Intralingo World Lit Podcast

When thinking about how to describe this brilliant novella by renowned Mexican author Fabio Morábito, the juxtaposition of poetry, oddities and irony seemed to convey its breadth. Have a listen as I and two members of Wayfarers Book Club talk to translator Curtis Bauer, where he shares his approach, insights and takeaways.~LisaLisa Carter is Founder and Creative Director of Intralingo, helping authors and translators write and readers explore stories. Lisa brings two decades of professional literary experience, including nine books and multiple other pieces published in translation, and nearly as many years of contemplative and compassion practices to her work. Her inclusive, engaged, caring presence inspires people to share their stories, create new ones and feel truly heard.GET THE BOOKIntralingo Bookshop * (US customers only)Or support the author and translator through your local, independent bookseller or library.CONNECTCurtis BauerFabio Morábito and Other PressWayfarers Book ClubWATCH THE INTERVIEWVia the BookLove LetterOn YouTubeThank you for listening!*We often receive free books from publishers, authors and/or translators, and will always identify when that is the case. Recommendations are never paid. They are offered only when we genuinely want to share a book with you. Any links to the Intralingo store on Bookshop.org are affiliate links and may earn us a small commission on your purchase, at no extra cost to you. Bookshop is currently only available to US customers. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit booklove.intralingo.com

Hello, BookLoves.In this episode of the Intralingo World Lit Podcast, I offer a short reading from the book Walking the Bowl: A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka, by Chris Lockhart & Daniel Mulilo Chama.Below, I offer a whole lot more about it, what I took from it, and what I hope you might too.From the publisher: For readers of Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Nothing to Envy, this is a breathtaking real-life story of four street children in contemporary Zambia whose lives are drawn together and forever altered by the mysterious murder of a fellow street child.This book is nothing short of a dedicated miracle.Over a period of years, the co-authors, a graduate student and a team of four former street children lived and worked in the vast slums of Zambia’s capital city, getting to know a cross section of the population, taking hundreds of pages of notes and over a thousand hours of recordings.When a young boy, who became known as the Ho Ho Kid, was found murdered at the city dump, the team dedicated their efforts to following the investigation in real time and discovered a connection to many of the children they were already in contact with.Lusabilo, a self-titled “chief” and waste picker at the dump finds the Ho Ho Kid’s body and is forced to assist the police in their investigation. Along the way, he is led to Moonga, a recent arrival who has turned to begging, become hooked on sniffing glue and dreams of going to school; Timo, an ambitious and ruthless gang leader; and Kapula, an exhausted brothel worker who is saving to get out of the slum.The connections between these four kids, who each eke out a brutal existence, and the murdered child is told unflinchingly, unsentimentally, yet with emotion and compassion.Knowing they wanted to reach the wider public, to tell a very specific story that would humanize these individuals, rather than perpetuate the tropes or appeal only to a small circle of insider professionals, Lockhart and Chama cowrote these intertwined stories as a work of narrative non-fiction.I felt a stabbing pain at how every one of these kids had been abandoned by family and society, left to survive on their own in unimaginably unforgiving conditions. And every time I felt compelled to DO SOMETHING, the authors reminded me how well-meaning but utterly ineffectual foreign “aid” often is.Lockhart, an American medical anthropologist who has worked in Africa for decades, and Chama, a Zambian social worker who himself was a street child, hold nothing back. They expose what seems to be an unsolvable tragedy of poverty and corruption, helped little or even made worse by Western notions of “development.”And yet they present a story that is ultimately one of hope.In their preface, they say:“If you were to ask us what we hope you learn from this book, we would say we hope you learn a little bit about the day-to-day lives and realities of street children and a great deal about the power of the smallest good.”Walking the bowl—offering what little you can to another—is at the heart of this story. It’s a tale the Outreacher shares with every kid in the slums and with the White Man. (And it’s the reading I offer here, in this podcast episode.)Toward the end of the book, Kapula tells the Outreacher:“I wonder how different things would be if everyone did the small things you do for us every day. Even if they only did one thing in their whole lives, especially if that one thing was passed on to others—like in your story. Myself, I think it would be a very different world.”Myself, so do I.This book achieved its aim. I learned a little about others and a lot about how I can live a more powerful life. I was reminded that I don’t have to go to Africa. I don’t have to change the whole world. All I have to do is offer a simple kindness to another, right where I am, right here, consciously, whenever I can.Read this book. Because it’s good for you. For us. For humanity. Because it’s beautiful. Deep. Impactful. Necessary.But above all, walk the bowl. Please, may we all walk the bowl.~LisaLisa Carter is Founder and Creative Director of Intralingo, helping authors and translators write and readers explore stories. Lisa brings two decades of professional literary experience, including nine books and multiple other pieces published in translation, and nearly as many years of contemplative and compassion practices to her work. Her inclusive, engaged, caring presence inspires people to share their stories, create new ones and feel truly heard.My thanks to Hanover Square Press for the review copy.We often receive free books from publishers, authors and/or translators, and will always identify when that is the case. Recommendations are never paid. They are offered only when we genuinely want to share a book with you. Any links to the Intralingo store on Bookshop.org are affiliate links and may earn us a small commission on your purchase, at no extra cost to you. Bookshop is currently only available to US customers. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit booklove.intralingo.com

