John R. Keene is the author of Annotations and Counternarratives, both published by New Directions, as well as several other works, including the poetry collection Seismosis, with artist Christopher Stackhouse, and a translation of Brazilian author Hilda Hilst’s novel Letters from a Seducer. Born in St. Louis, Keene is a graduate of Harvard College and New York University, where he was a New York Times Fellow. He is the recipient of many awards and fellowships—including a MacArthur Genius Award, the Windham-Campbell Prize, and the Whiting Foundation Prize for fiction. He teaches at Rutgers University-Newark. (Bio adapted from New Directions.)
John Keene talks to Commonplace host Rachel Zucker about his experiences—starting as early as middle school—with translation, why he believes translation is so important, and how his work as a poet and fiction writer is informed by his work as a translator. Keene, who primarily translates from Portuguese, French and Spanish, speaks about his article “Translating Poetry, Translating Blackness,” and how the dearth of translations of non-Anglophone black diasporic writers into English compounds problem of the lack of representation in media and literature. Keene also discusses the whiteness of the publishing industry, the unique challenges of translating LGBTQ+ literature across cultures, and more.
EXTRA RESOURCES FOR EPISODE 64Books by John KeeneCounternarratives (New Directions, 2016)
Seismosis (1913 Press, 2013)
Annotations (New Directions, 1995)
Books Translated by John KeeneLetters from a Seducer by Hilda Hilst (Nightboat, 2014)
Other Books and Writers Mentioned in the EpisodeBroken Glass by Alain Mabanckou (Soft Skull, 2010)
Walter Benjamin
Roman Jakobson
François Charles Mauriac’s Viper’s Tangle
Edimilson de Almeida Pereira
Samuel Richardson
NATHANAËL
Patrick Sylvain
Clarice Lispector
Patrick Chamoiseau
Paulo Leminski
Eric M. B. Becker
Dorothy J. Wang
Prageeta Sharma
Daniel Borzutzky
Rupi Kaur
Rosa Alcalá
Christiane Sobral
Reginald Gibbons
Susannah Gottlieb
Other Relevant LinksJames Sweet (historian)
Nicholas Muellner
Adrian MS Piper
Cave Canem
Dark Room Collective
Black Panther
Crazy Rich Asians
Lee and Low Books’ Survey on Diversity in Publishing
William S. YellowRobe
Translating Poetry, Translating Blackness”
Words without Borders’ special issue on Afro-Brazilian writing
Episode 121: Fred Moten and Ronaldo Wilson - Part 2
Episode 120: Fred Moten and Ronaldo V. Wilson
Episode 119: Eugenia Leigh's Bianca (KTCO feed drop)
Episode 118: Laurel Snyder
Episode 117: Charif Shanahan & Safia Elhillo with Isaac Ginsberg Miller
Episode 116: The Gathered Congregation
Episode 115: Moheb Soliman
Episode 114: Live & Embodied
113: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Episode 112: Gabrielle Octavia Rucker with V Conaty
Episode 111: The Confessional Episode
Episode 110: The Poetics of Wrongness
Episode 109: Joy Harjo
Episode 108: Saeed Jones
Episode 107: Eileen Myles
Episode 106: S. Yarberry with V Conaty
Episode 105: Carl Phillips
Episode 104: The Critical Response Process with Liz Lerman & John Borstel
Episode 103: Cody-Rose Clevidence with Valentine Conaty
Episode 102: Rebekah Wolkstein
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