Poets & Writers Theater

“The past is so present,” says Roland Rugero about his second novel, Baho! (Phoneme Media, 2016), which is set in rural war-torn Burundi. Baho! is translated from the French by Christopher Schaefer and is the first Burundian novel to be translated into English.

“when i have a sleepless night / and nothing lights up / i order a rilke shake / and eat a toasted blake...” Brazilian author and editor Angélica Freitas reads the title poem from her debut collection, Rilke Shake (Phoneme Media, 2015), translated from the Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan. The book won the 2016 Best Translated Book Award and is longlisted for the 2016 National Translation Award.

In this video, Iranian writer Yaghoub Yadali takes a quick tour of a Sriricha hot sauce factory in Irwindale, California, between stops on his reading tour for Rituals of Restlessness (Phoneme Media, 2016), translated by Sara Khalili from the Farsi. It is the debut book in Phoneme Media's City of Asylum series, in partnership with the Pittsburgh nonprofit City of Asylum, which provides sanctuary for exiled writers.

"I’m so damned literary / and at the same time the waters rushing past remind me of / nothing..." Hilary Kaplan reads Frank O'Hara's "Poem en Forme de Saw" from Lunch Poems, first published in 1964 by City Lights Publishers. Angélica Freitas's debut collection, Rilke Shake (Phoneme Media, 2015), translated from the Portuguese by Kaplan, won the 2016 Best Translated Book Award in poetry.