Recent News

Eric M. B. Becker Promoted to Digital Director & Senior Editor of Words Without Borders

I’m happy to end year two of the pandemic with some good news: I’ve been promoted Digital Director & Senior Editor of international literary magazine Words Without Borders. As the announcement says, I’ll be implementing the new WWB publishing model and spearheading an evolving digital strategy to reach new readers. I’m still acquiring, still editing, but will now be helping to move the literary journal forward for the next generation of readers around the world.

That Hair, English-language Translation of Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s Esse Cabelo, Named Finalist for the 2021 PEN Translation Prize

Good news! My translation of Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s That Hair (Tin House 2020) is a finalist for the 2021 PEN Translation Award. I could not be happier that this work is receiving more attention; I’ve believed in the force of Almeida’s work since I first read her in 2016. To have the translation recognized in this manner is, well, vindication for the solitary toils of the translator. Congrats to fellow finalists: You can read the full announcement over at The Paris Review. There’s also more over at the PEN America website.

And a reminder for interested editors, I have a sample of her second novel, LUANDA LISBOA PARAÍSO, which won the 2019 Oceanos Prize.

Alice Sant’Anna’s speak low (pé do ouvido) Featured in BOMB

An excerpt from Alice Sant’Anna’s speak low, in my translation for Scrambler Books, can now be read over at BOMB magazine.

New Selection of Short Stories, Sea Loves Me, by Neustadt Prize-Winning Author Mia Couto, Out February 23

A new selection of Mia Couto’s short stories—including several translations from Rain and Other Stories, for which I received honorable mention from the Jeanne and Aldo Scaglione Prize—will be out February 23 from Biblioasis. More information here.

Queen’s College Translation Exchange Event: Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s That Hair March 10

 

The Queen’s College Translation Exchange at Oxford University will discuss Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s That Hair (Esse Cabelo) at its International Book Club on March 10 at 8 pm GMT/ 3 pm ET. I’ll be joining them to answer your questions. You can sign up for the event, free of charge, right here. You can get your copy of That Hair (Tin House 2020) here. Alternately, if you’re in the UK, the book club informs me that Blackwell’s are currently offering a discount on the title on their website, with free UK delivery. Alternatively, if you order directly by phone or email, book club attendees can get claim a 20% discount. Details at this link.

That Hair, English Translation of Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s Esse Cabelo, Makes Longlist for PEN Translation Prize

More good news in a year where it has been rare: My translation from the Portuguese of Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s That Hair (Tin House 2020) has made the longlist for the 2021 PEN Translation Prize. I’m very grateful to the jury and to PEN America, and I hope this means Djaimilia’s book—launched during the darkest week of the pandemic—makes it to more readers. The PEN Translation Prize is an annual award for book-length prose translations from any language into English and was first conferred in 1963. My congrats to my fellow longlisters! You can read the announcement here. For interested editors, I have a sample of her second novel, LUANDA LISBOA PARAÍSO, which won the 2019 Oceanos Prize.

Alice Sant’Anna’s speak low to Be Published in March 2021 by Scrambler Books

On January 25, 2021, California-based Scrambler Books, led by the stellar Jeremy Spencer, will ship preorders of my translation of the book-length poem speak low (pé do ouvido in the original Brazilian publication) by São Paulo-based poet Alice Sant’Anna. Her work has garnered a the 2013 APCA Poetry Prize from the São Paulo Art Critics’ Association. She co-edited Brazilian literary magazine Serrote between 2010 and 2016, and now 2016 works as an editor at publishing house Companhia das Letras. Her work has been translated into Spanish and English and she has been a guest at literary festivals in Sweden, Latvia, France, USA, and elsewhere. You can preorder now.

Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Mia Couto’s
Rain and Other Stories

I’m grateful that the Modern Language Association and the jury of the 2019 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Literary Work saw fit to give my translation of Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories (Estórias absensonhadas) an honorable mention. Congratulations to winner Daisy Rockwell (for her translation of A Gujarat Here, a Gujarat There, by Krishna Sobti), as well as to David Connolly and Joshua Barley, who also received an honorable mention for their co-translation of A Greek Ballad, by Michális Ganás.

