Damiano Abeni (Italian)
Shushan Avagyan (Russian)
John Batki (Hungarian)
Susan Bernofsky (German)
Chantal Bilodeau (French)
Daniel Borzutzky (Spanish)
Andry Bragen (Spanish)
Peter Bush (Catalan)
Elliott Colla (Arabic)
Kristin Dykstra (Spanish)
George Economou (Greek)
Moira Egan (Italian)
George Gömöri (Hungarian)
Mari Gömöri (Hungarian)
Aamer Hussein (Urdu)
Faith Jones (Yiddish)
Jennifer Kronovet (Yiddish)
Lee Yew Leong (Chinese)
Alice Xin Liu (Chinese)
Jamie McKendrick (Hungarian)
Sawako Nakayasu (Japanese)
Leonard Ng (Chinese)
Hai-Dang Phan (Vietnamese)
Mani Rao (Sanskrit)
Arza Raza (Urdu)
Tomaž Šalamun (Slovenian)
Ivan Sanders (Hungarian)
Peter Sherwood (Hungarian)
Sim Yee Chiang (Japanese)
Judish Sollosy (Hungarian)
Samuel Solomon (Yiddish)
Sara Suleri Goodyear (Urdu)
Fiona Sze-Lorrain (Chinese)
Michael Thomas Taren (Slovenian)
Marc Vincenz (German)
Tim Wilkinson (Hungarian)
Rachel Wilson-Broyles (Swedish)
– because without them Asymptote wouldn’t have such an extraordinary July issue.
A journal like Asymptote — and anyone half-way interested in what the world (outside of one’s country/culture/language(s)) offers to literature — depends on translators to show us what’s what, and we got showed. Really, this is a great issue and I was squeeing like a schoolgirl through most of the editing process (the rest of of the time I was sighing over boring html, but it’s a very small price to pay).
For newcomers to Asymptote, here’s an introduction:
Asymptote is a journal of translation. It is entirely dedicated to world literature; we feature the best work we can find from across the world. All our literary offerings are translations into English (though sometimes we get a second translation into whatever language a kind soul is willing to effect) and the only work originally produced in English is criticism or reviews. We have 9 sections: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Drama, Visual Art, Criticism, Interview, a Special Feature section for writers introducing other (foreign) writers that English readers need to know more and a second Special Feature section that changes every time.
Some highlights from our latest issue:
In Fiction, we have stories from Robert Walser (one of my favourite writers of all time), Quim Monzó, Jonas Hassen Khemiri and Franco Arminio (I’d never heard of Arminio before, but I love these Postcards from the Dead)
In Poetry, there are 14 incredible poets. Also exciting: we feature some languages for the first time in our 3-issue history: Urdu, Sanskrit, Slovenian, Vietnamese and Yiddish (plus Thai, Arabic and Catalan in other sections). We have brand new, uncollected poems by Tomaž Šalamun and an exciting, never-before-seen translation of the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad by Mani Rao. Also: Erika Burkart, my favourite new discovery. And Celia Dropkin. And along with them, come to think of it, lots of women poets that came to us without us trying to be politically correct or anything silly like that: Hijab Imtiaz Ali (20th c. Urdu), Sagawa Chika (Japanese modernist), Yi Lu (contemporary Chinese) and Yu Xuanji (Tang dynasty courtesan plus poet and Daoist). Not that the male poets are any less interesting: I mean, there’s Cavafy, after all, and George Gömöri, Yang Zi, Massimo Gezzi, Eduardo Espina and Nguyen Quoc Chanh.
I’d look at the Special Feature section for articles on Yu Xuanji (the Tang dynasty poet) and on contemporary Vietnamese poetry, and on Swiss-German writer Verena Stefan.
Our changing special feature this time is focused on Hungarian fiction, featuring Dezső Kosztolányi, Péter Esterházy, Gábor Németh, Yvette Bíró, András Forgách and Balazs Gyore.
The Nonfiction section has some insane stuff: the letters of Chinese master stylist Shen Congwen plus an essay by Taiwanese avant-gardist Lin Yaode (my personal favourite); Russian formalism from Viktor Shklovsky; contemporary philosophy from Yoshimichi Nakajima; journal entries from Cuban writer Omar Pérez; and a despatch from Japanese priest Gen’yū Sōkyū.
We have two excerpts from translated plays, one by Mohamed Kacimi and the other by Elena Guiochins;
visual art from Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (this one is seriously weird), Alexandra Demenkova and Manit Sriwanichpoom;
an interview with Brother Anthony of Taizé, the world’s leading Korean-English translator; and
and interview with Chen Show Mao, Singapore’s first foreign-born Opposition MP.
Phew. Anyway, you’ve probably ignored my annotations and gone straight for the journal itself.
Oh, a couple of last minute things:
1. A good majority of our translations come with the original texts; we try to include them where possible for our bi-/multilingual readers. There are also recordings and translators’ notes in many cases, so click around on every author page.
2. Our fabulous cover has been designed by our guest artist Sherman Ong. He has also illustrated many of our articles with his photographs (see especially the article on contemporary Vietnamese poetry; those are my favourites). He has also, wonderfully, offered to donate a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of limited edition copies of the cover art to Asymptote. We’re not-for-profit and we need your support to maintain our website and also to produce an annual anthology. If you’re interested in the cover art, please write to us at editors at asymptotejournal dot com or you can donate to us directly. Any amount is appreciated. Also, we’re now reading for our next issue and our submission guidelines are here.
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