Season 03 Episode 06 of the Intralingo World Lit Podcast I’m here today with a little something different: a short reading from the novel The Island of Missing Trees, by Elif Shafak, and an offer. ~LisaWayfarers 360° Experience The Wayfarers 360° Experience is a whole body, whole-hearted exploration, through the pages of a book. Over six weeks (Feb 5-Mar 12, 2022), we’ll read a novel together, at aleisurely pace, savoring it from the outside in and looking at it from our inside out. At the end of each week, we’ll meet live, online to delve deep and share. Week 1, we’ll set our intention and consider how we might read more mindfully. On each of weeks 2 through 5, we’ll move through the book on our own, at the same pace, readingjust a few chapters at a time. Then, when we gather, we might explore the setting through body and senses, delve into our heart reactions to the story and characters, or examine themes and topics with our minds. Finally, in Week 6, we’ll reflect on all we’ve discovered. Our experience unfolds in a welcoming, expansive, deeply held space. It’s a place where you can be fully you, expressed and appreciated. Together, in our small group, we’ll open ourselves up and deepen our connection to “the other” in books and one another in reality. See details and register for the February-March 2022 session here: https://intralingo.com/wayfarers-360-experienceLisa Carter is Founder and Creative Director of Intralingo, helping authors and translators write and readers explore stories. Lisa brings two decades of professional literary experience, including nine published books and multiple other pieces, and nearly as many years of contemplative and compassion practices to her work. Her inclusive, engaged, caring presence inspires others to share their stories and feel truly heard. GET THE BOOK The Island of Missing Trees, by Elif Shafakhttps://www.bloomsbury.com/us/island-of-missing-trees-9781635578591/Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit booklove.intralingo.com

Season 03 Episode 05 of the Intralingo World Lit PodcastMax is the most delightful guest who shared much about the wide-ranging themes he wanted to convey in this story and, as an extraordinarily talented and sensitive translator, Ros offered yet another dimension to this slim but deep novel.~LisaLisa CarterFounder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc. 00:00:36 – Introduction00:01:35 – Max shares what he wanted to write about: migration from Africa to Europe, Boko Haram, religion, family and LGBT issues00:03:33 – Max’s story of leaving Cameroon00:06:36 – Ros and Max’s collaboration00:09:00 – The language of Camfranglais00:12:04 – The politics of translation choices00:14:00 – Enriched the experience for readers00:15:25 – A place for glossaries in fiction00:15:51 – A tip for translators and varieties of English00:17:20 – Max’s approach to language00:19:32 – Awareness of English as a colonizing language00:20:53 – Examples of how Max and Ros collaborated00:23:17 – Vibrancy of sound, color, action in this novel00:25:15 – Cameroonian students critiqued Ros’s translation00:26:44 – The themes at the heart of the book00:30:55 – Max’s personal connections to the themes00:33:30 – Cameroon today00:36:45 – The relationship between the protagonists00:37:08 – The Gay Book Prize in France00:39:30 – The universal human experience00:41:10 – The particular experience Max wanted to explore00:44:05 – Shame, breaking free and where Max wants to go next GET THE BOOKIntralingo Bookshop * (US customers only)Or support the authors through your local, independent bookseller or library. THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY…Wayfarers Book Club, learn more at www.intralingo.com/wayfarers  *We often receive free books from publishers, authors and/or translators, but our recommendations are never paid. They are offered only when we genuinely want to share a book with you. Any links to the Intralingo store on Bookshop.org are affiliate links and may earn us a small commission on your purchase, at no extra cost to you. Bookshop is currently only available to US customers.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit booklove.intralingo.com

In Conversation with Michelle Grierson, author of Becoming Leidah Season 03 Episode 04 of the Intralingo World Lit PodcastWe’re so happy to share a truly magical conversation with author Michelle Grierson about her debut novel, Becoming Leidah. This one includes questions from a number of readers and is filled with deeply personal shares and insights.~LisaLisa Carter Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc. 00:00:11 – Introduction00:03:00 – Michelle’s Norwegian ancestry and how “blood memory” played a role in telling this story00:06:08 – The heart of the book as a mother-daughter story00:08:52 – The myth of the Selkies00:11:10 – The shapeshifter as the Norse God Odin00:12:31 – How the book came to Michelle in “quilt patches”00:13:28 – The state of liminality throughout the book00:14:58 – Michelle’s use of trines and the Norse cosmology of time00:19:05 – The oneness of everything and playing with space on the page00:20:56 – Reader is completely engaged from the first paragraph00:25:33 – Story structure and the writing process00:28:01 – Letting go of a book once it’s published00:32:07 – The mother-daughter relationship00:37:00 – The father as the villain in this story00:41:43 – Two personal things Michelle took away from writing this book00:46:09 – Reader takeaways from experiencing this book GET THE BOOKIntralingo Bookshop * (US customers only)Or support the author through your local, independent bookseller or library. THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY…Wayfarers Book Club, learn more at www.intralingo.com *We often receive free books from publishers, authors and/or translators, but our recommendations are never paid. They are offered only when we genuinely want to share a book with you. Any links to the Intralingo store on Bookshop.org are affiliate links and may earn us a small commission on your purchase, at no extra cost to you. Bookshop is currently only available to US customers.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit booklove.intralingo.com

Season 03 Episode 03 of the Intralingo World Lit PodcastI hope you will enjoy this soulful, shifting, emotional –and fun!–  conversation with author Shugri Said Salh about her memoir, The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert.~LisaLisa Carter Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc. 00:00:11 – Introduction00:02:11 – Our shared humanity00:09:48 – Childhood as a nomad in the desert of Somalia00:16:45 – Connection to storytelling00:23:24 – Universal theme and the hardest chapter to write00:26:18 – An aha moment00:30:22 – The refugee experience00:36:26 – Skating, on the river and through life00:41:01 – The price of trauma and need for closure00:44:26 – Healing through storytelling00:48:08 – Supporting and hearing one another GET THE BOOKIntralingo Bookshop * (US customers only)Or support the author through your local, independent bookseller or library.Shugri talks about the audio version, read by a Kenyan actress, with proverbs recited and songs sung by Shugri herself. Check that out for sure! THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY…Wayfarers Book Club, learn more at www.intralingo.com *We often receive free books from publishers, authors and/or translators, but our recommendations are never paid. They are offered only when we genuinely want to share a book with you. Any links to the Intralingo store on Bookshop.org are affiliate links and may earn us a small commission on your purchase, at no extra cost to you. Bookshop is currently only available to US customers.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit booklove.intralingo.com