NPR Books Names That Hair One of a Top 3 Books So Far This Year

I’m delighted to see Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s formally innovative debut novel That Hair (Tin House Books, March 2020) make critic extraordinaire Lily Meyer’s list of her top three books so far in 2020. This was one of the most fulfilling projects I’ve ever worked on as a translator, and I’m thrilled to see Pereira get her due. Writes Meyer: “Thoughtfully observed and calmly experimental…less like traditional fiction than like the transcribed thoughts and questions of the smartest person you know.” Meyer goes on to draw comparisons between Pereira’s style and early Valeria Luiselli. You can read the review over at National Public Radio here.

Glory and Its Litany of Horrors is Named Finalist for CLMP Firecracker Award in Fiction

I’m delighted to share that my translation of Fernanda Torres’s second novel, Glory and Its Litany of Horrors (Restless Books 2019), has been named a finalist for the 2020 CLMP Firecracker Award in Fiction. More here.

Booklist: “Kaleidoscopic” novel That Hair is “Unforgettable”

I’m glad to see That Hair is winning over readers in spite of its formal challenges. I’ll be the first to confess that one of my worries when I first came upon this book and went about trying to find an agent to represent Djaimilia in the US was that her prose style—which simultaneously makes her something of a throwback and utterly original—did not align with the emphasis on simple accessibility that characterizes much mainstream writing today. That’s why it’s particularly satisfying to find this review from Booklist—have a look!

Electric Literature: That Hair Is “A Stirring and Lyrical Read”

The groundswell continues to grow for Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s That Hair, out next week from Tin House books. It’s incredible to see a writer you’re passionate about get the recognition she deserves. I learned so much more than simply how to be a better translator as I brought this book into English. Sarah Neilson writes: “That Hair is a short but punchy read filled with gorgeous prose and expertly rendered metaphor, a stirring and lyrical read.”

Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s That Hair (forthcoming March 17, 2020) in The Rumpus

The Rumpus has just published the first excerpt from Portuguese writer Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s That Hair, which I had the privilege of translating for Tin House Books. You can read it here, and order the book here.

The Pessoa Festival Arrives in Lisbon

After a terrific 2018 festival in New York, the Pessoa Festival comes to Lisbon with more than thirty writers, critics, and other literary figures from across the Portuguese-speaking world, including Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, Alexandre Vidal Porto, Estevão Azevedo, Alexandra Lucas Coelho, Carol Rodrigues, Matilde Campilho, Tatiana Salem Levy, Lucílio Manjate, and Isabel Lucas. View the program in both English and Portuguese. My festival co-founder and partner in crime Mirna Queiroz and a team of volunteers have ensured this will truly be a special event.

Glory and Its Litany of Horrors in the New Yorker

My translation of Fernanda Torres’s Glory and Its Litany of Horrors, a “clever novel [that] probes the conflict between business and artistry by chronicling the troubles of Mario Cardoso [. . .] when a vanity production of “King Lear” is derailed by Cardoso’s inability to stop laughing mid-performance,” has made this week’s New Yorker magazine.

A Cover for Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s That Hair (Tin House, 2020)

The New York Times Praises Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories

Very pleased to share this high praise for my translation of Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories (Biblioasis, 2019) in the New York Times: “Becker’s intricate translation uses wonderful almost-words to recreate Couto’s illusory and playful sentences.” It’s also a treat to have my work reviewed alongside that of Mui Poopoksakul and Julia Sanches.

Frankfurt Book Fair Fellowship 2019

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been named a 2019 Frankfurter Buchmesse Fellow (in my role as an editor, of course). You can read more about the Frankfurt Book Fair Fellowship here. Looking forward to meeting many good people of the book in Germany in October. (Lucky me, the fellowship also takes us to Berlin and Zurich.)

It’s Pub Day for Glory and Its Litany of Horrors

Fernanda Torres’s rollicking tale of Mario Cardoso, telenovela sex symbol turned Shakespearean laughingstock, is out today from Restless Books. You can buy it here.

Publishers Weekly Reviews Fernanda Torres’s Glory and Its Litany of Horrors

Publisher’s Weekly has praised Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres’s sophomore novel, which “follows the frenetic collapse of an actor’s career and his masculine bluster with piercing humor.” You can pre-order Glory and its Litany of Horrors here.

Rain and Other Stories (Mia Couto, translated by Eric M. B. Becker) Makes the Financial Times Summer Reading List

It’s been a great week for my translation of Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories: the Financial Times has just included it on its list of Summer 2019 Reads. Check out what Angel Gurría-Quintana has to say about this collection of short stories written during and immediately after Mozambique’s long civil war.

