E. Rowan Mena

El Nestornauta

March 6, 2012 by E. Rowan

A friend of mine just shared this interesting thing with me: From the blog graffitimundo: The walls of Buenos Aires have paid homage to Nestor Kirchner in various ways. In the immediate aftermath of his death, the words ‘Siempre Nestor’ were splashed across the city. To mark the one-month anniversary of Nestor Kirchner’s death, the political group La Campora distributed stencils to activists in every barrio of the capital, and the image of ‘El Nestornauta’ began to appear throughout Buenos Aires and beyond. El […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: eternauta, eternonaut

AWP-Wrap

March 4, 2012 by E. Rowan

Well, it has been far far too long. I’ve been buried under my thesis (excerpts of which you can read on Words Without Borders here and here) which is inches away from being announce-ably forthcoming in full. So that’s exciting. I’ve also been printing like a madwoman, making, among other cool things, these sweet postcards for Anomalous Press to hand out at AWP and display on the lovely Iowa Review table. And wow, was AWP crazy this year. I wasn’t initially going […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Anomalous Press, awp, awp12, awp2012, conference, conference experience, conference tips, letterpress printing, literary translators, poetry, publishing, Words without Borders

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Reading the World Podcast 10: Edith Grossman

January 20, 2012 by E. Rowan

After a hiatus, the Reading the World Podcast is thrilled to be back with the support of the University of California Irvine’s International Center for Writing and Translation. In this new episode, translator Edith Grossman talks about her recent book Why Translation Matters, her translations of Luis de Gongora’s Soledades (The Solitudes) and her forthcoming translation, The Depths of Time by Antonio Muñoz Molina. Last April during (but unrelated to) PEN World Voices, I (Erica Mena) had the great pleasure of meeting with Edith Grossman. Edith Grossman, in […]

Categories: Podcasts • Tags: anna guercio, anna rosen guercio, edith grossman, erica mena, interview, literary translation, podcast, Reading the World, reading the world podcast, Three Percent, translation

Cats on the Internet

January 14, 2012 by E. Rowan

Currently, I’m supposed to be researching for my super-exciting thesis in literary translation, a portion of which was just published on Words Without Borders and which I wrote about for their blog. But instead, I’m thinking about cats on the internet. I’m not even really looking at cat videos, or LOLcat pictures, or even listening to “I Love Cats” the songified song (though now that’s stuck in my head). I started procrastinating, as I’m wont to do, by imagining what […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: aspca, cats, ceiling cat, eternauta, eternonaut, internet, itty bitty kitty committee, keyboard cat, know your meme, lolcatz, maru, meme, nyan cat, procrastination, surprised kitten, thesis

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On The Eternonaut

January 12, 2012 by E. Rowan

I have a blog post up at Words Without Borders on The Eternonaut. The title is a portmanteau, combining “eter” and “astronauta.” I created a similarly constructed English portmanteau combining “eternal” and “astronaut,” changing the “a” in “eternal” for the “o” in “astro” to create the prefix “eterno,” reminiscent of “cosmonaut” also. Since the words are cognates, I could have left it as The Ethernaut, but the emphasis on the first syllable in this word seems uncomfortable in English. Naturalness in English […]

Categories: Translation • Tags: comics, el eternauta, erica mena, eternauta, graphic novel, hector oesterheld, science fiction, solano lopez, the eternonaut, translation, translator, Words without Borders

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The Eternonaut

January 5, 2012 by E. Rowan

An excerpt from The Eternonaut (the graphic novel I’ve been translating for my thesis) was just published on Words Without Borders as part of their Apocalypse themed issue. Here’s a little from my introduction to the work on the site: The Eternonaut does what science fiction can do so well, asks hard questions about the world, and wonders what we can do to change things. At the end, the comic writer wonders, is telling the story enough? Perhaps not, but then again, […]

Categories: Comics, Translation • Tags: apocalypse, comics, el eternauta, erica mena, eternauta, eternonaut, francisco solano lopez, graphic novel, hector german oesterheld, hector oesterheld, oesterheld, science fiction, solano lopez, the eternonaut, translation, Words without Borders

Actually, There are Two "Erica Mena"s

December 31, 2011 by E. Rowan

If you read this blog, or actually know me, you probably don’t know about my secret alter-ego. You see, by day, I’m a grad student, working hard to build a career in academics, teaching, writing, reading, translating, publishing. Oh, really, just buried in poetry in several languages, and that’s just the way I like it. But by night, I’m an ass-model turned actress who lives in L.A. and gets into fistfights with other ass-models on VH1. Be amazed at how […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: @ericamena, @erica_mena, erica mena, fight, Kimbella, Love and Hip Hop, mistaken identity, poetry, VH1

What Happened, Apple?

December 6, 2011 by E. Rowan

Usually I don’t write that much about technology here, that’s more of my husband’s area. But I just have to warn everyone against doing the Lion update to your OS. My husband did it when it was released, because he likes to be on the edge of new stuff. And it destroyed his machine, not once, not twice, but three times. This is someone who is a professional technology consultant, and his entire office, and the only solution they could […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: apple, bluetooth, broken, lion, problems, steve jobs, time machine, update

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Don Quixote Makes Me Feel Guilty

November 29, 2011 by E. Rowan

This week my class and I are beginning the last book we’ll read together this semester, Don Quixote. The professor who designed the syllabus selected Edith Grossman’s translation, and since I hadn’t read it before (or any translation of the Quixote, if you can believe it) I was thrilled. I had the chance a few months ago to record a conversation for Reading the World with Edith Grossman, which will be going live in the next few weeks, and though we didn’t really […]

Categories: Translation • Tags: don quixote, edith grossman, literary translation, teaching, translation

The ignored island(s)

November 28, 2011 by E. Rowan

Puerto Rico has a special place in world literature: none. Or almost none. No one knows how to talk about it. It’s part of the U.S., but predominately Spanish-speaking. It’s part of Latin America, but significantly separate because of the U.S. government and economic control. Puerto Rico has been called “the oldest colony in the world.” And what happens in centuries-old colonies is a kind of hybridity and resistance that makes culture hard to categorize, and therefore harder to talk […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: caribbean literature, caribbean wriitng, Dominican Republic, erica mena, hispanic caribbean, José Mármol, literary translation, poetry, Puerto Rico, translation, Words without Borders

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