Season 3 Episode 02 of the Intralingo World Lit Podcast, featuring authors and translators from around the globe. Lisa Carter talks to Zhang Ling and Shelly Bryant about their novel, A Single Swallow. The discussion covers the themes of trauma, war and memory, informed by Ling's work as a clinical audiologist, discoveries she made on her research trips to China, the voices of the narrators, the beauty of the language of the original, and so much more.Zhang Ling is the award-winning author of nine novels and numerous collections of novellas and short stories. Born in China, she moved to Canada in 1986. In the mid-1990s, she began to write and publish fiction in Chinese while working as a clinical audiologist. Since then she has won the Chinese Media Literature Award for Author of the Year, the Grand Prize of Overseas Chinese Literary Award, and Taiwan's Open Book Award. Among Zhang Ling's work are Gold Mountain Blues and Aftershock, adapted into China's first IMAX movie with unprecedented box-office success.Shelly Bryant divides her year between Shanghai and Singapore, working as a poet, writer, and translator. She is the author of eleven volumes of poetry, a pair of travel guides for the cities of Suzhou and Shanghai, a book on classical Chinese gardens, and a short story collection. She has translated Chinese text for publishers such as Penguin Books and various organizations, including the National Library Board in Singapore and the Human Sciences Research Council. Her translation of Sheng Keyi's Northern Girls was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012, and her translation of You Jin's In Time, Out of Place was short-listed for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2016. Shelly received a Distinguished Alumni award from Oklahoma Christian University in 2017. The book is available in all formats and from all sellers. [Affiliate link] https://bookshop.org/a/4438/9781542041508Join us at Intralingo (https://intralingo.com) to explore the world through books!Thanks for listening!~LisaLisa Carter,  Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.  Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Season 3 - Episode 01 of the Intralingo World Lit Podcast, featuring authors and translators from around the globe.  I'm so pleased to have spoken to author Nazanine Hozar about her debut novel, Aria -- which Margaret Atwood called the "Doctor Zhivago of Iran"!  NAZANINE HOZAR was born in Tehran, Iran, and lives in British Columbia, Canada. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published in The Vancouver Observer and Prairie Fire magazine.  The book is available in all formats and from all sellers.https://bookshop.org/a/4438/9781524749033   [Affiliate link]  Join us at Intralingo (https://intralingo.com) to explore the world through books! Thanks for listening!~LisaLisa Carter,  Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.  Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Welcome to the Intralingo World Lit Podcast, featuring authors and translators from around the globe.Children of War, by Ahmet Yorulmaz, translated by Paula DarwishSome years ago, I visited an abandoned city along the Aegean, where I learned for the first time about the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. It was perhaps the most unsettling place I've ever been. When I heard about Children of War, by Ahmet Yorulmaz, I couldn't wait to read it. And then speak to translator Paula Darwish.“It's very simple book, isn't it?” Paula comments. “There's nothing heavy in it, in a way. Although the topic is tragic, it's very simple. But it's thought provoking. … The best thing about it is, because it's told through a child's eyes, he's just sort of taking things on the surface, saying, "Well, come on. I'm a Cretan. Then how come I was a Cretan and now I'm supposed to be a Turk?"Based on diaries, the novel reads like an oral story, told by an old man remembering his childhood. It's full of sensual details: the tastes and smells and textures of home.Ahmet Yorulmaz devoted his entire career as a journalist, translator and novelist to rapprochement between Turkey and Greece. In Children of War, he offers an engaging, sensitive glimpse into a profound historical event.Paula feels proud to have translated this book into English, to represent it and what it represents.“The thing that I'd like people to take away from it is to sort of question our conceptions, if you like, of identity and who belongs, where those perceptions came from, and how long you have to be somewhere before you're not seen as a sort of immigrant.”Thank you to Neem Tree Press for the review copy.**Paula Darwish is a freelance translator and professional musician. She read Turkish Language and Literature with Middle Eastern History at SOAS in London graduating with a First in 1997. In 2015, she was invited to attend the Cunda International Workshops for Translators of Turkish Literature, where she participated in a collaborative translation of the works of Behçet Necatigil. Her submission from the novel Savaşın Çocukları by the late Ahmet Yorulmaz won a prize in the 2015 PEN Samples Translation Pitch competition. In 2017, her translation of the short story Uzun Kışın Suçlusu by Demet Şahin was part of the 10th Istanbul International Poetry and Literature Festival. She has also translated some notable non-fiction works, including a bilingual catalogue of the buildings of the famous Ottoman architect, Sinan. She is a qualified member (MITI) of the Institute of Translators and Interpreters.www.pauladarwish.comhttps://neemtreepress.com/book/children-of-war/ Ahmet Yorulmaz was a Turkish a journalist, author and translator. He was born in Ayvalik to a family of Cretan Turks deported to mainland Turkey as part of the Greek/Turkish population exchange decreed in the Treaty of Lausanne. He was fluent in modern Greek and translated novels and poems from contemporary Greek literature to Turkish. Most of his original works were written with the aim of making people learn about Ayvalık, the city where he grew up. He dedicated himself to Greek-Turkish friendship and rapprochement. **Thank you for listening and please share your own experience of this interview, the topics, and of course this amazing book. Drop a comment or reach out directly! We'd love to hear from you.Lisa Carter Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc. Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Welcome to the Intralingo World Lit Podcast, featuring authors and translators from around the globe.Margaret Davis Ghielmetti is a traveler, writer and live lit storyteller whose memoir is about setting off with her husband as he took on roles managing exclusive hotels around the world. In discovering the world, Margaret discovered herself.I felt a kindred soul in Margaret and all she shares in Brave(ish): A Memoir of a Recovering Perfectionist. We talk about looking outward, to other people and cultures in this world, while also looking inward, at ourselves. We talk about the process of becoming who we truly want to be by recognizing what she calls “The Family Handbook”: the rules and ways of being we inherit.Over the course of her time abroad, from country to country, and returning to the US to look after her aging parents, Margaret was able to take the best parts of those rules and release the rest.“To quote Mary Oliver: ‘What will we do with this one wild precious life?' [...] That's definitely my hope with this book that maybe people will give some thought to. ‘Oh, okay. I see that maybe, maybe I can be brave enough to try to do things differently for a greater expression of selfhood.'”Finding and expressing our selfhood does indeed take bravery, but as Margaret shows us in this memoir, it's not necessarily cape and crown, all-capital BRAVE. Brave(ish) is more than enough.I hope that you too will travel far, and wide, and deep within through this wonderful memoir and all Margaret shares with us in this conversation.Thank you to She Writes Press for the review copy.Bio: Margaret Davis Ghielmetti is a writer, "live lit" storyteller, solo performance artist, and photographer.  She and her Swiss husband have lived on four continents and have visited nearly fifty countries. Those journeys inform her rallying cry ("The world is not my enemy!") and her creative work (including winning two StorySLAMs with the storytelling show, The Moth.)  