Edith Grossman

Check out the recent article on Spanish-language translator Edith Grossman in Bookforum here.

I have a small but interesting connection to Grossman: She co-translated, along with Allen Ginsburg, a chapbook of the work of Carlos Edmundo de Ory, a Spanish poet whose work I've been translating. Though the chapbook was printed, it was never distributed; it was deemed to have too many problems by the publisher and most of the copies were destroyed. Only a handful of copies still exist (I was fortunate to obtain one a couple of years ago in Spain from Jaume Pont, an Ory scholar). Grossman herself has never seen the edition (I need to at least send her a photocopied version), and no one I've spoken to at the Allen Ginsburg trust had any notion of its existence.

Absinthe at AWP

Absinthe: New European Writing will be at AWP in New York this week and we look forward to seeing many of you. We're sharing table 447 at the Bookfair with our good friends from Dzanc Books.

If you're not registered for AWP you can still stop by the Bookfair on Saturday, February 2nd as it will be open to the general public on that day.

Subscribe and Receive Three Years for the Price of Two

Until February 29th, 2008 you can subscribe to Absinthe: New European Writing for two years (or extend your subscription) for only $20* and receive an additional year (two issues) FREE! That’s three years (six issues) for only $20.*

You can subscribe using Paypal here or send a check for $20 to:

Absinthe
P.O. Box 2297
Farmington Hills, MI 48333-2297


*$50 for non-US subscribers

Absinthe/Oakland University Festival of European Film and Writing

The first Absinthe/Oakland University Festival of European Film and Writing will be held on May 9-10, 2008 in Rochester, MI. More details will follow very soon.

A Taste of Italian Poetry

We're a little late with this but in the December issue of Poetry magazine Geoffrey Brock provides an introduction to contemporary Italian poetry, discussing some of the similarities and differences in the development of Italian and American poetry, and presents the work of nearly a dozen Italian poets, including Franco Fortini, Patrizia Valduga, and Fabio Pusterla.

(The same issue also includes two poems by Fiona Sampson who appeared in Absinthe #3.)

One Hundred Years of Loneliness

Gregory Rabassa is one of the twentieth century's great translators, and his translation of Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad is a masterpiece. Nevertheless, I've always had a problem with the novel's title in translation, One Hundred Years of Solitude. The word "soledad" means loneliness as well as solitude, and all you have to do is read the novel to see that it's clearly about loneliness as opposed to solitude. It should be titled One Hundred Years of Loneliness or, better yet, A Hundred Years of Loneliness. Has anyone else observed or commented on this? I wonder if the title was chosen by Rabassa, García Márquez, or the publisher (Rabassa was present at the ALTA conference in Dallas last November, though I didn't have the chance to speak to him). In any case, I'm sure it is far too entrenched to be changed with any future editions.