Poets & Writers Theater

“Stories should not protect us, stories should expose us...” Israeli author David Grossman, who received the 2017 Man Booker International Prize for his novel A Horse Walks Into a Bar (Jonathan Cape, 2017) with his translator Jessica Cohen, talks about how all stories are multilayered and some can even trap us in this 92Y video.

“Everything is untranslatable if what translation means is making something new that stays the same. But that’s not what translation is,” says Jennifer Croft in this House of SpeakEasy video about her origins as a translator and what led her to the Polish language and to work with author Olga Tokarczuk. The Man Booker Prize–winning translator is featured in “Giving Translators Their Due” in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I think it’s a brave shortlist—we’ve picked books that are daring, experimental, not at all conventional,” says Valeria Luiselli about the six books selected for the 2020 International Booker Prize shortlist in this video with fellow judges Lucie Campos, Jennifer Croft, Ted Hodgkinson, and Jeet Thayil.

“The extraordinary thing about this book is it talks of a world in transition—philosophically, politically, intellectually, socially—and that is the age that we live in now.” Bettany Hughes, chair of the 2019 Man Booker International Prize, and fellow judges speak about Celestial Bodies (Sandstone Press, 2018) written by Jokha Alharthi and translated from the Arabic by Marilyn Booth, which won this year’s award. Alharthi is the first female Omani novelist to be translated into English, and the first author from the Arabian Gulf to win the prize.

Pankaj Mishra, Maureen Freeley, Bettany Hughes, Elnathan John, and Angie Hobbs, judges for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize, talk about the merits of the books shortlisted for the prize, which is awarded to both the author and translator. The six books span five languages—Arabic, French, German, Polish, and Spanish—and are written by authors from Oman, France, Germany, Poland, Colombia, and Chile.

“It sings, it bubbles…it would enrich anybody’s life to read it.” Tim Martin and the panel of judges for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize discuss and praise this year’s winner, Flights (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2017) by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft. Tokarczuk is the first Polish writer to win the Man Booker International Prize. 

Argentinian author Samanta Schweblin talks about living in Berlin and reads from her debut novel, Fever Dream (Riverhead Books, 2017), translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Fever Dream, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, was the winner of the 2018 Tournament of Books beating out George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo (Random House, 2017) in the final round.

“I narrate in such a free manner that, I hope, inspires the reader.” In this interview for Louisiana Channel, Olga Tokarczuk talks about air travel and how it influenced the story structure for her most recent novel, Flights (Riverhead Books, 2018), translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft, which is longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize.

Laurent Binet talks about his two novels, HHhH (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012) and The Seventh Function of Language (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), both translated from the French by Sam Taylor, as well as the topics of semiotics and meta-narrative writing in this video for Vintage Books. The Seventh Function of Language is longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize.

At Shakespeare and Company in Paris, Argentinian writer Ariana Harwicz talks about her debut novel, Die, My Love (Charco Press, 2017), with Carolina Orloff, who cotranslated the book from the Spanish with Sarah Moses. The novel is longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize.

Yan Lianke talks about his writing life and issues around the censorship of literature in China. Yan’s novel The Explosion Chronicles (Chatto & Windus, 2017), translated from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas, is longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.

“It was like a very nice, pleasant chat.” Korean author Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith speak about working together on The Vegetarian (Portobello Books, 2015), which won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.

"I'm a graphomaniac!" Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk talks about his love of writing for the Leonard Lopate Show Book Club. His newest novel, A Strangeness in My Mind (Knopf, 2015), is longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.

“We have found books that have challenged our notions of what fiction is and how to imagine the world,” says Elnathan John, one of five judges on the panel for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize, about the thirteen novels in contention for the prize. The list includes Celestial Bodies (Sandstone Press, 2018) by Jokha Alharthi, translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth, and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2018) by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.

“There are so many women who are not married, and don’t have children, out there; there are so many of us but it’s still a bit provocative to write about.” In this interview for BBC News, Dorthe Nors talks about Jane Austen, writing about women, and her novel Mirror, Shoulder, Signal (Graywolf Press, 2018), with Helena Kelly, author of the biography Jane Austen, the Secret Radical (Knopf, 2017).

“I was fascinated by the tales of my grandmother...it was enough for me. I didn’t need any books.” Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kenzaburō Ōe discusses his life and work in an interview with UC Berkeley's Harry Kreisler in 1999. His latest novel, Death by Water (Grove Press, 2015), is longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.

"I give my thanks to Franz Kafka whose novel Das Schloss [The Castle] I read when I was twelve years old… I believe my fate was sealed." Hungarian fiction writer László Krasznahorkai gives his acceptance speech for the 2015 Man Booker International Prize last month.

Fanny Howe introduces three short films she made in collaboration with Sheila Gallagher, John Gianvito, and Maceo Senna at a film screening at the Woodberry Poetry Room. Howe has been named a finalist for the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.