In this new episode, join host Rainer Schulte and guest co-host Shelby Vincent as they virtually sit down with Edward Burke, a literary magazine flash fiction writer who goes by the anonym "strannikov". You will hear about Edward's journey as a writer, his experiences with poetry, and his perspective on making poetry more accessible to younger generations. Edward has published essays since 2011 appearing online in literary journals and magazines, such as Fictionaut, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, The Miscreant, The Earth Journal, and more. His verse (since 2016) has appeared online ..read more

In this new episode, join host Rainer Schulte and guest co-host Shelby Vincent as they virtually sit down with Sean Cotter, Translator and Professor of Literature and Translation Studies at The University of Texas at Dallas in the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology. You will hear about Sean's journey as a translator of the Romanian, his experience translating Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, and his perspective on the Romanian literary translation scene. Sean, an award-winning translator of the Romanian, h ..read more

In this new episode, join host Rainer Schulte and guest host Shelby Vincent as they virtually sit down with renowned author Carmen Boullosa. You will hear about Carmen's journey as a Mexican writer, and gain insights into her visionary perspective on the future of writers and readers. Carmen Boullosa is the author of a dozen volumes of poetry and has published nineteen novels (Shelby Vincent translated Heavens on Earth; her most recent novel - The Book of Eve - was translated by Samantha Schnee), as well as four books of essays and ten plays (seven stage ..read more

In this new episode, host Rainer Schulte sits down with Mark Polizzotti for a virtual conversation about poet Arthur Rimbaud. Most recently Mark Polizzotti published The Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud. In this volume, renowned translator Mark Polizzotti offers authoritative and inspired new versions of Rimbaud’s major poems and letters.  Polizzotti has translated more than 50 books from French and he is the recipient of numerous prizes and the author of eleven books, including Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton, Highway 61 Revisited, and Sympathy for the Trait ..read more

In this new episode, host Rainer Schulte sat down with Harvard Professor Louis Menand for a virtual conversation on the future of the humanities. In December 2021, Menand published an essay in The New Yorker titled “What’s so Great about Great-Books Courses,” which is certain to be of interest to those who study and teach the Humanities. Menand was previously an associate editor of The New Republic, editor of The New Yorker, and contributing editor of the New York Review of Books. He is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker. In 2016 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by Presiden ..read more

In the season finale, Sarah Valente sat down with Pulitzer Prize winning author Benjamin Moser, for a virtual conversation about their shared love of Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. Ben is responsible for making Clarice widely available in translation in the English-speaking world. Because of his work, Sarah was able to organize a single author course on Clarice Lispector last spring, where American university students, for the first time in their lives, heard the name and studied the works of this beloved giant of Brazilian literature. Benjamin Moser is the author of Why This World: A Bio ..read more

When reading a text in translation are you reading the author’s writing or the translator’s writing?  Listen to this thought-provoking conversation in which author Claudia Hamm and translator Johnny Becker discuss Claudia's essay entitled, “Who does a translated text belong to?” published in Germany's leading intellectual review Merkur in April 2018. In this rich discussion our guests and hosts address issues of equivalency and voice in translation. This episode invites you to explore how to approach translated texts from a new perspective. This conversation was recorded on September 10 ..read more

In this episode, we speak with poet, translator, and professor Julia Leverone. Julia is the creator and editor of AzonaL, an online poetry-in-translation magazine. She has an MFA in poetry from the University of Maryland and a PhD in Comparative Literature with a primary focus on Latin America and a second focus on the poetry of the United States in the 20th century. Over fifty of her translations of poems from the Spanish have been published in literary venues such as Witness and the Boston Review and she has published two chapbooks.  This conversation was recorded on August 16, 2021 ..read more

Spanning six decades and circling the globe, Dr. Samuel John Hazo’s creative work includes poetry, fiction, drama, essays, and various works of translation. Listen to his conversation with Sarah and Rainer to learn about the remarkable founder and director of the International Poetry Forum, which ran from 1966 until 2009 in Pittsburgh. Sam Hazo recalls insightful memories about his experiences hosting hundreds of distinguished poets and performers from around the world, from poets like Yevgeny Yevtushenko to Nobel Prize winners like Octavio Paz to public figures such as the Princess Grace of M ..read more

As civil engineer in Madrid since 2003, Javier García del Moral built highways and bridges in Spain, Ireland, the Middle East and the US. Then, he began to build cultural bridges through his love of books, literature, and languages. In 2014, Javier founded The Wild Detectives bookstore bar in Dallas, along with his longtime friend Paco Vique. He currently directs the bookstore with the help of many friends. In 2019, Javier also founded the Spanish restaurant Sketches of Spain. Listen to this delightful conversation with guest hold Shelby Vincent, to learn about Javier's story and The Wild Dete ..read more