Tasja Dorkofikis talks to Joël Dicker about his literary and geographic inspirations, his method of plotting, and his novel in translation that has been a huge bestseller around the world
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A: Joël Dicker, author of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
Tasja Dorkofikis talks to Joël Dicker about his literary and geographic inspirations, his method of plotting, and his novel in translation that has been a huge bestseller around the world
Read MoreKiev’s Militant Spring
Alexei Nikitin writes for PEN Atlas about the tense atmosphere in Kiev, where the café-goers listening to jazz and the remaining protesters on the Maidan barricades await further news from the east of the country
Read MoreFinding the sworn virgin
Elvira Dones takes PEN Atlas to the mountains of Albania, where the story of an ancient custom, ideas about gender, and the resilient women who subverted both, helped the author to find a connection back to her homeland
Read MoreWho invented the graphic novel?
Ahead of European Literature Night, and the forthcoming British Library exhibition on comics, Paul Gravett writes about the history of the term ‘graphic novel’
Read MoreThe Greatest Turkish Novel?
Kaya Genç discusses the cultural and literary legacy of Hamdi Tanpınar whose 1961 novel ‘The Time Regulation Institute’ was published this year as a Penguin Classic.
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A: Otto Dov Kulka
PEN Atlas talks to Otto Dov Kulka, author of Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A: Otto Dov Kulka
PEN Atlas talks to Otto Dov Kulka, author of Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death
Read MoreOnce I Was a Dog
Jacek Hugo-Bader writes about the scavenging life of the journalist for this week’s PEN Atlas, and how living down and out in Moscow and Warsaw prepared him for his bicycle and Volvo journeys across Central Asia
Read MoreWorld War III: a dress rehearsal
In another exclusive dispatch from Ukraine, Andrey Kurkov describes the atmosphere of tension and surreality in Kiev and Crimea
Read MoreImagining the past – a few notes on the art of the historical novel
Otto de Kat writes for PEN Atlas about the risks and benefits of using history in the novel, a device that when used badly can lead to over-writing and when used well serves the novelist like a butler
Read MoreComics, cartoons and controversy
Michele Hutchison reports from the 41st Angoulême Comics Festival, the opportunities for, and resistance to, translation, and how the irreverent form of comics still finds time for plenty of controversy
Read MorePEN Atlas: literary dispatches from Turkey
Maureen Freely introduces an exclusive new e-book from PEN Atlas, collecting some of the best journalism, memoir, essays and dispatches from Turkey, at a moment when the country is poised in the middle of great changes, both political and literary
Read MorePublishers' highlights in 2014: part 1
This week PEN Atlas asks UK publishers about the translated books they are excited about publishing in 2014 – an intriguing list of books to look forward to this year, so clear your bookshelves! Publishers include Pushkin Press, Peirene, Doubleday, Istros Books and more…
Read MorePublishers’ highlights in 2014: part 1
This week PEN Atlas asks UK publishers about the translated books they are excited about publishing in 2014 – an intriguing list of books to look forward to this year, so clear your bookshelves! Publishers include Pushkin Press, Peirene, Doubleday, Istros Books and more…
Read MoreLiving by the pen
What is the cost of going on the payroll for a writer in Turkey?
Read MoreYule love these books in translation – 2013
Want some expert advice on what to read in translation? Then look no further. Top writers, literary scouts, critics and festival directors recommend books to give – and devour – during the festive season. Enjoy!
Read MorePoetry in translation – The Popescu Prize 2013
David Wheatley writes about the genius of mistranslation, Finnegans Wake syndrome, and being a judge on The Popescu Prize for poetry translated from a European language into English
Read MoreA literature in search of its language
Ciwanmerd Kulek charts the ongoing struggle for the Kurdish language, and whether being a language that is now more written than spoken threatens it in new and troubling ways
Read MoreAny questions for the author?
Jacek Dehnel writes a taxonomy of the literary event attendee, including ‘the star’, ‘the obsessive’, ‘the well-meaning person’ and ‘the fixer’, all of whom keep life interesting – and strange – for the travelling author
Read MoreWhat next for Greece?
Maria Margaronis writes for PEN Atlas on the complex and at times chaotic relationship between Greek media and the people of Greece, and what their future together might hold
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A – Hanna Krall, author of Chasing the King of Hearts
Finally available in the UK, Hanna Krall’s literary reportage about the Holocaust is unparalleled in its power and immediacy. Chasing the King of Hearts recreates the Holocaust not as an historical event but as a terrifying shared experience
Read MorePEN Atlas Q&A – Hanna Krall, author of Chasing the King of Hearts
Finally available in the UK, Hanna Krall’s literary reportage about the Holocaust is unparalleled in its power and immediacy. Chasing the King of Hearts recreates the Holocaust not as an historical event but as a terrifying shared experience
Read MoreAn 'archival identity'
This week PEN Atlas hears from Carmen Bugan, daughter of Romanian dissident Ion Bugan, on her discovery of previously classified files about her family that were kept by secret police
Read MoreAn ‘archival identity’
This week PEN Atlas hears from Carmen Bugan, daughter of Romanian dissident Ion Bugan, on her discovery of previously classified files about her family that were kept by secret police
Read MoreTranslations and Mutations
Adam Thirlwell takes us through the utopian goals and surprising results of Multiples, an experiment in translation
Read MoreOn #OccupyGezi, the Turkish Government prefers conspiracy theories to engagement
Oray Egin reports on Turkey’s ‘dissident witch hunt’. On Monday 5th August 2013, Turkish courts finally reached a decision on the most controversial trial to date. The Ergenekon investigation, which was launched in 2007, initially aimed to disclose an alleged clandestine organization that plots to overthrow the government. But over time, the investigation widened to…
Read MoreOur man in Berkhamsted
Kaya Genç introduces PEN Atlas readers to Şavkar Altınel: travel writer, inspiration for a famous literary character, translator of famous British poets and resident of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
Read MoreWriting in the Language of ‘the Other’
In another fascinating piece for PEN Atlas, Gazmend Kapllani recounts his journey through languages, the difficulties and opportunities of being a multi-lingual author and how the language of the Other goes back to Homer and the birth of storytelling
Read MoreRecommended Summer Reading in Translation from PEN Atlas
Need a good book to go with the good weather? In the lead-up to this evening’s English PEN Summer Party, Marina Warner, James Meek, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Blake Morrision, and many more offer their tips for what to read in translation this summer D.J. Taylor I’d like to recommend Stefan Chwin’s Death in Danzig, translated…
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