Michael Holtmann
@michaelholtmann.bsky.social
Gadabout. Book person. President of the Center for the Art of Translation and its imprint Two Lines Press. (Image: "Opticks 008" detail, Hiroshi Sugimoto.)
"'People in the arts are often the people who speak truth to power,' avows Holtmann." On what's happening at the NEA—and to cultural life in the U.S. Big thanks to Adam Morgan (@thefrontlist.org) and the Los Angeles Review of Books (@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social). lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-d...
We Don’t Have Any Reserves | Los Angeles Review of Books
Adam Morgan writes on the impact of Trump’s coup at the NEA for small publishers and literary magazines.
lareviewofbooks.org
I wrote about the NEA cuts and that overwhelming feeling when so many different orgs and people need our money. But there are some answers in here too, courtesy of @michaelholtmann.bsky.social and @markkrotov.bsky.social. lithub.com/on-the-lates...
On the Latest Threat to Literary Culture’s Fragile Ecosystem: Donald Trump
There’s an ongoing crisis in book publishing. I mean, there are many, but corporate consolidation is a threat to anyone who cares about books. When there are fewer publishers, both large and small,…
lithub.com
Elvira Navarro, translated by Christina MacSweeney, in Granta. VOICES OF ADRIANNA is forthcoming from @twolinespress.bsky.social on February 18. granta.com/images-of-wo...
Images of Women | Elvira Navarro | Granta
‘In the years before his stroke, just how many times had her father told a woman he loved her after dating for two or three weeks?’ Fiction by Elvira Navarro, translated by Christina MacSweeney.
granta.com
Odilon Redon, Trees in the Blue Sky, c. 1883 https://botfrens.com/collections/14377/contents/1135076
THE YEAR’S BEST HORROR! Love seeing THROUGH THE NIGHT LIKE A SNAKE and WOODWORM (both from Two Lines Press) in such distinguished company (and in print!) here. Thanks again, Gabino!
Gabino Iglesias@gabino.bsky.social · 2y agoI was in California on the 15th, but finally had a chance to sit with the physical paper today. Love the art they made for this. Anyway, my best horror of 2024 (some of it!) in NYT!
Best Larkin is not cynical Larkin, imo — The first day after a death, the new absence Is always the same; we should be careful Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time. Philip Larkin, 'The Mower' #everynightapoem Also: found poetry at Harris Teeter, spotted by a friend
It has been 20 years since Bowker found only 3% of books were translations. Of the 100 “best books” by the ny times this year a whopping… 4 are translated. How far we’ve come.
Breyten Breytenbach. Farewell. The first time I read it, THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF AN ALBINO TERRORIST knocked me on my ass. “They took seven years from him, and he has now struck back with a volume that seems to have been ripped from his entrails.” —J. Lelyveld www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/w...
Breyten Breytenbach, Dissident South African-Born Writer, Dies at 85
He wrote poetry in Afrikaans and prose in English in his fight against apartheid, an effort that landed him in jail for seven years and in Paris as an expatriate.
nytimes.com
Breyten Breytenbach, who will be much missed: ‘History is a succession of things that ought never to have happened, and the writing act is a kind of revenge against it.’
Adrienne made the books section at Esquire the best one in the business. Heartbreaking to see her and it become a casualty of bad management.
Adrienne Westenfeld@awestenfeld.bsky.social · 2y agoAfter nearly nine years at Esquire, I’ve been laid off from my role as Books and Fiction Editor. I’m looking for a new full-time role where I can use my storytelling skills, in the book world or beyond it. If you know of anything, I’m at adriennewestenfeld@gmail.com. (🧵1/10)
What does it mean that a life can not only be animated by books but destroyed by them? That a self can be not only made by reading, but unmade by it? Dionne Brand returns to BTC to discuss Salvage: Readings from the Wreck Audio📻🔥: tinhouse.com/podcast/dion... @fsgbooks.bsky.social
Dionne Brand : Salvage : Readings from the Wreck - Tin House
What does it mean that a life can not only be animated by books but destroyed by them? That a self can be not only made by reading, but unmade by it? Dionne Brand’s latest book of nonfiction Salvage: ...
tinhouse.com
it was radicals who first opened my eyes to how individual acts of repair were not gonna be the ticket. the corporations must be compelled to change. this should be a function of government for the sake of all and we must insist on it. I know this is rather earnest but the need is pressing, urgent.
Margaret Spring @margaretspring.bsky.social · 2y agoMy interview w/ the Associated Press on #PlasticTreaty: We're way past time for addressing this problem. We are not at a sustainable level of production of plastics. Production is mounting, in the last 19 years we've doubled the amount of plastic we've produced. apnews.com/video/pollut...
Optimist: the glass is half full Pessimist: the glass is half empty Translator: when you say glass, are we talking flute, coupe, shot glass, balloon, tumbler, highball, schooner, snifter, tankard?
Florent Moncomble@fmoncomble.tract-linguistes.org · 2y agoOptimist: the cup is half full Pessimist: the cup is half empty Guillaumian linguist: the cup’s potential meaning is a dual movement from full to empty and back. Its effective meaning consists in an interception by the speaker of either movement, yielding a combination of movement and position.
Oakland! Come toast the return of East Baaaayyy Boookseeellleerrrs www.eventbrite.com/e/a-toast-to... www.eventbrite.com/e/a-toast-to...
A Toast .... to occasion East Bay Booksellers' new temporary location!
We're toasting all that goes into making a good bookstore great.
eventbrite.com
As you may have heard, from me or whomever else, East Bay Booksellers is reopening. A smaller version of itself, perhaps. But no less for the wear, I suppose. We're toasting to mark the occasion on Saturday, Nov. 30 at 2pm. Swing by, if you're so inclined or available.
A Toast .... to occasion East Bay Booksellers' new temporary location!
We're toasting all that goes into making a good bookstore great.
eventbrite.com
Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers.
"Taiwan Travelogue follows a fictional 🇯🇵 writer and her relationship with the charming yet closed-off 🇹🇼 woman who serves as her interpreter [...] this novel explores language, politics, and popular culture in 1930s Taiwan, and the shape a cross-cultural friendship takes under the weight of history."
eileen chengyin chow@chowleen.bsky.social · 2y ago"Shuang-zi" is a pen name, lit. "twins" in Japanese. Before her twin sister and co-author Ruohui died at age 26 from breast cancer, Ruoci promised her that she would finish the novel they started together. #TaiwanTravelogue is therefore their joint work- which the name "Yang Shuang-zi" commemorates.
Lovely news! #TaiwanTravelogue, by Yang Shuang-zi (author) and Lin Kin (translator), have won the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature! A first for Taiwan.
Piet Mondrian. Red Amaryllis with Blue Background. ca. 1907. Watercolor on paper
Y sus amarillos y sus rojos y naranjas y violetas.
Wayne Koestenbaum@waynekoestenbaum.bsky.social · 2y agokeep a place open in your history-bruised heart for Luis Barragán pink
This piece. One of the greatest. The trumpet motif borrows from the Austro-Hungarian Army’s Generalmarsch. From Mahler’s notes: “In gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie ein Kondukt.” At a measured pace. Strict. Like a funeral procession.
Alina Stefanescu@alinaetc.bsky.social · 2y agoThe palimpsest on the first page of Mahler's "Trauermarsch" movement, in the manuscript of Symphony no. 5 in C♯ minor. Furrows and the "B" in red.