Ghielmetti's solo show, “Fierce,” is about re-claiming her creative expression in mid-life . . . and she wrote Brave(ish): A Memoir of a Recovering Perfectionist to inspire readers that it's never too late to learn to live our own lives – if we dare to let go of outdated roles and rules we thought kept us safe.  She also hopes to entertain readers with her adventures and mis-adventures abroad, and to share what each country taught her that she never would have learned on her own. Proud to have been included in Newcity's LIT 50 2020 (“Who really books in Chicago,”) Margaret is over the moon to have just had her book launch on October 1 with Chicago indie bookstore www.womenandchildrenfirst.com Please visit www.margaretghielmetti.com to find video/audio of her stories, her Instagram photos, and links to purchase Brave(ish): A Memoir of a Recovering Perfectionist (which may be ordered through any bookseller, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.)  What Margaret loves most is genuine connection with other human beings!  She'd love to be in touch and to hear about your journey and how you experience the world.  Sincere thanks to Intralingo and Lisa Carter for this wonderful opportunity!  **Thank you for listening and please share your own experience of this interview, the topics, and of course this amazing book. Reach out! We'd love to hear from you.Lisa Carter Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc. Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Catherine the Great and the Small is the coming-of-age story of a Montenegrin girl, her tumultuous teen and young adult years, as she is surrounded by the even more tumultuous events unfolding in what we now know as the ex-Yugoslavia.Author Olja Knežević says, “Catherine is someone who could have been my really good friend. I could have known her growing up.”This richness and intimacy of character is perhaps what I loved best about the book. I felt like she could have been my friend too. It's perhaps a hallmark of Olja's writing: “The deeper you go, the more universal it becomes.”Translators Paula Gordon and Ellen Elias-Bursać bring Olja's energetic, emotional, even playful voice to life in English, as Ellen would describe it. What's more, Ellen and Paula illuminate place, history, politics, and culture for those of us who have little experience of the region. The clues, sprinkled within the text and elaborated on in an endnote, are insightful and add even more richness to the experience of this book.There's so much in this chat that I hope you will enjoy, about writing, translation and language, but also about expressing ourselves, being human, joy and punishment in literature and in life. And don't miss the reading in both Montenegrin and English!Thank you to Istros Books for the review copy.**Olja Knežević (pronounced Olya) was born in Montenegro, graduated from high school in California, has a BA in English Language from Belgrade University, and has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck College, London. She currently resides in Zagreb, Croatia. She is the founder of Ženski glasovi (Women's Voices), an NGO that promotes and publishes writers from the region of ex-Yugoslavia.The manuscript of Katarina was the recipient of the 2019 VBZ literary award for the best unpublished novel written in Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian or Bosnian and was subsequently published by VBZ in Croatia. Its English version, Catherine the Great and the Small, translated by Paula Gordon and Ellen Elias-Bursać, was published in June 2020 by Istros Books in London. https://www.facebook.com/Olja.Knezevic.Milena https://www.facebook.com/olja.rknezevic/ https://www.instagram.com/olya.rocks/ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2829666.Olja_Knezevic https://twitter.com/olyak15291332  Ellen Elias-Bursać translates fiction and nonfiction from the Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. ALTA's National Translation Award was given to her translation of David Albahari's novel Götz and Meyer in 2006. She is ALTA's President.http://bcsgrammarandtextbook.org/Textbook/authors.html Paula Gordon translates fiction, non-fiction, and poetry by Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian authors as well as dialog for fiction and documentary films. Her translation of Ljubomir Đurković's play Refuse was published in 2003 by the Montenegrin National Theatre; a new revised version is pending publication by Laertes Press. Catherine the Great and the Small by Montenegrin author Olja Knežević, co-translated with Ellen Elias-Bursać, is her first translated novel.Before becoming a translator, Paula worked in experimental theater and dance, then worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina with humanitarian aid and arts organizations; she was on the production team of the Sarajevo Film Festival from 1998 through 2001. https://dbaplanb.wordpress.com**Enjoy and thanks for listening!Lisa Carter Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc. Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Welcome to the Intralingo World Lit Podcast, featuring authors and translators from around the globe.Look at Him is a moving and one-of-a-kind memoir / investigative journalism exposé by Anna Starobinets, a novelist of such renown she is often referred to as “Russia's Stephen King.”In this memoir, Anna recounts the loss of her unborn son due to a fatal birth defect. It is a deeply personal account and an honest, scathing commentary on the Russian medical system with respect to women's health.It's one of the most incredible memoirs I've ever read. Anna does not hide anything from herself, let alone from others, even when events are shockingly painful. That willingness to open up and share is beautiful to see, and to receive as a reader.It is a profoundly human and touching story.“This is not a book that divides the world into good and evil,” Katherine says. “It is a book about the whole swarm of emotions that make up any human being.”Though a difficult topic, Katherine hopes we can read this memoir with an open mind. I wholeheartedly agree.Thank you to Katherine E. Young and Slavica Publishers for the review copy.**Bios:Translator Katherine E. Young is the author of Woman Drinking Absinthe (forthcoming 2021), Day of the Border Guards (2014 Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize finalist), and two chapbooks of poetry. She is the translator of Farewell, Aylis by Azerbaijani political prisoner Akram Aylisli and two poetry collections by Inna Kabysh. Her translations of contemporary Russian-language poetry and prose have won international awards; she was named a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts translation fellow. From 2016–2018 she served as the inaugural Poet Laureate for Arlington, Virginia. https://katherine-young-poet.com Author Anna Starobinets is a Russian journalist, screenwriter, and writer of fiction. An Awkward Age, a collection of short stories, has been translated into a number of languages, including English (Hesperus). Other prose titles include Refuge F/A, a novel; Cold Spell, a collection of short novels; The First Squad: The Moment of Truth, a tie-in; The Icarus Gland, a collection of short stories (published in English by Skyscraper); and a number of books for children. All of her novels have been nominated for the Russian National Bestseller Prize; in 2014 Starobinets won the National Bestseller Prize in the Young Writers category. Look at Him is her only work of nonfiction. https://starobinets.ru/eng/**Enjoy and thanks for listening!Lisa CarterFounder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Welcome to the Intralingo World Lit