Further Praise for Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories

World Translations Review has singled out Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories (in my translation) for some choice praise: “Becker’s translation offers the best the language has to offer and fully captures the essence of Couto’s luminous prose.” You can read more here.

Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories in Electric Literature

Andrea Oh includes Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories in her round-up of twenty great story collections from around the world for Electric Literature. As Oh reminds us, “some of the best short stories in English weren’t originally in English.”

Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, New Daughters of Africa, in the Times Literary Supplement

The TLS has run a review of Margaret Busby’s anthology New Daughters of Africa, a follow-up to her groundbreaking 1992 anthology that, as the article notes, “was conceived as an effort to disprove what Busby saw as a commonly held misconception that only a handful of black women writers existed,” and included work by titans such as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Reviewer Ladee Hubbard namechecks Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, whose That Hair—due out soon from Tin House Books, in my translation—is excerpted. It’s an honor to be among so many brilliant contributors and to have our collaboration in dialogue with writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Roxane Gay.

Review copies are in for Fenanda Torres’s Glory and Its Litany of Horrors

The ARCs are in for the latest novel from celebrated Brazilian actress and bestselling author Fernanda Torres. The novel traces Mario Cardoso’s meteoric rise to fame in the 1960s, on stage, in arthouse cinema, and prime-time TV. But after years on top, the decadence of stardom has taken its toll. Mario hopes that a turn as Shakespeare’s mad monarch will help him end his career on top. But a wicked fit of laughter ends those hopes, sending Mario spiraling downward until he finds himself giving one last performance on a most unlikely stage. More on the book here. I have some ARCs to send your way if you’re interested in reviewing the novel.

Pre-order Fernanda Torres’s Glory and Its Litany of Horrors

You can now pre-order my translation of celebrated Brazilian actress and writer Fernanda Torres’s Glory and Its Litany of Horrors, in which a star of stage and screen’s disastrous turn as King Lear sends him into a tragicomic tailspin, directly from the website of Restless Books, which will publish the novel in July of this year. This was likely the most fun I’ve had translating a book, and Fernanda’s sharp wit will have you chuckling at nearly every turn. You can also email me regarding review copies.

More praise for Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories

The reviews for my translation of Rain and Other Stories continue to come in. Here is what people are saying.

“Stunning imagery…Playful and poignant, RAIN AND OTHER STORIES cements Couto’s reputation as one of the finest writers in the Portuguese language, and proves Becker’s talent as a discerning and perceptive translator.”

Amy Brady, Writer and Deputy Pub, Guernica | Sr. Editor, Chicago Rev of Books

 

“Magnificent…seemingly disparate tales come together to ultimately present how the land is remade…Nearly each sentence is astonishing in this riveting, challenging collection.”

Winnipeg News

 

“The roots and spirits of these tales seem to run deep into the very bedrock of the earth…simply enchanting.”

Joseph Schreiber, Writer and Editor at 3:am Magazine and The Scofield

 

Vanity Fair Names Rain and Other Stories One of Six Must-Read Books

Vanity Fair has named Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories (translated by yours truly) as one of its must-read books this winter.

An assortment of transcendent sketches, fables, and creation tales, Couto’s stories are rooted yet timeless, both whimsical and deeply spiritual—essential qualities of the work of the masterful Mozambican author.

Vanity Fair

You can read more about that here, and you can (should?) order the book here.

The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmão Makes the Dublin Literary Award Longlist

Please to say that my translation of Martha Batalha’s The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmão has made the Dublin Literary Award longlist. Whether Martha and I make the shortlist of ten titles on April 4 is anyone’s guess, but it’s nice to have the book recognized.

Praise for Mia Couto’s Rain and Other Stories

The first reviews are in for my translation of 2015 Man Booker International Finalist and Neustadt Prize winner Mia Couto. Among the kind words critics have written: “Becker’s translation conveys Couto’s precise use of language to capture the innately elusive nature of human experience”; “[Couto’s] descriptions of landscapes and people have the power and mystery of the best style of folklore…capture[s] the innately elusive nature of human experience”; “Translator Becker ably preserves Couto’s affinity for neologisms.” Read more here and here.

