Recommended Reading: Six translators write on the subtle art of translating fiction.
Translated Words
Pray for Me
After working on his novel Family Life for seven years, Akhil Sharma began to lose his mind. Whenever he sat down to write, he began having panic attacks, the kind that left his chest feeling “constantly bruised” for months on end. Eventually, he hit on a solution: he learned to take his mind off his novel by praying for other people.
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“It was as though the novel had outstretched arms and I fell in.”
Recommended Reading: Anna Wiener on Speedboat by Renata Adler. Adler’s book, which David Shields recommended on our site two years ago, will be reissued by NYRB Classics in March, 2013.
Rounding Out Frost’s “Monster Myth”
Over at the New York Times, Jennifer Schuessler previews a forthcoming collection of Robert Frost’s correspondence. It’s a collection, she says, that will go a long way toward rounding out the flat “monster myth” that’s subsumed the poet’s afterlife.
Saving Bookstores
Recommended Reading: On the “small, but noticeable, sustained, and continuous” resurgence of indie bookstores.
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Drawing Autism
April is Autism Awareness Month, and a new paperback edition of Drawing Autism displays artwork created by artists all along the spectrum. You can take a look at some examples over here, and New Yorkers can hear from the book’s editor at the United Nations on April 2nd.
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Is there anything Teju Cole can’t do?
Teju Cole, author of Open City (which John Knight reviewed for us), is quite the photographer. You can get a glimpse of his Flickr stream over here.
The Fellowship of the Round Table
Next May, HarperCollins will publish a never before seen J. R. R. Tolkein poem, entitled The Fall of Arthur and based on Arthurian legend, not Middle-earth.