Podcast, featuring authors and translators from around the globe.Amora is a brilliant collection of stories that portray female love: romantic, familial, and platonic.Natalia: "I wanted to have this queer kid that sees a strange figure, a ‘stranger'. She wants to know about her and then she hears this word machorra and she wants to know what it is. When we think about literature that has lesbians as main characters, people go directly to sexuality, they're young women discovering their sexuality. I wanted to run away from this. I wanted to write about other things. That's why I always have this family context."Julia: "What Natalia was talking about is something that really drew me to the book, which is sort of moving away from the central theme of a queer novel being [about] sexuality. These are all women who are lesbians, but also women who are friends and daughters and partners and kids who play chess, and it creates this very beautiful and very interconnected universe."Natalia, Julia, and I spoke about differences between the two parts of this collection (divided into Big & Juicy and Sweet & Tart), differences in how the book has been received by readers over time, by different generations, and now in another language.Having won nearly every major literary prize in Brazil on publication in 2016, it's a delight to now be able to read this book in English.Thank you to AmazonCrossing for the review copy, and to Natalia and Julia for the wonderful conversation!**Bios:Natalia Borges Polesso is from Bento Goncalves in Brazil. She is a writer and a translator with a PhD in literary theory. She is the author of Cutouts for Photo Album without People (2013), Amora (2015)--which in 2016 won the Jabuti Award, the Jabuti Amazon Reader's Choice Award, the Book of the year AGES Award, and the Acorianos Literature Award--and Control (2019), among other titles. In 2017, she was one of only two Brazilian authors on the Bogota39 list, which selects the most promising Latin American authors under thirty-nine.https://www.instagram.com/nataliaborgespolessoJulia Sanches is a translator of Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Catalan. She has translated works by Susana Moreira Marques, Noemi Jaffe, Daniel Galera, and Geovani Martins, among others. Her shorter translations have appeared in various magazines and periodicals, including Words without Borders, Granta, Tin House, and Guernica.http://juliasanches.com/**You can purchase the book from Intralingo's Bookshop.org affiliate store, direct from the publisher or ask your local bookstore or librarian.Amora - https://bookshop.org/a/4438/9781542004336Enjoy and thanks for listening!Lisa Carter Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc. Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Uzbek author Hamid Ismailov, his English translator Shelley Fairweather-Vega and I talked about their two recent releases (Of Strangers & Bees and Gaia, Queen of Ants), which led us to consider the oldest story in literature, the Uzbek and Russian languages, the influence of politics on translation, the complexity of Hamid's writing, and his absolute trust in Shelley."So many people only see Central Asian culture, and history, and literature through the lens of Russian culture and Soviet culture,” Shelley said. “Isn't there something more under there, that we might be missing, that's native to those regions and those people? We don't have to look at it through Russian eyes. If we can look at it more directly, through their own languages and cultures, won't we learn a lot more?"We concluded that ultimately there is never only one version of a book, whether in the original or translation, because readers also make of a work what they will.Hamid reflected: "Every reader recreates the book in his own sort of version, in a way. [...] It is so gratifying to meet readers and get their stereoscopic view of your book."These two spectacular books help us see through the eyes of another, offer a glimpse into a part of the world and a form of storytelling that may be wholly unfamiliar to many of us. I encourage you read them, ponder and share your own interpretation!**Bios:Shelley Fairweather-Vega is a professional Russian to English translator and an enthusiastic Uzbek to English translator in Seattle, Washington. She loves solving puzzles (including those not related to translation) and is especially interested in examining the puzzling intersections between culture and politics. Shelley runs FairVega Translations and its sister company, FairVega Russian Library Services, which helps public libraries build and improve their Russian-language collections. She's currently the president of the Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society and a co-founder of the Northwest Literary Translators. Visit her online at http://www.fairvega.com/.Hamid Ismailov was born into a deeply religious Uzbek family of Mullahs and Khodjas living in Kyrgyzstan, many of whom had lost their lives during the Stalin era persecution. Yet he had received an exemplary Soviet education, graduating with distinction from both his secondary school and military college, as well as attaining university degrees in a number of disciplines. Though he could have become a high-flying Soviet or post-Soviet apparatchik, instead his fate led him to become a dissident writer and poet residing in the West. He was the BBC World Service first Writer in Residence. Critics have compared his books to the best of Russian classics, Sufi parables and works of Western post-modernism. While his writing reflects all of these and many other strands, it is his unique intercultural experience that excites and draws the reader into his world.**You can purchase the books from Intralingo's Bookshop.org affiliate store, your local bookstore, direct from the publisher or ask your librarian.Of Strangers and Bees - https://www.tiltedaxispress.com/books#/of-strangers-and-bees/Gaia, Queen of Ants - https://bookshop.org/books/gaia-queen-of-ants/9780815611158?aid=4438ORhttps://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/2513/gaia-queen-of-ants/Enjoy and thanks for listening!Lisa CarterFounder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Welcome to the Intralingo SPOTLIGHT series, shining a light on authors and translators from around the globe.Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a Mexican-Canadian author of six critically-acclaimed novels. We spoke about her most recent release, Untamed Shore. It is an artful, nuanced, suspenseful crime novel with a cinematic feel.Our conversation meandered into a discussion about diversity – or the lack thereof – in publishing. Silvia shared her own personal challenges in getting even this novel published, and offered insight into the larger systemic issues that result in the same old stories being told.I wanted to know what we could do as readers, how we could make our appetite for diversity known. Silvia put the power square in our hands and offered a number of ways we can contribute."One important thing readers can do is request books that they think might diversify the collection in their library. If it's not in the collection, nobody can read it."Silvia encouraged us to actively look in the stacks for something unexpected, to find hidden literary gems, and share what we find with others. I couldn't agree more.**Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of the novels Signal to Noise, Certain Dark Things, The Beautiful Ones; and the science fiction novella Prime Meridian. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu's Daughters). Gods of Jade and Shadow is her latest fantasy novel. Untamed Shore is her first crime book.Silvia Moreno-GarciaWebsite: http://silviamoreno-garcia.com/blog/Twitter: @silviamg**Enjoy and thanks for listening!Lisa CarterFounder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc. Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