 

Another Country: Afro-Brazilian Writing in the December 2018 issue of Words without Borders

 

I had the enormous pleasure of working on an issue of Afro-Brazilian literature with John Keene for Words without Borders, and you can see the result now in WWB. Writers and translators include Keene, myself, A Public Space fellow and PEN/Heim-winner Bruna Dantas Lobato, Dan Hanrahan, Felipe Botelho Correa, Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto, Cristiane Sobral, Ricardo Aleixo, and Franciane Conceição Silva.

Essay on Lygia Fagundes Telles’s As meninas (The Girl in the Photograph) for Brazil’s Suplemento Pernambuco

I’m very pleased to share this essay I wrote (in Portuguese) for leading Brazilian literary magazine Suplemento Pernambuco. I look at Telles’s novel, written and published during the 1964–1985 dictatorship in Brazil, and how its message is still every bit as relevant now in the era of Trump and Bolsonaro.

The Pessoa Festival Makes News in Portugal, Brazil

The inaugural Pessoa Festival, which I’ve co-founded with Mirna Queiroz, took place on November 16 and 17 in New York (and online via a live webstream), garnering headlines in Portugal and Brazil. The festival brings together writers from across the Portuguese-speaking world and writers from the US in conversations about their work. This year’s guests included John Keene, Paul Beatty, Rivka Galchen, Leslie Jamison, Estevão Azevedo, Carol Rodrigues, Alexandre Vidal Porto, Isabel Lucas, Roberto Taddei, Andy Tepper, Susan Bernofsky, and Eric M. B. Becker. If you’d like to know how you can support the festival or otherwise get involved, please get in touch at pessoa-festival.com/contact/.

NEA Translation Fellowship for Story Collection by Brazilian Great Lygia Fagundes Telles

I am both thrilled and grateful to announce I’ve been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Translation Fellowship for my translation of the short stories of Lygia Fagundes Telles. A bit about Telles: a contemporary of Clarice Lispector and Hilda Hilst, she’s been described by renowned Brazilian literary critic and Guggenheim Fellow as Wilson Martins as “[writing] with the same authority as Machado de Assis.” Her work has also drawn comparisons to writers such as Katherine Mansfield and Doris Lessing. Another important admirer was none other than Nobel Prize-winner José Saramago. You can read more on the NEA website.

Translation of Paulo Coelho’s Hippie Out Today

My translation of Paulo Coelho’s Hippie, a fictionalized account of the author’s own experiences on the “Hippie Trail,” is out today from Knopf.  On the 50th anniversary of May 1968, Coelho looks back on the dreams of a generation that longed for peace and dared to challenge the established social order.

Words Without Borders wins Whiting Foundation Literary Magazine Prize | New York Times

I’m happy to announce that my colleagues and I at Words Without Borders have been awarded a Whiting Foundation Magazine Prize. Congratulations to fellow winners A Public Space and Fence. You can read more about the prize here.

“Making Some Noise for God”: Maria Clara Bingemer on Ross Douthat’s look at Pope Francis | Foreign Affairs

I’ve got a new translation of an essay by noted Brazilian theologist Maria Clara Bingemer on Ross Douthat’s To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism. The essay, which looks at Douthat’s rather critical view of the papacy of former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, is in the July/August 2018 issue of Foreign Affairs.

What is a Translator? | New Essay over at The Quarterly Conversation

You all know Veronica Scott Esposito and her terrific Quarterly Conversation. That’s why I sure felt honored when she asked me to write on the subject of Graywolf Press’s Into English and the task of the translator. What I hope we ended up with was a closer look at the different ways we can consider translations and create a framework for deeper discussion of the translator and what it is a translator does. You can read the essay here.

2018 PEN Awards finalists named, including PEN Translation Prize shortlist

What tough deliberations my fellow jury members and I had before us in deciding this year’s PEN Translation Prize. Though I can’t tell you who the winner is (that you’ll have to wait to find out on February 20 in New York), I can tell you that the finalists, announced here and on Mashable this morning, are the real deal.

A New York Times review for my translation of Martha Batalha’s The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao

I’m very pleased to share that the New York Times Book Review has a glowing review of my translation of Batalha’s Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao. Says the Times: “In this translation from the Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker, Batalha’s empathy is buoyed by puckish wordplay and nostalgia for a time when an act of emancipation entailed a manual typewriter and a good smoke.” You can read the entire review here.

An interview with Rosmarie Waldrop on Burning Deck Press for Words without Borders

Recently, I interviewed Rosmarie Waldrop about Burning Deck Press, the experimental poetry outfit she ran with Keith Waldrop for 56 years before closing shop this month.

