Category: polish

• “The One”: Translating Mirosław Nahacz’s Eight Four

  Oct 9

  Since there’s no real literary news today I wanted to share a bit from a book proposal I’m putting together for my translation of Mirosław Nahacz’s 2003 novel Eight Four.… more ›

• Of Texts and Tears: Or why I cried while working in the library last year

  Apr 3

  In August I had a short-term research fellowship from the New York Public Library. I spent nine days in New York City working in their Slavic and East European Collections,… more ›

• Leave No Trace

  Nov 8

  In writing reportage about the Polish People’s Republic, Cezary Łazarewicz has written a universal book about the pathology of power. That this is a universal story, we can experience today… more ›

• Top 10 Composers

  Jan 24

  According to the number of plays in my iTunes for all my music categorized under Classical, here are my Top 10 Composers: John Cage Karol Szymanowski Kevin Volans Samuel Barber… more ›

• Monday Mix 011617: Lingua franca

  Jan 17

  I’ve studied language for most of life, even before I declared at the age of 10 that I wanted to be a writer. But decades later I’m unable to list… more ›

• Books Read in 2016

  Dec 23

  The very few books I was able to read in 2016. Maybe the first two don’t really count: the first is the Polish text for my translation, which is the… more ›

• Sacrament

  Nov 14

  “Światu grożą trzy plagi, trzy zarazy. Pierwsza–to plaga nacjonalizmu. Druga–to plaga rasizmu. Trzecia–to plaga religijnego fundamentalizmu. Te trzy plagi mają samą cechę, wspólny mianownik–jest nim agresywna, wszechwładna, totalna irracjonalność. Do… more ›

• Moja droga (Part 2)

  Oct 8

  After two months as a Peace Corps Trainee I left. I left the Corps. I left Poland. I returned to Texas disenchanted, discouraged, and disappointed. Not necessarily in that order.… more ›

• Moja droga (Part 1)

  Oct 6

  Maybe she had asked the question before; maybe she’d forgotten my rambling answer. I vaguely remember, perhaps, that we’d had this conversation sitting, no less, at a coffee shop in… more ›

• Early-Bird Gothic

  Mar 28

  wczesno-ptasi gotykuWho dare writes such a magical phrase?!?! And it confounds me why those other translators have rendered this line into barely suitable English: “early ornithogothic.” What a disservice to… more ›