It seems a particularly good time to release this interview with J.L. Powers now, as the world grapples with COVID-19. Jessica shared a personal story that can help us all, about the power and personal transformation that are possible when we read fiction."Books literally saved me. They catapulted me out of the fear I was experiencing as a person and into the realm of these other worlds, where I could be safe. I think that legacy, of books as a safe place, has always stayed with me.“Books as a form of salvation sounds a little over the top to a lot of people, but to me, I fundamentally see books as a transformative force in the world in ways that other things are not because they engage the mind, and the imagination, and the emotions. [...] That's what I bring to my work: this belief in books as a force for change."We can certainly use that positive force these days!In her books (This Thing Called the Future and Under Water, in particular), and in her publishing efforts with Catalyst Press and Cinco Puntos Press, Jessica invites readers in to experience the beauty and richness of the Africa she loves so much, but also the harshness. She wants us to see something other than what is presented in the media, a different perspective, and in so doing see our own country, community, and family in a new light.**J.L. Powers is the author of multiple award-winning books for young adults, most recently Broken Circle, which she co-authored with her brother M.A. Powers, and Under Water, the second book in a trilogy set in Imbali, an urban township in South Africa. She works as Director of Editorial and Foreign Rights at Cinco Puntos Press and is Publisher at Catalyst Press, a small publishing company she started in 2017 to publish African writers and African-based books.https://jlpowers.net/http://www.powerssquared.com/https://www.cincopuntos.com/authors_detail.sstg?id=101https://www.catalystpress.org/about/who-we-are/**Enjoy and thanks for watching!Lisa Carter Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc. Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

My conversation with author Jane Banning is as wide-ranging as her collection of poetry, prose and flash fiction, ranging from war veterans to basement pickles, and from reading the world to pickleball.“I like contrast between between intensity and levity. So that's kind of what I tried to do [with this collection].”Jane feels like a soul sister of mine. As a reader, she is actively trying to read more about the world and its citizens.“I think it makes me a better person to try to get out of my own narrow perspective to find, hopefully, some common ground and common understanding among people. […] I'm trying to read things that will make a difference for me and maybe for the way that I interact with other people.”I hope you'll immerse yourself in Jane's incredible collection, its descriptions of nature interspersed with the depth and richness of human life.Bio:Jane Banning lives in northern Wisconsin and has had over thirty of her stories, poems, and flash fiction writings published in various journals, including the Boston Literary Magazine, the University of Iowa Daily Palette, and Long Story Short, among others. She was a finalist in the Glass Woman Prize and the Micro Award. Her novel, Silo, is looking for an agent and while it's out looking, Jane goes kayaking. Asparagus Roots was published in February 2018 by Big Table Publishing and is a compilation of flash fiction, essays and poetry.**I'm a late bloomer. Always a reader, I didn't start writing fiction until later in life. On the other hand, with a minor in English Literature, I did plenty of writing in college, and my favorite classes even in high school were writing classes. So here I am, with over thirty publications of flash fiction, a couple of awards, some poetry, a few essays and a novel waiting for a publisher. Born in northern Iowa, I received a Bachelor's in psychology from Iowa State University and a Master's of Science in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I've called Wisconsin home for forty years and worked in health care for thirty of those. I currently live in the north woods with my husband, two dogs, a cat and a life full of the pleasures of loons calling in the night, sun on water, pickle ball and yoga. Our son lives nearby with his sweetheart and our grand-daughter and his dogs Bella, the Great Dane, and Zander, the oddball who's afraid of rain.Writers who influence and inspire me include Thomas Hardy, e.e. cummings, Alice Walker, Barbara Kingsolver and J.K. Rowling. These days, I read more nonfiction than ever before in an attempt to understand the world and its citizens.  I've been a member of Writers and Critters, a juried international women's writing group, for several years and have found that the critique process is at least as helpful in the creative process as the writing is. Two teachers have profoundly influenced the development of my skills: Robert Curry and Dr. Laurel Yourke. To them, to my husband Rick and to my writing buddies, I owe much.https://www.janebanningwriter.com/https://www.bigtablepublishing.com/product-page/asparagus-roots**We'd love to hear your thoughts about our conversation. And please subscribe to the Intralingo World Lit Podcast, to download the next Spotlight as soon as it's released.Enjoy and thanks for listening!Lisa Carter Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc. Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Bridget Krone brings us a brilliantly nuanced middle-grade novel about children and civil disobedience. Set in South Africa, Bridget was inspired by the time Gandhi spent in Pietermaritzburg and the true meaning of satyagraha, or "the quiet insistence of truth.”Her protagonist, Mercy, lives with two doddering old foster aunts, Flora and Mary. The three are later joined by Mr. Singh, who rents the small cottage out back. A property developer is eyeing their crumbling home, one of the last on the block to resist. Poor Mercy fears losing everything –home and family– and so keeps her head down. It's when she hears the story of the night Gandhi spent at the train station in her city and inspired his own life's work, that she is inspired to also find her voice and take a stand.“I didn't want to make this a story about race…,” Bridget says. “In a way, it felt like it was almost more subversive to make this a story that didn't deal with race… I didn't want for the story to be about what people would expect.”This was certainly an unexpected read for me, and delightfully so. Complex topics like culture, bullying, fear, and dementia were treated with straightforward, heartfelt simplicity. This may be a story for and about children, but I certainly took life lessons from it.Also buzzing in and out of the story are bees, charmingly illustrated by Karen Vermeulen.“[Bees] do these tiny little acts of daily work and aren't aware that they're fertilizing the world and helping us to feed ourselves; they're just performing their job. And in a way there's a metaphor in there for us, that we must just do the work that we have to do… It all adds in some way to the overall sweetness of life.”I truly hope you'll experience this rich, sweet read for yourself!Bio:Bridget Krone lives in Hilton, South Africa with her husband Anton and their two grown sons, who come home for occasional holidays.  