The BBC recommends Maria José Silveira’s Her Mother’s Mother’s Mother and Her Daughters

Hard to complain about the recent coverage my translations have been receiving. Please to say that Jane Ciabattari has included my translation of Silveira’s novel, told through the eyes of twenty generations of women (starting in 1500 and ending around 2002) and covering the often violent, wild history of Brazil. Read more here.

Pub Day for Her Mother’s Mother’s Mother and Her Daughters

Today (December 12, 2017) is pub day for this historical novel by Maria José Silveira, which I translated for the excellent Open Letter Books. You can get your copy here.

Lit Hub features my translation of Brazilian writer Maria José Silveira’s Her Mother’s Mother’s Mother and Her Daughters, from Open Letter Books

Today, Lit Hub has published an excerpt from my translation of Maria José Silveira’s Her Mother’s Mother’s Mother and Her Daughters. You can read it here.

Video of Conexões Itaú Cultural panel on the translation of Brazilian literature

I had to honor of participating in the 10th edition of Conexões Itaú Cultural in São Paulo that took place from November 8 to 10. If you would like to watch (in Portuguese), you can find the panel on Youtube.

Pre-order Maria José Silveira’s Her Mother’s Mother’s Mother and Her Daughters

The good news is that Maria José Silveira’s novel about the history of Brazil as told through the lives of the women of a single family is now available for pre-order. Official pub date is December 12.

Excerpt from The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao at Lit Hub

An excerpt from my translation of Martha Batalha’s debut novel The invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao (OneWorld, 2017) is up now at the Literary Hub.

Daniel Galera’s Twenty Past Midnight in the latest issue of Freeman’s

Happy to share that my translation of an excerpt from Brazilian novelist Daniel Galera’s Twenty Past Midnight is available in the upcoming issue of Freeman’s: The Future of New Writing, alongside 28 other terrific authors and translators.

Review for Martha Batalha’s The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmão and US release date

Pleased to say that Martha Batalha’s The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmão which I translated for Oneworld and has been out in the UK since September 7, continues to get stellar reviews. The Daily Mail, says the novel “brims with indeed with invisible life,” while the Huffington Post has named it a fall 2017 must-read.

New Article on Contemporary Brazilian Women Poets Now at the Companhia das Letras Blog

At the kind invitation of Taize Odelli, I put together a few thoughts on contemporary Brazilian poetry being written by women. In particular, I look at the dialogue between poets Marília García, Angélica Freitas, Ana Martins Marques, and Alice Sant’Anna and other poetic traditions.

First Review in for Martha Batalha’s The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmão

The folks at Kirkus have given my translation of Martha Batalha’s debut novel a glowing review. Congrats to Martha!

2017 National Translation Award Shortlists Announced

You knew it was coming, and here it is: the shortlist Ottilie Mulzet, Carol Apollonio, and I had the pleasure to select for the American Literary Translators Association National Translation Award for Pros.

2017 National Translation Award Longlists Announced

Carol Apollonio, Ottilie Mulzet, and I had the privilege to carve out a longlist for the 2017 National Translation Award. See who made it here.

New translation of João Guimarães Rosa’s Grande Sertão: Veredas (The Devil in the Badlands) to move forward

In one of my prouder moments in my editing career, I’m happy to announce that Itaú Cultural has decided to fund Alison Entrekin’s translation of Grande Sertão: Veredas, the masterpiece of João Guimarães Rosa that is often compared to Joyce’s Ulysses. In 2015, WWB solicited a sample from Entrekin, as I’d known for some time that she was working on this project. After WWB’s publication of a selection from the novel and an essay by Entrekin explaining the need for institutional funding for this mammoth project. This is great news, and we should all be very pleased that Alison is taking this on, because this is one of the fundamental works of Western literature. A good translation is long overdue. More on the project over at Words without Borders.

A translation for #DiaD in celebration of Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade

It’s October 31 again, which means it’s “Dia D,” the birthday of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, the greatest Brazilian poet of the twentieth century if not of all time. (The annual event, an initiative of the Instituto Moreira Salles, seeks to celebrate and keep alive the memory of Drummond and his work.) Though best known as a poet, Drummond considered himself a journalist first and foremost, and his crônicas are spectacular. This one, which followed Brazil’s loss to the Italian squad in the 1982 World Cup, reflects on futebol in Brazilian culture.

