MCLC: Asymptote 2012.4

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From:  editors at asymptotejournal.com
Subject: Asymptote 2012.4
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Announcement about Asymptote's Apr 2012 issue
http://asymptotejournal.com/


Chinese highlights: An extensive interview with Hsia Yü and the other
editors of Xianzai Shi (Poetry Now)--Yung Man-Han, Ling Yü, Hung Hung and
Tseng Shumei on their latest issue, conducted by Dylan Suher and Rachel
Hui-Yu Tang--accompanied by an immersive slideshow of erasurist poetry
from the journal; an excerpt of Alai's "King Gesar" via new contributing
editors Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Lin; and a new translation of a poem
by Li Li, via Eleanor Goodman. There's also Sim Yee Chiang's and Sayuri
Okamoto's new translation of a short story by Kou Reishi (黄霊芝), who has
the distinction of being the last living Japanese-language writer in
Taiwan.

Official Mailer:

A mouth about to open. An email draft deleted. Much of what we love about
writing isn't actually written on the page. The new Apr 2012 issue of
Asymptote, then, deals with our usual mysteries of translation, as well as
the blessings and sins of omission.

Our special feature presents our yearly foray into original
English-language fiction in the form of eight stories addressing 'the
unsaid'. In the short story that inspired this theme, David Leavitt's
Route 80, a relationship fails despite a last-minute attempt at
horticulture. In other tales of heartbreak, there's more than meets the
eye to real estate (Brittani Sonnenberg's 1116 Arcadia Ave.), a Paris
subway ride (Rosa Rankin-Gee's Métro), and an ex-turned-goldfish (Anthony
Luebbert's Rainbow Fish).

Leading off the translated work this issue is a new short fiction from
beloved Israeli story-teller, Etgar Keret, about a young woman mourning a
man and the fact that she never said she loved him. Via new contributing
editors Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Lin (welcome!), we present our very
first work from Tibet in Alai's retelling of the Tibetan "King Gesar"
epic. Then there is Josef Winkler, an intense writer as celebrated in
Austria as Jelinek and Bernhard but remains obscure outside the
German-speaking world—something we hope to remedy through Adrian West's
superb translation as well as his introduction in the Writers on Writers
section (which, btw, also features a wonderful survey on Somali literature
and a fab experimental piece by Lennox Raphael). From the Japanese,
meanwhile, there's an embarrassment of riches in the form of a luminescent
memoir by Takahashi Mutsuo, a new play by Masataka Matsuda, and a
disturbingly comic short story by Taiwanese writer Kou Reishi.

Erasurist poetry—created by crossing out words and lines in an existing
text—isolates a poem lying dormant and unsaid in a brochure or newspaper,
and our gallery of images from the Taiwanese journal Xianzai Shi (Poetry
Now) and interview with its candid creators reveal just how much meaning
can be wrought from ravaging unsuspecting phrases. The poetry section
proper, meanwhile, reveals our first works translated from the Faroese,
the Danish, and perhaps even more thrillingly, the K'iche'—the Mayan
language used to write the Popul Vuh. Playing off the kissing fish gracing
our cover, there's Portugese poetry by Flávio de Araújo alongside
harder-edged KGB Poems by Igor Pomerantsev.

A theme that slipped into our issue without premeditation is transparency.
Not only is that concept the subject of a fascinating book by Polish
writer Marek Bieńczyk (excerpted in this issue), it also characterizes the
work of our illustrator, Australia-based Hugo Muecke. His precise lines
lend this issue an elegant transparency especially suitable for springtime
(at least for the readers in the Northern hemisphere; in Sydney, all is
rainy and autumnal, we hear).

Now whether you're sweeping blossom petals or golden leaves off your
windowsill or front steps, know that we at Asymptote are excited about
this our sixth issue, one we hope will cure both your spring fevers and
the drippier ailments associated with the end of Summer. As you enjoy this
issue, we hope you will click around the website to explore translator's
notes and audio recordings. Do send us a message (or a little donation) if
our issue so moves you. The new call for Special Feature submissions for
the October Issue—for original English-language poetry exploring the idea
of foreignness—is now up at our newly revised Submit page.

Finally, we'd like to sound off with a piece of exciting news: the
adventurous Dalkey Archive has appointed our editor-in-chief as the editor
of its Best Asian Fiction anthology, modeled after the European
counterpart 
<http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/collections/besteuropeanfiction/> edited by
Aleksandar Hemon. If all goes well with fund-raising (any leads from
readers would be most welcome, as would any pledges to help make it
happen), we should see an inaugural Best Asian Fiction 2014, allowing the
hitherto unsaid from many Asian countries to be said (in English). Cross
your fingers!      
—The Editors