Their house is on the edge of a farm and a nature reserve and she can see cows on the hill as well as the Drakensberg mountains from her stoep.  She was an English teacher for a few years and then started writing English text books for South African schools. She still writes readers, study guides, teacher guides and text books and has also compiled poetry and short story anthologies. Learn more about Bridget at her website www.bridgetkrone.comBook: https://www.catalystpress.org/young-adult-books/small-mercies/Instagram: Bridget_kroneFacebook: Bridget KroneEnjoy and thanks for listening!Lisa Carter, Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Sue Burke is a writer and translator whose recent sci-fi duology (SEMIOSIS and INTERFERENCE) has appeared on a number of “Best of” lists and shortlisted for some highly prestigious prizes.Our conversation covered how she knew from even before she could read that she wanted to be a writer, the inspiration for her two books, and many of the themes they explore.Sue's takeaway surprised me – and yet it shouldn't have. It's exactly what her books are about. And it's of vitally important that we heed her call.“There's something called 'plant blindness,' where you see a tree and every other tree is just the same tree. Well, no, it's not. [I hope readers] begin to see the individuals that are around them and understand that their lives are difficult for them, but important for them too, because this is our environment. If all the plants die, we're dead too."I found SEMIOSIS and INTERFERENCE to be engaging reads, almost frighteningly plausible sci-fi, and ultimately thoughtful meditations on language and meaning, cross-cultural & species communication, and the very real state of our planet.Bio:Sue Burke is a writer and translator who has lived in Milwaukee, Austin, Madrid, and now Chicago. She has published short stories, poems, and articles in a variety of magazines and anthologies, and her novel Semiosis was published by Tor in February 2018, and its sequel, Interference, in 2019.• Arthur C. Clarke Award 2018 shortlist• John W. Campbell Memorial Award finalist• Locus Best First Novel Award nominee• New York Public Library – Best of 2018• The Verge – Best of 2018• Thrillist – Best Books of 2018• Vulture – 10 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2018• Locus 2018 Recommended Reading List• Chicago Review of Books – 10 Best Science Fiction Books of 2018• Texas Library Association – Lariat List Top Books for 2019• Forbes Best Science Fiction Books of 2018-2019Bookshttps://us.macmillan.com/series/semiosisduologyWebsitehttps://sueburke.site/Semiosis website   https://semiosispax.com/Twitter@SueBurkeSpainFacebook    https://www.facebook.com/burke.sueEnjoy!-Lisa Carter, Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Sawad Hussain is the translator of Mama Hissa's Mice, a rich and wrenching novel by the eminent Kuwaiti author Saud Alsanousi.My conversation with Sawad begins with her trajectory as a literary translator from the Arabic, then delves into the controversy this book incited when it was published in Kuwait. Deemed to incite national disunity and dissention (though in fact its purpose was the exact opposite), the Ministry of Information banned and burned Alsanousi's book for about three years, before revoking their decision.Said to be the one book that should be saved if all Kuwaiti literature were to somehow disappear, Sawad felt an enormous sense of responsibility toward this work. She immersed herself in all aspects of the country, culture and language before beginning, she consulted with the author, and they had a well-known Kuwaiti poet in the US edit the translation for details. Sawad paints a fascinating picture of just how much goes into the translation of a complex work of literature like this one.I found Mama Hissa's Mice superbly rich in cultural and historical detail, and Sawad's approach to the translation was perfect. Reading this book is exactly like travelling to a foreign country: you're thrilled to be there, soaking up so much that is new and different, yet holding on to the humanity that lies at the core so as not to become too disoriented.Bio:Sawad Hussain is an Arabic translator and litterateur. She has regularly critiqued Arabic literature in translation for ArabLit and Asymptote, among others; reviewed Arabic literature and language textbooks for Al-'Arabiyya Journal (Georgetown University Press); and has assessed Arabic works for English PEN Translation grants. She was co-editor of the Arabic-English portion of the seminal, award-winning Oxford Arabic Dictionary (2014). Her upcoming translations include a Palestinian resistance classic by Sahar Khalifeh for Seagull Books. She holds an MA in Modern Arabic Literature from the School of Oriental and African Studies.Sawad's Twitter handle as a translator: @sawadhussainSawad's Twitter handle as a reviewer of books by women: @sendmebooksAuthor Saud Alsanou's Twitter handle: @saud_alsanousi Enjoy!-Lisa Carter, Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Hope Mueller has written an inspirational memoir about her early life in the United States, life lived in a commune – something most of us know little about or tend to misconstrue.The passage Hope reads takes us right into her world on a cold school day morning, as she bakes a tray of donuts for breakfast, careful not to step on the scalding heating grate, while her mom smokes (and it's not a cigarette).Throughout, Hope portrays not only the difficulties of a precarious existence, but the resilience she acquired thanks to a solid foundation of unconditional love and encouragement. This is what Hope most wants us to take away from her book: that we too can overcome and do anything.This memoir has resonated with hundreds of readers, and Hope loves to hear from every single one of them, so don't hesitate to reach out to her.Bio:Hope Mueller is an author, inspirational speaker, busy executive and active non-for-profit volunteer.  A results-driven leader and change agent, Hope's passionate about career development, youth STEM promotion, and local community service, among others. With her early years marked by the experiences on a hippie commune, Hope's unique childhood shaped her approach and interaction with the world, with a gift of creating order out of chaos and turning vision into reality. She lives with her husband in northern Illinois and actively parents her four daughters through the phases of their lives.Email: hope@hopey.netWebsite: www.hopey.netFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HopeMuellerAuthor/Twitter: https://twitter.com/hpmueller242Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hpmueller242/Enjoy!-Lisa Carter, Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Miho Kinnas speaks to us about her most recent collection of poetry: Move Over, Bird.This beautiful, slim edition contains an awesome array: original poetry in English, Japanese poems translated into English, translations of traditional haiku, a linked poem, found poems, and prose poems, poems written in the US, in China, and in Japan. There is something for everyone.Indeed, it's Miho's hope that everyone who reads her book will find one poem that speaks to them or even inspires them to create one. (She shares a wonderful approach, writing one line every hour during a single day, as she did in two of her poems here.)Miho publishes books to meet people, so be sure to reach out to purchase a copy of Move Over, Bird, and talk to her about her work!Bio:Miho Kinnas, a 2019 Pushcart Prize nominee, is a Japanese poet/translator living in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina in the USA since 2014. She is the author of two poetry collections, Today, Fish Only (2015, Math Paper Press) and Move Over, Bird (2019, Math Paper Press).  Her current associations are with Poetry Society of South Carolina and Island Writers' Network. She teaches poetry classes at various locations through organizations such as Pat Conroy Literary Center, the local school system and Life Long Learning, and Bluffton Book Festival.Her books are available at https://www.booksactuallyshop.com/ (Books Actually bookstore in Singapore), locally from the BookLady Book Store of Savannah, McIntosh Book Shoppe and Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, Bo Art in Hilton head in the low-country area or by sending US $15 to her Paypal account associated with miho.kinnas[at]gmail[dot]com.Enjoy!-Lisa Carter, Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