In the Middle of the Road There Was a (Rolling) Stone: Bob Dylan in Brazil – Words without Borders Daily

Looking to move past the debate over whether Bob Dylan actually deserved the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature, I spoke with Brazilian writers Fabrício Corsaletti, Leonardo Gandolfi, Claufe Rodrigues, and Luís Augusto Fischer about the influence of Dylan on Brazilian letters and the song as a literary genre over at WWB Daily.

Interview for GloboNews Literatura on Bob Dylan’s 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature

I had a brief conversation with Claufe Rodrigues about the reaction (mine and others’) to the announcement that Bob Dylan—Minnesota’s second Nobel Prize winner in the Literature category, the first being Sinclair Lewis (who was also the first American writer to ever win the award)—had been granted literature’s highest honor. Interview to air October 14 at 9:30 p.m. Brasilia time on GloboNews.

“My Work,” short story by Ismar Tirelli Neto, leads off new partnership between Words without Borders and Brazil’s Revista Pessoa

I had the pleasure of translating the short story “My Work” by Brazilian poet, fiction writer, and translator Ismar Tirelli Neto as part of a new partnership between New York-based Words without Borders (where I’m editor) and Mirna Queiroz’s Revista Pessoa.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade, poet from the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics

Those of you who saw the opening ceremony of the Olympics here in Brazil no doubt are wondering who the poet whose work Judy Dench was reciting. The poem, “A flor e a náusea,” is one of poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade’s best. In case you’re interested in reading more of his work, here is a short crônica he wrote following Brazil’s loss to Italy in the 1982 World Cup in my translation. The sporting event is different but Drummond’s words are still every bit as pertinent to the current moment.

Seen at The Literary Hub: PEN America anthology Glossolália: Women Writing Brazil

Glad to see the folks at Lit Hub featuring selections from the book-length anthology of Brazilian women writers out now from PEN America. It was a true privilege to co-edit this collection with Mirna Queiroz of Revista Pessoa and to feature the work of 13 writers from the 2016 Olympic host country. My thanks to the Lit Hub folks, and to all the truly top-notch writers and translators who were part of this project. You can get your copy here: http://glossolaliamag.org/issue-2.

A few thoughts on the Festa Literária Internacional de Paraty in Words without Borders

I’ve finally gotten around to putting a few thoughts together on Flip 2016, my first visit to the international literary festival now in its fourteenth edition. Among many great Words without Borders contributors such as Svetlana Alexievich, Álvaro Enrigue, Valeria Luiselli, and Gabriela Wiener, there was a standout line-up of terrific Brazilian writers like Marcília França Castro, Alice Sant’anna, Noemi Jaffe, and Marília Garcia. Also discussed: the representation of women and Afro-Brazilian writers.

Article on literary translation, Words without Borders, upcoming PEN America anthology of Brazilian women writers in Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo

My thanks to Liv Brandão of O Globo for the conversation about my work translating Brazilian poets Edival Lourenço and Alice Sant’anna, as well as other translations and projects I’ve had the pleasure of editing.

New York Times recommends literary nonfiction from Words without Borders issue “Brazil Beyond Rio”

The July 2016 issue of Words without Borders, focused on the Brazil beyond Olympic-host Rio de Janeiro, has received mention or articles in The Literary Hub, Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo, and Jornal Opção. And now, the New York Times has recommended Artur Domoslawski’s “Death in the Amazon” as one of the pieces its staff is reading.

Interview series in Jornal Opção on the translation of Brazilian literature

Enjoyed my conversation with Marcos Nunes Carreiro of Goiânia’s Jornal Opção (complete with many of my bad jokes) about my work as a translator from the Portuguese, the importance of translators in finding an audience for their authors’ work, and the new translation of João Guimarães Rosa’s Grande Sertão: Veredas in Words without Borders. I also had the pleasure of speaking with Yago Rodrigures Alvim, who then wrote this story about the process of literary translation.

Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo article on upcoming Words without Borders issue and PEN America book of Brazilian writers

Maurício Meirelles wrote about two projects I’ve had the pleasure of working on and which are to be released in July 2016, both done in collaboration with Mirna Queiroz, for the Folha de S. Paulo, Brazil’s largest daily newspaper. The WWB issue focuses on writers beyond Rio-São Paulo and a few foreign perspectives, while the PEN book brings work from twelve Brazilian women writers for the first time.

