MCLC: Asymptote special feature on Taiwan lit

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: editors at asymptotejournal.com
Subject: Asymptote special feature on Taiwan lit
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The fifth issue of Asymptote kicks off with an extensive Special Feature
on Taiwanese literature; a brand new essay by David Shields; a darkly
humorous excerpt from a newly translated novel by Bohumil Hrabal;
translated poetry from the endangered Ahtna Athabaskan language of
interior Alaska; a mind-blowing spoken word performance by avant-gardist
Hsia Yü, and the first ever English rendering of Bruno Jasienski's
murderous novel I Burn Paris.

Our nets cast wide, our boat has filled with authors as diversely rich as
novelist Chu T'ien-wen via Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Lin and poet Hsia
Yü (whose exquisite recording you should definitely not miss) via Steve
Bradbury. We present pioneering fictioneers Wu He and Li Ang alongside two
of the most exciting 40-under literateurs: Jing Xianghai and Egoyan
Zheng.

Antonio Chen's comprehensive survey of the past year in Taiwanese
novels presents further evidence of a literature worthy of international
attention. Next to the contemporary work, we are proud to feature an
excerpt from Auvini Kadresengan's ethnographic novel on the experiences of
Taiwan's Indigenous peoples, a Japanese colonial-era piece written in
Japanese by Zhang Wenhuan, and a short story by Chi Ta-wei about gay
Taiwan at the height of the AIDS crisis, which comes with an update on
LGBT issues 14 years later.

Illustrated throughout by legendary Taiwanese artist Hou Chun-Ming, this
issue debuts our redesigned Visual section: new fullscreen slideshows
enable immersive views of our guest artist's images of Hell and even a
graphic short story by Judith Huang and Huang Zhipeng‹a fascinating take
on traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, reworking Cultural
Revolution-era author Hao Ran.

Words, however, remain our core business‹ Our Poetry section features new
translations of twelve poets writing in, for example, Icelandic (Jón
Thoroddsen), French (José-Flore Tappy), Persian (Hafez) and Chinese (two
of the most important contemporary poets in China today: Xi Chuan and
Ouyang Jianghe‹the latter paired with essays by translator Austin Woerner
and renowned sinologist Wolfgang Kubin. 

In Drama, we're thrilled to have
snagged an excerpt from Jonas Hassen Khemiri's Obie Award-winning play
about a chameleonic figure known only as Abulkasem. Our Interview section
offers an important conversation about translation and Indonesian politics
with Max Lane, the acclaimed translator of Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

What others have been saying about Asymptote:

No other contemporary journal reaches as far into the wealth of the
world¹s literature, or as deeply into the life of the word.

­ Sidney Wade

Asymptote is trained to a new perimeter‹excitingly so. There is the
feeling that its editors are listening, not just for a new sound‹though it
feels very new‹but for the full sound, taking in parts of the tonal
spectrum that have been ignored for too long. Cosmopolitan and generous in
the deepest sense. Its aura is that of excitement.

­ Sven Birkerts

An almost unbelievably good international magazine; the whole thing is
very much exactly the people/work/translations I want to be reading‹and
then a number of excellent writers I didn¹t know.

­ Forrest Gander

Check us out (for free) now at

http://www.asymptotejournal.com <http://www.asymptotejournal.com/>