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We’re happy to announce the poco.lit. newsletter! If you choose to opt-in, you will receive updates from us once a month. We’ll let you know about developments in our current projects and give an overview of the content we’ve posted in the past four weeks.
more...Audre Lorde’s biomythography Zami: A New Spelling of My Name relates this iconic writer’s personal, poetic, political and sexual coming-of-age. Lorde was a self-described “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” and this recording of her early life is a powerful piece of writing. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in the lived experiences of intersectional marginalisation, as told by one of the most strident and talented voices to talk about these realities.
more...A listicle of five books set in Nigeria it’s worth checking out – from classics to less well-known newcomers, there’s some great reading here.
more...Maaza Mengiste’s historical novel tells the story of the Italian invasion in Ethiopia in 1935. It focuses on anti-colonial resistance and the role of Ethiopian women, some of whom became soldiers to join the fight against the colonizers.
more...Translators make decisions that have an enormous impact on how texts arrive in linguistic contexts beyond the language they were written in. Especially in literary translation, many of these decisions are related to questions of aesthetics and style. But these are also, as our macht.sprache. project is making increasingly clear, decisions with political undertow and ramifications. The translator’s note is often a moment that allows translators to communicate to their readers the considerations that went into their decision-making.
more...The writer Olga Grjasnowa, whom many readers probably associate with her novel All Russians Love Birch Trees (Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt), was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, and came to Germany when she was eleven. In her recently published non-fiction book, The Power of Multilingualism – On Origins and Diversity (which has not […]
more...As part of our macht.sprache. / case.sensitive. project, we’re speaking to various experts who deal with language, translation or artificial intelligence. Kenza Ait Si Abbou explains some of the challenges in the field of artificial intelligence to us (e.g. in form of unconscious bias) but always stays solution-oriented.
more...Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri’s debut novel tells the story of the Ganguli family: Ashoke and Ashima, originally from Bengal, migrate to the North-eastern United States in the 1960s. They have two children there, and the novel follows the experiences of their firstborn son. It’s a novel about living in between places, cultures and assigned identities.
more...As part of our macht.sprache. / case.sensitive. project, we’re speaking to various experts who deal with language, translation or artificial intelligence. Anabelle Assaf offers insights into very specific translation decisions related to gender, race and different forms of English.
more...Attempts to flee to Europe don’t only happen via the Mediterranean Sea, but also in the Indian Ocean. There lies the island of Mayotte, an overseas territory of France. Nathacha Appanah’s new book explores flight and the fate of boys on Mayotte.
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