Interview with Adam Morris, translator of João Gilberto Noll’s Quiet Creature on the Corner, up at Guernica magazine’s website

Adam Morris and I discuss Noll’s only novel available in English (a second, Atlantic Hotel, is forthcoming from Two Lines Press in Morris’s translation) and its relation to Brazil’s current political climate over at Guernica. Have a read!

Translation of Lygia Fagundes Telles, Brazil’s official nominee for the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature,
in World Literature Today

I’m very pleased to share that the excellent World Literature Today has accepted one of my translations of a short story by Brazilian writer Lygia Fagundes Telles. Though Telles is an absolutely fundamental writer in twentieth-century Brazilian literature, nearly all of what’s been published in English up to this point has gone out of print (with the notable exception of The Girl in the Mirror, republished by Dalkey Archive Press a few years ago). Look for it in the May 2016 issue of WLT. Update: You can find the Lygia’s short story “The Green Ball” right here.

Poetry and Translation over at Words without Borders: Interview with Rowan Ricardo Phillips

Most of you probably know Rowan Ricardo Phillips as a poet. If you’re lucky, you also know his work as a translator, too, including such poets at Melcion Mateu over at this month’s Words without Borders. Phillips—one of the contributors to the National Poetry Month feature (In)verse over at WWB— spoke with me about the intersection of poetry and translation over at the WWB blog.

PEN American Center to launch Passages anthology dedicated to Brazilian women writers in Summer 2016

The time is nearing: in late June or early July, the PEN American Center based in New York will launch an anthology of Brazilian writers that I’ve edited with Mirna Queiroz of Revista Pessoa. Writers include: Lygia Fagundes Telles, Brazil’s 2016 Nobel Prize bet; Elvira Vigna; Noemi Jaffe; Ana Maria Gonçalves; Alice Sant’anna; Ana Martins Marques; Marília García; Eliane Brum; Betty Mindlin; Maria Esther Maciel; and Adriana Lisboa.

Words without Borders wins 2016 London Book Fair Excellence Award

I’m so pleased to share that Words without Borders has been awarded the 2016 London Book Fair/Publishers Weekly International Literary Translation Initiative Award. Special congratulations go to Susan Harris, Samantha Schnee, Karen Phillips, Savannah Whiting, and to all who have contributed to the magazine’s success over its 13-year history, especially our translators and writers. I’m pleased to have such wonderful travel companions.

Translation of Mia Couto’s “The Gentle Assassin” in The New York Times Magazine

Glad to be able to share the link now to Mia Couto’s essay for The New York Times Magazine in my translation. My translation of Couto’s Rain and Other Stories is forthcoming from Biblioasis in January 2017.

Translation of Mia Couto forthcoming in The New York Times Magazine

More good news rolling in: come April 3, my translation of a Mia Couto crônica will appear in the New York Times Magazine “Lives” column. This column often focuses on international stories. I won’t give away too much, except to say that the (true) story focuses on one of Mia’s trips to Brazil and the, err, surprise that awaits him there.

Translation of Lygia Fagundes Telles, Brazil’s 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature nominee, in World Literature Today

I’m very pleased to share that the excellent World Literature Today has accepted one of my translations of a short story by Brazilian writer Lygia Fagundes Telles. Thought Telles is an absolutely fundamental writer in twentieth-century Brazilian literature, nearly all of what’s been published in English up to this point has gone out of print (with the notable exception of The Girl in the Mirror, republished by Dalkey Archive Press a few years ago). Look for it in the May 2016 issue of WLT.

In Brazil for 2016: Fulbright project begins

On February 7, I landed in São Paulo and have now moved on to Goiânia, a city about three hours outside Brasília, to work on the translation of a historical novel about the ignominious Anhanguera, an explorer during the colonial era in Brazil. Soon, on to Rio to work with Gabriel García Márquez and Juan Rulfo translator Eric Nepomuceno on a collection of his own short stories.

Brazilian newspaper Valor Econômico writes about PEN American Center Passages anthology of Brazil’s leading women writers

Leading Brazilian literary journalist Josélia Aguiar wrote about the upcoming anthology of Brazilian women writers from PEN America, which I’m co-editing with Mirna Queiroz, and the #readwomen movement. If you read Portuguese, have at it!

