Uncategorized | E. Rowan Mena

My Nomadic Workspace

June 5, 2013 by E. Rowan

Matt and I are moving, again. In the last five years we’ve moved more than five times. All this nomadry has helped me develop some strategies for being productive despite displacement, living out of boxes, suitcases, and under immense amounts of stress. In fact, at a conference for literary translators last year I was invited to be on a panel in which several extremely busy, multi-tasking translators shared their tips for building a routine that allows them to be productive. […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: productivity, strategies

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Travel Guides – Do You Have a Favorite?

May 1, 2013 by E. Rowan

So in the past few years I’ve done some pretty wonderful travel, thanks to some great opportunities and my amazing husband. This year we’ve been in the process of a huge transition, and though things are finally coming together and we’ll be moving into our more-permanent apartment in June, the thought of planning and taking a big trip (much less applying for research funding, etc.) has not been overly appealing. For the first summer in my academic career, we’re staying […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: eyewitness, fodors, frommers, lonely planet, moon, travel, travel guide comparison

Oreithyia

January 30, 2013 by E. Rowan

I’ve been researching for a new project, and it became clear to me that I needed to think a little about ekphrasis for this. So I spent the better part of the day compiling a collection of visual works engaging with Oreithyia, who in Ovid’s Metamorphoses is abducted and raped by Boreas, before becoming his wife, and bearing him four children for which he gives her immortality. Though not comprehensive (there are many more engravings as illustrations to editions of […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: boreas, ekphrasis, oreithyia, orithyia

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José Mármol wins the Premio Nacional de Literatura

January 26, 2013 by E. Rowan

A poet I’ve had the pleasure of working with and translating just won the Premio Nacional de Literatura in his native Dominican Republic. Yay! If you’d like to read some of his work in my English translation: Deus ex machina (at Words Without Borders) Four poems (at Asymptote)

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Dominican Republic, José Mármol, poet, premio nacional de literatura, translation

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No Access to Care

December 12, 2012 by E. Rowan

So this is totally off topic for what I’m usually writing but I just needed to express the immense frustration, anger, and helplessness I’ve been made to feel this week regarding health care. My husband has a very good job, with expensive and supposedly very good benefits, including health and dental. We pay a significant amount of money every month in insurance premiums, and expected that because of that we would be able to get the medical and dental care […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: access to care, blue cross, blue cross of massachusetts, delta dental, denial of care, denial of coveraged, dental care, health care, healthcare, insurance, no access to care, socialized health care, universal health care

Gratification, at what cost?

November 7, 2012 by E. Rowan

I just did something I feel terrible about. I bought two books from Amazon. The books are not used, they’re not out of print, and they shouldn’t be particularly hard to find. They’re both published by independent presses (as are most of the books I buy and read), both good-sized and (I thought) well-distributed presses (Counterpath and City Lights). And I didn’t start at Amazon, to be fair. I started by calling the Grolier Poetry Bookshop in Cambridge, MA, where I go […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Amazon, Grolier, Harvard Bookstore, independent bookstores, poetry

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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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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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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

E. Rowan Mena

Poet | Book Artist | Translator

Category Archives: Uncategorized

My Nomadic Workspace

Travel Guides – Do You Have a Favorite?

Oreithyia

José Mármol wins the Premio Nacional de Literatura

No Access to Care

Gratification, at what cost?

El Nestornauta

AWP-Wrap

Cats on the Internet

Actually, There are Two "Erica Mena"s