Asymptote Podcast

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Asymptote is a global journal dedicated to literary translation, created by a team of writers and translators from over 25 different countries. In our new podcast, we explore the most fascinating, eclectic and unsung stories in international literature. Each episode travels far and wide to bring you…

Asymptote Podcast


    • Oct 7, 2021 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 30m AVG DURATION
    • 16 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Asymptote Podcast

    Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Bethlehem Attfield

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2021


    It's Steve Lehman's final episode as our podcast editor, and we're going out with a bang: a timely interview with the Ethiopian writer and translator Bethlehem Attfield. In this episode, Bethlehem talks with Steve about co-translating Mulugeta Alebachew's short story “Heaven Without Prickly Pears” for our Summer 2021 issue. She also discusses the lack of representation of […]

    Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Kári Tulinius

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2021 29:51


    Summer has arrived (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), and today we're heading to Iceland! In this episode, Icelandic writer Kári Tulinius chats with podcast editor Steve Lehman about growing up in Iceland, the advantages of a tight-knit literary community, and how writing poetry is part of what it means to be human. Then, Kári reads one of his poems published […]

    Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Padma Viswanathan

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2021 29:31


    Today on the show, the award-winning author and translator Padma Viswanathan joins podcast editor Steve Lehman to talk about her love for Brazilian literature, the connection between writing and translating, and how translation helps her form an even closer relationship to Portuguese. Afterwards, stick around to hear an excerpt from the short story “The Woman […]

    Asymptote Podcast: An interview with Anton Hur followed by a reading by Yilin Wang

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 26, 2021 32:52


    Join podcast editor Steve Lehman for a conversation with current contributor Anton Hur on his journey as a literary translator and his “Fictional Notes toward an Essay on Translation” that was published under the aegis of our “Brave New World Literature Feature” spotlighting the unique relationship between authors and their translators. Stay until the end to hear writer, editor, […]

    Asymptote Podcast: Hiromi Itō on “Living Trees and Dying Trees”

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 18, 2020 30:03


    In this episode, podcast editor Steve Lehman chats with acclaimed poet, essayist, and novelist Hiromi Itō about her development as a feminist writer, the importance of the environment in her life, and the moving experience of reading her own work translated into another language. Plus, hear an excerpt from Itō’s essay “Living Trees and Dying […]

    Asymptote Podcast: Michele Hutchison on Curating Our Dutch Literature Special Feature

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2020 28:55


    In tandem with the release of our milestone 40th issue, new podcast host Steve Lehman speaks with the Booker International Prize-winning translator Michele Hutchison about her work on Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s The Discomfort of Evening, curating this issue’s Special Feature on Dutch literature, and more. Plus, a poetry reading by contributor Mustafa Stitou in the original Dutch, followed by […]

    Asymptote Podcast: That Which is Found and Gained through Translation

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 21, 2019 33:50


    Podcast Editor Layla Benitez-James reports back from the Unamuno Poetry Festival in Madrid with an excerpt from a panel she moderated, titled “TransAtlantic: Translation as Bridge and Compulsion.” She also explores the dynamic lecture on translation given by Jorge Vessel, poet and translator of Desperate Literature: A Bilingual Anthology—a book highlighting, rather than what is lost, that which is found and gained through the art of […]

    Asymptote Podcast: Infinite Text

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2019 41:18


    During Madrid’s Year of Lorca, which commemorates the centenary of the poet’s arrival to the city, podcast editor Layla Benitez-James speaks with Rebecca Seiferle, whose brilliant essay on Lorca translations appears in Into English. A multi-award winning poet and noted translator of César Vallejo and other Spanish language poets, Seiferle is deeply passionate about teaching and […]

    Asymptote Podcast: Out from Under the Masochist’s Shadow

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 22, 2019 21:05


    Podcast editor Dominick Boyle speaks with translator Olivia Hellewell, whose stellar translation of an excerpt from Katja Perat’s The Masochist earned her first place in the fiction category of our 2019 Close Approximations Contest and $1,000 in prizes. Set in an impeccably researched past, the novel gives Leopold von Sacher-Masoch—the (in)famously eccentric aristocrat after which masochism […]

    Asymptote Podcast: International Blacknesses

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 14, 2018 39:13


    “I felt myself in translation all the time.” Podcast Editor Layla Benitez-James sits down via Google Hangouts with poet and translator Aaron Coleman in this third and final installment of interviews inspired by John Keene’s essay Translating Poetry, Translating Blackness. In October’s conversation with Keene and our previous podcast with Lawrence Schimel, we explored the more radical social possibilities of […]

    Asymptote Podcast: Back into the Archives

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2018 21:56


    On this episode of the Asymptote Podcast, we dive once more into the archives to tune into some of the riches that Asymptote has offered readers over the last 30 (now 31!) issues. Pick up where Podcast Editor Dominick Boyle left off in his last episode to listen to recordings from 2014 up to the present issue. Hear […]

    Asymptote Podcast: Blackness Revisited

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2018 38:22


    “All art, all artistic production, entails the base of this word translation, a carrying over…” In this latest edition of the Asymptote Podcast, we sit down with translator and writer John Keene on the heels of the tremendous news of his MacArthur Genius Award. Author of Annotations and Counternarratives, Keene was longlisted for the 2015 Best Translated Book […]

    Asymptote Podcast: #30Issues30Days Edition

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 10, 2018 23:00


    In celebration of Asymptote’s milestone 30th issue, Podcast Editor Dominick Boyle dives into the archives to uncover some of his favorite recordings from the archive. In this episode, he revisits poetry set to music in Tamil and Spanish from Aandaal and Enrique Winter, and snarky telephone conversations with a whole city by way of voice-mail […]

    Asymptote Podcast: Cultivating Multilingual Spaces

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 17, 2018 26:02


    In honor of Asymptote‘s Summer 2018 edition, which marks our milestone 30th issue and includes a dazzling Multilingual Writing Feature, Podcast Editor Layla Benitez-James explores what it takes to create multilingual spaces by taking a visit to the IV Encuentro Internacional de Artistas de la Kasbah in Alicante, Spain. This festival, now in its fourth […]

    Asymptote Podcast: Language and Dance (Part II)

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2018 20:19


    On this month’s Asymptote Podcast, the second of two episodes focusing on language and dance, former contest judge Sawako Nakayasu is interviewed by Podcast Editor Dominick Boyle. They discuss her unique translation of a dancer’s notebook, Costume en Face: A Primer of Darkness for Young Boys and Girls. The notebook documents the development of a […]

    Asymptote Podcast: Translating Blackness

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2018 39:10


    In this episode of the Asymptote Podcast, we explore the identities of translators and authors via an interview with translator Lawrence Schimel whose groundbreaking translation from the Spanish of Trifonia Melibea Obono’s La Bastarda was recently reviewed on the Asymptote blog. (Obono is the first female author from Equatorial Guinea to be translated into English.) Podcast Editor […]

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