Eric M. B. Becker awarded 2016 Fulbright to translate Brazilian literature

I’m pleased to announce I’ll be heading to Brazil for much of 2016 to work closely with two contemporary Brazilian writers to translate their works. My deep thanks to the Fulbright program for seeing the importance in my project. I’m eager to be working with Edival Lourenço and Eric Nepomuceno, among others, to translate their work.

Mia Couto nominated for Man Booker International Prize

 

Great news: Mozambican writer and 2014 Neustadt Prize Winner Mia Couto is one of 10 finalists for the Man Booker International Prize. I’m currently working on one of his earliest and best short story collections (Estórias Abensonhadas), for which, as you might recall, I earned a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant. More on that once a firm publication date is set. You can find my essays on translating Couto here and here, and some stories here, here, and here, in such publications as The Massachusetts Review, PEN America, and Asymptote.

Joining Words without Borders as editor

I’m happy to announce that, as of February 2015, I’m joining the terrific world literature magazine Words without Borders. Since 2003, the monthly publication has led the charge to bring more literature in translation to Anglophone readers. Very pleased to be working with the terrific Susan Harris, Karen Phillips, and Joanna Meadows. You can find the announcement here.

New essay on translating Mia Couto now at the World Literature Today blog

I talk about my work translating the collection Estórias Abensonhadas by 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature winner Mia Couto in “(Re)interpretation: On Translating Mia Couto.”

In conversation with fellow translator from the Portuguese Alison Entrekin

Alison Entrekin and I discuss her path to becoming a translator, her latest project—Daniel Galera’s Blood-Drenched Beard—and translating Brazilian writers. You can find it at the Asymptote blog.

New Mia Couto story and essay on the PEN America Blog

My translation of 2014 Neustadt Prize Winner Mia Couto’s “Pranto de coqueiro” (“Lamentations of a Coconut Tree”) now at the PEN America blog. You can also find my essay on translating the work of Mia Couto, “Everything Full of Weight: On Translating Mia Couto.”

2014 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Award for translation of Mia Couto

I’m thrilled to announce that my translation of the short story collection Estórias Abensonhadas (working title: Selected Stories) has received a 2014 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Award. My deep thanks for the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Advisory Council Members–Esther Allen, Barbara Epler, Sara Khalili, Michael F. Moore, Lorin Stein, and Lauren Wein–for selecting this work.

From the award announcement:

“These stories, published in 1994, are Couto’s first after years of civil war following independence from Portugal in 1975 and chronicle Mozambique’s rebirth. Becker powerfully enacts Couto’s aim of reconfiguring an inherited, colonial language into a uniquely local and personal idiom.”

More information can be found on the PEN American Center. Keep your eyes peeled for a forthcoming essay I’ll write about translating Couto, as well as a story from the collection to be featured on the PEN website.

Contemporary Brazilian writer Paulo Scott (Nowhere People) on Graciliano Ramos in the Fall 2014 issue of Asymptote

Asymptote‘s “Writers on Writers” series continues with Paulo Scott talking about the deep impact of 20th century Brazilian master Graciliano Ramos on contemporary Brazilian writers, in my translation.

Translation of Carlos Drummond de Andrade’s crônica about the World Cup, “Perder, Ganhar, Viver” (“Lose, Win, Live”) at Melville House Publishing blog

Since we’re in the thick of World Cup season (and in Brazil, the país do futebol, no less!), hop on over to the Melville House Publishing blog where you can find my translation of Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade’s newspaper article following Brazil’s loss to Italy in the 1982 World Cup in Spain.

Three stories from 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature winner Mia Couto in the most recent issue of The Massachusetts Review.

Very excited to share my translations from the Portuguese of three more stories from a collection by Mozambican novelist, poet, and essayist Mia Couto, now out in the latest issue of the Massachusetts Review. One of the stories is online at massreview.org. For the others, you’ll have to pick up a copy on newsstands!

Review of Juan José Saer’s La Grande at Words Without Borders

In the most recent issue of Words Without Borders, you can find my review of Steve Dolph’s great translation of Saer’s La Grande, out in June 2014 via Open Letter Books. Yeah, I liked it. But read on to find out why it should shoot to the top of your reading list.

New translation of Mia Couto’s “Serpent’s Embrace” up at Asymptote

As many have no doubt heard by now, the astounding Mozambican writer Mia Couto was recently named winner of the 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. My translation of his short story “Serpent’s Embrace”—never before translated into English—is now up on the Asymptote site.

Read it because Mia’s the bomb.