In this article People from Bloomington Tiffany Tsao
By Merve Emre, originally published in The New York Review
Aug 25, 2025
Read the full article here.
By Merve Emre, originally published in The New York Review
Aug 25, 2025
The second episode of “On Translation”
In “On Translation,” the third season of the podcast The Critic and Her Publics, Merve Emre convenes a panel of translators and publishers for a seven-episode series of conversations on literary translation. The panel discussions were hosted in 2024 by the Hawthornden Foundation. The Review is collaborating with Lit Hub to publish transcripts and recordings of each episode.
Anyone who has been around kids knows that a good Lego build starts with a good base. In a translation, this is the first sentence. First sentences are a place for translators to make their marks: they are so often the most famous lines from a work. They dictate the voice in which the book unfolds. But has the importance of the first sentence been overly inflated?
In “On Translation,” the third season of the podcast The Critic and Her Publics, Merve Emre convenes a panel of translators and publishers for a seven-episode series of conversations on literary translation. The panel discussions were hosted in 2024 by the Hawthornden Foundation. The Review is collaborating with Lit Hub to publish transcripts and recordings of each episode.
Anyone who has been around kids knows that a good Lego build starts with a good base. In a translation, this is the first sentence. First sentences are a place for translators to make their marks: they are so often the most famous lines from a work. They dictate the voice in which the book unfolds. But has the importance of the first sentence been overly inflated?
Read the full article here.
Leanne Shapton / NYBooks
Other Episodes
Practical Translation: Proust
Aug 24, 2025
Shame, Seams, Scars
Aug 26, 2025
Is English a Monocrop?
Aug 27, 2025
Passing Judgment
Aug 29, 2025
