Translation | E. Rowan Mena

Anomalous Chapbooks

March 17, 2012 by E. Rowan

Well, our one-year anniversary issue just went live on the Ides. And it’s awesome! Mad Lib poems, non-fiction/poetry, translation and more. And we’re just about to launch our series of chapbooks! So, without further ado, our first ever chapbook contest! ANOMALOUS PRESS ANNOUNCES OUR FIRST-EVER CHAPBOOK CONTEST! March 15 – May 15 $500 prize plus publication! Finalist manuscripts will also be considered for publication, and all submissions will be considered for publication in the journal. $15 fee. We will publish the […]

Categories: Poetry, Publishing, Translation • Tags: Anomalous, Anomalous Press, chapbook, chapbook contest, christian hawkey, literary translation, poetry, translation

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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

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

Caribbean Poetry

November 22, 2011 by E. Rowan

Did I fail to mention that the new Words Without Borders (and it’s not so new anymore, but still awesome) features writing from the Caribbean and I have four poems that I translated in it? Oh, Erica… Well, it does, and I’m pretty happy with them. Two by the Dominican poet José Mármol, one by the Dominican poet Aurora Arias, and one by the Puerto Rican poet José María Lima. You can read them here.

Categories: Poetry, Translation • Tags: Aurora Arias, caribbean poetry, erica mena, José María Lima, José Mármol, poetry, translation, Words without Borders

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Nathalie Handal's Poet in Andalucia

October 24, 2011 by E. Rowan

A few weeks ago the exceptional poet Nathalie Handal contacted me about a project of hers, Poet in Andalucía, which is an interesting reversal of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Poet in New York. The book is being translated into Spanish, and she asked me to look over a few of the translations and give some feedback. It was a pleasure to do, and now I’m even more excited about the book. I first met Nathalie Handal in Chile in 2004 during the […]

Categories: Poetry, Translation • Tags: Martín Espada, Nathalie Handal, Poet in Andalucía, poetry, Rattapallax, translation

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Collaborative Comics

October 10, 2011 by E. Rowan

This past weekend I had the joy of getting a crash-course in contemporary comics criticism during a conference at my home university – so I didn’t even have to travel! I was super excited, not only because I’m translating a comic series/graphic novel for my MFA thesis, but because I think comics have an interesting place in culture as sort of between high and low. Because this was being sponsored by a lot of university programs and departments, the framing was seriously […]

Categories: Comics, Translation • Tags: collaborative, comics, graphic novels, James Strum, Jessica Abel, John Porcellino

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Review of False Friends on Iowa Review

August 23, 2011 by E. Rowan

“The project of the book is to toy with language and meaning, with things that sound similar and even the same across languages but mean strange, funny, unusual, and odd things. This is the joy of cognates, as any language learner will tell you—the surprise they can bring to the familiar. By defamiliarizing these phrases, Bernofsky brilliantly constructs an unfamiliar reading experience in English.” Read the rest of my review of False Friends by Uljana Wolf, translated by Susan Bernofsky (Ugly […]

Categories: Poetry, Reviews, Translation • Tags: chapbook, cognates, experimental translation, False Friends, poetry, review, Susan Bernofsky, translation, Ugly Duckling Presse, Uljana Wolf

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Seeking Translations

July 16, 2011 by E. Rowan

We’re rapidly closing our reading period for Anomalous #3. It’s crazy, it feels like #2 just launched (and is still launching, of course) but we have to start thinking about what’s next for us. And I would love to see more translation! I know it’s hard to send translation out for all the various rights issues I’ve talked about before, and especially to journals like mine that can’t afford to buy rights or pay contributors (yet…she says hopefully). But, translators, if you […]

Categories: Publishing, Translation

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Translation Rights

July 4, 2011 by E. Rowan

I’m in an odd situation. I finished a manuscript (of original poetry), my goal for the spring, and at the end of May began to turn my attention back to translation. Balancing my creative output between original writing and translation has worked well for me if I switch off, I can’t quite sustain the output of working on two things simultaneously, at least not without a lot of cross-contamination (which would be interesting to explore, of course, but hasn’t been […]

Categories: Translation • Tags: copyright, derivative rights, Roberto Bolaño, translation rights

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E. Rowan Mena

Poet | Book Artist | Translator

Category Archives: Translation

Anomalous Chapbooks

On The Eternonaut

The Eternonaut

Don Quixote Makes Me Feel Guilty

Caribbean Poetry

Nathalie Handal's Poet in Andalucia

Collaborative Comics

Review of False Friends on Iowa Review

Seeking Translations

Translation Rights