Erica Mena

Poet | Book Artist | Translator

Main menu

Skip to content
  • Visual Art
    • artist books
    • broadsides & prints
    • (k)not work
    • w@nder
  • Literary Art
    • poetry
    • translations
    • essays
  • Editing & Design
    • editing
    • design
  • Teaching
  • About
    • contact
    • blog
  • Fiskars Letterpress Studio

Tag: literary translation

Show Grid Show List

Post navigation

Los Surcos del Azar

March 9, 2017 by Erica Mena

One of my very favorite things about translating is how hard it is. As any five translators to work on the same sentence and you’ll get five different results, all of them perfectly legitimate and yet none the same. There are a ton of great translation theorists who talk about this (many of whom I’ve been teaching this semester in the phenomenal translation theory class I’m doing with the Low Residency MFA in Literary Translation at Mills College!), but that […]

Categories: Translation • Tags: antonio machado, erica mena, literary translation, poetry, poetry translation, translation

1

Canyon in the Body by Lan Lan translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain

February 9, 2015 by Erica Mena

In many ways this book is exactly what I expected. It is a collection of beautiful, light, lyric poems, in a very traditional translation that is beautiful, light, lyric and focused on image and meaning and very occasionally sound. If this appeals to you, you will love this book. For me, though, there wasn’t much beyond a few occasional moments that really grabbed me about it. Lan Lan is clearly a finely attenuated poet, one who puts great care into the […]

Categories: Poetry, Reviews • Tags: canyon in the body, chines poetry, contemporary poetry, fiona sze-lorrain, lan lan, literary translation, poetry, translation, zephyr press

Leave a comment

Diana's Tree by Alejandra Pizarnik, translated by Yvette Siegert

January 10, 2015 by Erica Mena

After reading Diana’s Tree by Alejandra Pizarnik, in Yvette Siegert’s translation, all the way through in one sitting, I wanted immediately to read it again. It’s a slim volume of equally slim poems, but they’re the kind of sparing that is deceptive. I hadn’t read much Pizarnik before, I’d seen her pop up in anthologies and translation workshops, I can’t tell you how many emerging translators I know who’ve started with her work. But, I think mostly because of estate issues and […]

Categories: Poetry, Reviews, Translation • Tags: alejandra pizarnik, diana's tree, literary translation, poetry, translation, ugly duckling, yvette siegert

Leave a comment

What's in a name? If it's The Eternonaut, it's a lot.

November 7, 2014 by Erica Mena

The graphic novel I translated a few years ago is in production, and coming out with Fantagraphics (swoon) next year. It’s an amazing work by the phenomenal Argentine author Héctor Germán Oesterheld, illustrated by the incredible Francisco Solano López. I’m so excited to see it brought out in English, I can barely contain myself. And for the most part, I’ve received some really great feedback on the translation and my advocacy for the work. But there’s this thing that has come up […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: el eternauta, francisco solano lopez, graphic novel, hector german oesterheld, literary translation, the eternonaut, translation

5

Anomalous Chapbooks

March 17, 2012 by Erica Mena

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

Leave a comment

Reading the World Podcast 10: Edith Grossman

January 20, 2012 by Erica Mena

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

1

Don Quixote Makes Me Feel Guilty

November 29, 2011 by Erica Mena

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

5

The ignored island(s)

November 28, 2011 by Erica Mena

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

6

Anomalous & Translation at Molossus

October 8, 2011 by Erica Mena

David Shook over at the amazing Molossus interviewed me about Anomalous. It’s here. I’m especially impressed by the range of translations on Anomalous, from Steve Bradbury’s translations of the Taiwanese poet Hsia Yü to Mani Rao’s Śankara. What brings them together? What do you look for when assessing translations? What actually brings them together is me, and another editor Sara Gilmore, who is also a translator. Translators, we’ve found, have to be sought out and luckily we have read and […]

Categories: Publishing • Tags: Anomalous Press, David shook, literary translation, mani rao, molossus, poetry, Steve Bradbury, translation

Leave a comment

Post navigation

PATREON
NEWSLETTER

SHOP

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com
  • Follow Following
    • Erica Mena
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Erica Mena
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...