’s biggest selling authors. What is his magic ingredient?”

“As voices from the margins have become louder, influencing the political mainstream, how has fiction written from an “outsider” perspective evolved and increasingly become an identifiable genre in publishing since you began your career publishing translations?”

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such

Bridging the Divide #11 | Lucy Popescu interviews Tommy Wieringa and his translator Sam Garrett

Lucy Popescu interviews Tommy Wieringa and his translator from Dutch, Sam Garrett. Wieringa's novel The Death of Murat Idrissi was nominated for the International Booker Prize in 2019. In 2018 he won the Bookspot Literatuurprijs for his novel De heilige Rita, The Blessed Rita, published this year by Scribe UK. It is a compelling portrait of the forgotten and Wieringa makes a strong case for empathy with those living on the margins of society.

“Did you grow up in a rural or urban community?”

“What draws you to write about men on the margins?”

 “Tommy, regarding empathy for your characters and their situations, by writing about flawed characters you remind us of our shared humanity. Was that your intention?”

Hear the answers to these questions and more in this insightful exclusive interview.

Presented by Lucy Popescu | Produced by Rupert Such

Bridging the Divide #10 | Interview (en français): Tahar Ben Jelloun explique le terrorisme

Interview avec le romancier, essayiste, critique et poète marocain le plus vendu au niveau international, Tahar Ben Jelloun, au sujet de son livre, Le Terrorisme explique à nos enfants. Cette semaine les complices présumés sont devant le tribunal de Paris pour les attentats de janvier 2015.

Pouvez-vous décrire brièvement à nos auditeurs anglophones les racines du terrorisme en France et quelles sont les objectifs présumés des terroristes?

Comment pensez vous que l’État pourrait contrôler ses forces de police et leurs «bavures»? Est il possible que les consequences toxiques du colonialisme puissent être mieux reconnues pour réévaluer le récit publique sur l'islam et la politique sociale républicaine?

Qu'est-ce qui vous a poussé à écrire ce livre?

Écoutez les réponses à ces questions et plus encore dans cette interview qui est très nécessaire.

Presenté par Georgia de Chamberet | Produit par Rupert Such | version originale

Bridging the Divide #10 | Interview: Tahar Ben Jelloun, On Terrorism

The Moroccan poet, novelist, essayist, and journalist, Tahar Ben Jelloun, is one of France's most celebrated writers. He has written extensively about Moroccan culture, the immigrant experience, human rights, and sexual identity.

With the trial opening this week in Paris over the January 2015 attacks on the offices of the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, and a kosher supermarket that killed seventeen people, Terrorism: Conversations with My Daughter (translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins) is a timely and essential read.

Can you briefly describe for our listeners the roots of terrorism in France, and what are its intentions?

How could the powers that be in France address the ongoing issue of police violence and toxic legacy of colonialism in an attempt to reassess its narrative about Islam, and its social policies? 

Hear the answers to these questions and more in this insightful interview for curious minds.  

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | Voice-over by Issa Naseri

Bridging the Divide #9 Guest interview | Christopher MacLehose, founder of MacLehose Press

Christopher MacLehose brought WG Sebald, José Saramago, Haruki Murakami, Claudio Magris, Javier Marías, Jin Yong and many others to English-language readers. He is credited as having launched the bestselling genre of crime fiction in translation now known as “Nordic Noir”.

In 1984 you published Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Høeg, followed by Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander’s series in the 1990s a.k.a. “the father of Nordic noir”, Jo Nesbo in the 2000s, and Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Why do Scandinavians write such great crime fiction?  

As a consistently passionate advocate of fine literature in translation throughout your career, what in your view makes a good translation, and what makes it last?

Tune in to find out more . . .

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such 

Bridging the Divide #8 | Lars Mytting (author) Deborah Dawkin (Translator) The Bell in the Lake

“‘And this also’, said Marlow suddenly, ‘has been one of the dark places of the earth.’ This epigraph, taken from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, sets the tone for Mytting’s sweeping investigation of legend, superstition, and the effects of industrial and ideological change on a small, secluded village in rural Norway . . . A powerful contemporary narrative that is rooted in history.” Rachel Goldblatt, The BookBlast Diary

What were your sources for the pagan, Viking and Christian folklore myths and legends referenced in The Bell in the Lake? Is all communication translation? Tune in to hear the answers to these questions and more . . .

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such

Bridging the Divide #7 | Lucy Popescu (Journalist) Lulu Norman (translator) on Aziz Binebine

"Tazmamart was an underground military prison in southeast Morocco where those considered enemies of the king were detained from 1972 to 1991. It was built after two failed coup d’états against Hassan II of Morocco. Many of those detained were unwitting participants in the alleged coup . . ." Lucy Popescu, The BookBlast Diary

How easy is to forgive a regime and one’s former torturers?

What were Aziz’s primary motives behind writing this book – to lay ghosts to rest? To effect change? The world he depicts is barely imaginable for those of us living in a democracy.

Tune in to hear how Aziz Binebine survived 18 years in a #Moroccan desert Hell.

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such

Bridging the Divide #6 | Interview : Michael Schmidt, Carcanet Press

The world of publishing has changed a great deal since you first founded Carcanet in 1969 with Peter Jones, Gareth Reeves, working from a farmhouse kitchen table. What is the magic ingredient meaning you have been able to adapt and evolve?

Publishing poetry is a tricky business. Your list comprises collections by established English language poets, new editions of work by deceased writers, and newcomers on the scene. Tell us about five of your lead titles in translation, and what makes each one so special.

Since making a living from writing – let alone poetry – is hard these days, do many of your poets run creative writing courses? Can you recommend a couple to our listeners?  

Hear Michael Schmidt, publisher & co-founder of Carcanet Press, answer these questions and give unexpected insights as he talks about his love of literature and publishing poetry in translation. 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such 

Bridging the Divide #5 | Interview : James Womack, translator

James Womack is an Affiliated Lecturer in the Spanish and Portuguese Section at Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam College. He reveals how he landed in Spain and translating Manuel Vilas’s latest collection of poetry and short fiction, Heaven, published this year by Carcanet Press. The author of fourteen collections of poetry, seven books of essays, and seven novels, Vilas’s novel Ordesa was a bestseller in Spain; is forthcoming in English with Canongate in November 2020. 
  
“Vilas is exceptionally skilled at capturing the misery and ecstasy that can coincide and enmesh in a single moment . . . Emotional depth and layers of meaning shine through Womack’s rhythmic translation and his use of extraordinary vocabulary . . . As in all great poetry, ordinary and unsuspecting moments are suddenly infused by a subliminal energy that transforms a mundane thought or event into a profound and valid realisation” . . . From the review by Rachel Goldblatt for The BookBlast Diary 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such

Bridging the Divide #4 | Interview: Anne Meadows (Granta) Jamie Lee Searle (translator)

"Anna Kim’s The Great Homecoming is a sweeping tale of friendship and betrayal that explores the devastating impact of the Korean War, Russian and American politicking and the Cold War on individuals, families and cities in Korea and Japan during the 1950s and ’60s. It may be a historical novel, but it puts people – a people; an entire nation – at its heart. This slick and accomplished translation by Jamie Lee Searle is sure to widen Kim’s fanbase and acclaim, and rightly so." Rachel Goldblatt, The BookBlast Diary

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | 37:49