The BookBlast® Podcast is for writers, translators and curious readers who want a behind-the-scenes snapshot of the world of literature and translation. BookBlast® Diary launched in 2015 to celebrate independent thinking and international literature. BookBlast® is a registered trademark. Find us on twitter @bookblast instagram @bookblastofficial
Episodes
Thursday Sep 10, 2020
Bridging the Divide #10 | Interview: Tahar Ben Jelloun, On Terrorism
Thursday Sep 10, 2020
Thursday Sep 10, 2020
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
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
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
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
“‘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
Thursday Aug 27, 2020
Thursday Aug 27, 2020
"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
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Bridging the Divide #6 | Interview : Michael Schmidt, Carcanet Press
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
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
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Bridging the Divide #5 | Interview : James Womack, translator
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
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
Thursday Aug 13, 2020
Thursday Aug 13, 2020
"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
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
Bridging the Divide #3 | Interview: Rose (Eland) Robyn Marsack (translator)
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
The Swiss writer and photographer, Nicolas Bouvier, (1929-98) was a traveller in the real sense of the word, navigating different worlds and writing about now forgotten communities. He gives us alternative perspectives on places like the Balkans, Iran, Azerbaijan, Japan, China, Korea and the highlands of Scotland.
The Way of the World, The Scorpion Fish and So It Goes have become cult reads. Hear his translator Robyn Marsack and publisher Rose from Eland Books discuss why Nicolas Bouvier such a special writer and what his writings reveal about the man and his journeys undertaken in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, what is good travel writing, and what makes it last?
Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such
Thursday Jul 30, 2020
Bridging the Divide #2 | Interview : Adam Freudenheim, Pushkin Press
Thursday Jul 30, 2020
Thursday Jul 30, 2020
Publishing classics requires a special acuity. What makes a classic?
Pushkin Press focuses on modern classics, mostly translated works. How did you discover your most successful no-longer-forgotten comeback author, Stefan Zweig?
What type of person do you think makes a very good translator?
Hear Adam Freudenheim, publisher & MD of Pushkin Press, answer these questions and give unexpected insights as he talks about his love of literature and publishing translations.
Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such
Thursday Jul 30, 2020
Bridging the Divide #1 | Interview : J.S. Margot, author
Thursday Jul 30, 2020
Thursday Jul 30, 2020
J.S. Margot’s memoir, Mazel Tov, "is the story of an extraordinary friendship – in fact several extraordinary friendships that marked the twenties of the author J.S.Margot. At first sight it is the story of a young Flemish woman at university in Antwerp who teaches the four children of an Orthodox Jewish family to earn a bit of extra money. It is also the story of her first great love for an Iranian political refugee. In both cases she is exposed to a culture and religion that is not her own. She also begins to realise that she is on the receiving end of a certain amount of paranoia and suspicion from both her employers and her boyfriend.” — Henrietta Foster, The BookBlast Diary
Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such