We've got a double feature for you on the speculative fiction novel Warriors & Warlocks: Outcast, with interviews from both Timothy Gregory, translator from the Arabic, and Saudi author Monther Alkabbani.In my interview with Tim he says: "I like to grab a book every once in a while that's outside my norm and just try it, see what happens."That's exactly what I did with this novel and it was an excellent decision! Reading Outcast completely shook preconceived notions of what I would or wouldn't like based on what I normally read. Do check out this wonderful book!And if that's not enough encouragement, maybe the cliffhanger Tim leaves us with in his reading will entice you even more:It was a bare femtosecond (one thousand trillionth of a second) before [Murad] slammed into the pavement when everything puffed to smoke – as though nothing were real. From the void, he heard a familiar voice whisper, “Nothing will be that has not already been, nothing will end that has not already ended.” Bio:Tim Gregory was born in Seattle, WA; joining the US Marines after high school, he found himself at a military language school in California studying Arabic. Loving the language, he never looked back. After more than 15 years as an in-house and freelance translator, he decided to merge his love of Arabic with his love of SF (whether you call that science fiction, science fiction/fantasy, speculative fiction or all of the above) and pursue translation of Arabic works in that genre. He earned an MA in Translation and Interpretation focused on literary translation from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018.http://www.tarjema.comhttp://www.facebook.com/tarjematranslationsWarriors & Warlocks: Outcast can be purchased online or from your local bookstore!Enjoy!-Lisa Carter, Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

In this episode, Dr. Monther Alkabbani and I chat about his first book in English, Warriors & Warlocks: Outcast, translated by Timothy Gregory. A work of speculative and historical fiction, it is “genre-bending” and being enjoyed equally by audiences in both Arabic and English.“It makes me really happy to see that the book resonated with English speakers, just as it did in the Arab world. It means that there's a lot of commonality between people throughout cultures. […] A book can resonate with more than one culture, and more than one language.” -Dr. Monther AlkabbaniBio:Dr. Monther Alkabbani is a Saudi surgeon and best-selling novelist born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 1970.His novels have become some of the top-selling Arabic books of all time, generating considerable interest and some controversy.Dr. Alkabbani has spoken at numerous literary events throughout the world, including the Paris Book Fair 2019 as invited speaker and WORLDCON 75 in Helsinki, Finland, to talk about Arabian fiction, plus festivals and conferences in the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain.Online:https://twitter.com/MontherKabbanihttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1297551._Enjoy!-Lisa Carter, Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Carla Damron's fiction is very much inspired by her social work and social justice efforts. The themes of home, homelessness, addiction, loss, humanity, resilience, opening ourselves up, and moving forward run through her amazing literary novel and our conversation about it. “There are five threads in The Stone Necklace, five story arcs. I hope that you find the one that you need to read, and that it touches you the way that it needs to.” -Carla DamronBio:South Carolinian Carla Damron is a fiction writer, clinical social worker, and author of the novel The Stone Necklace, the recipient of the 2017 Women's Fiction Writers Association Star Award for Best Novel.  It was also selected the “One Community Read” novel for Columbia SC in 2016, resulting numerous book club and workshop appearances. Damron is also the author of the Caleb Knowles mystery novels Keeping Silent, Spider Blue, and Death in Zooville. Her essay, “Sarah Leverette”, was published in Setting the Supper Table, 2019. Her short stories have appeared in The Offbeat Literary Journal, Fall Lines, Six Minute Magazine, Melusine, In Posse Review, Jenny Magazine, and Jasper's Marked by Water collection. She's had op-eds published in Social Work Helper, the State Newspaper, and The Sumter Item newspaper.Following a thirty-year career as a mental health therapist and program manager, Carla Damron took on the role of Executive Director for the National Association of Social Workers, SC Chapter where she conducted trainings and advocated for vulnerable populations served by her profession. Her careers of social worker and writer are intricately intertwined; all of her novels explore social issues like addiction, homelessness, mental illness, and human trafficking. Named the 2014 South Carolina Social Worker of the Year, Damron holds an MFA in creative writing and a master's degree in social work.Website: www.carladamron.comTwitter: carlawritesficFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/carladamronwrites/Find The Stone Necklace at Amazon, OR, even better, order it through your local bookstore!Enjoy!-Lisa Carter, Founder & Creative Director of IntralingoSupport the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)

Allison M. Charette and I have a wonderful chat about her latest translation, Return from the Enchanted Island, a novel by Johary Ravaloson. Only the second novel from Madagascar ever to be published in English, you're in for a treat!Bio:Allison M. Charette translates literature from French into English. She has received an NEA Literary Translation Fellowship and a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant, been selected for the Translation Lab residency at Art OMI, and been nominated for the Best of the Net. Her most recent translation is Return to the Enchanted Island, by Johary Ravaloson—only the second novel to be translated into English from Madagascar, it was published in 2019 by AmazonCrossing. Allison also founded the Emerging Literary Translators' Network in America (ELTNA.org), a networking and support group for early-career translators. Her other translations have appeared in the New York Times, Words Without Borders, The Other Stories, Two Lines, Epiphany, and others. Find her online at www.charettetranslations.com.Book: https://www.amazon.com/Return-Enchanted-Island-Johary-Ravaloson/dp/1542093511Twitter: https://twitter.com/sunshineabroadWebsite/blog: http://charettetranslations.com/Special thanks to Amazon Crossing for the review copy of this book.Enjoy!-Lisa Carter, Founder & Creative Director of IntralingoSupport the show (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BRYNFE5JTBFES&source=url)