Commonplace Podcast

Books by Maggie NelsonSomething Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull, 2018)The Argonauts (Graywolf, 2015)The Latest Winter (Zed Books, 2018)Shiner (Zed Books, 2018)The Art of Cruelty (W.W. Norton, 2012)Women, The New York School and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa Press, 2011)Bluets (Wave Books, 2009)The Red Parts (Graywolf, 2007)Jane (Soft Skull, 2005)Other Authors and Texts Mentioned in the EpisodeAvital Ronell’s Crack Wars (University of Illinois Press, 2004)Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Eraby Paul B. Preciado and Bruce Benderson (Feminist Press, 2013)The Road of Excess: A History of Writer’s on Drugs by Marcus Boon (Harvard University Press, 2005)Mothers: An Essay on Love and Cruelty by Jacqueline Rose (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2019)Black and Blur by Fred Moten (Duke University Press, 2017)Eileen MylesLauren SandersFrank O’HaraClaudia Rankine (Ep 4)Wayne Kostenbaum (Ep 9)Christina CrosbyEve SedgwickAnne CarsonSherrilyn IfillBenjamin MoserSusan SontagSylvia PlathFranco “Bifo” BerardiHannah ArendtDonald WinnicottMaggie Nelson and Sarah Lucas at the Hammer MuseumElaine RetholtzJohn CageEthan NosowskyOther Relevant LinksCritical ResistanceMaggie Nelson and Wayne Koestenbaum on Clarity and Cruelty (NY Public Library podcast)Hilton Als on Maggie Nelson in the New YorkerMaggie Nelson in The Guardian

People, Places, and Events Featured in this Episode:Brilliant Time Bookstore(Feature on Mr. CHANG Cheng and his partner, Ms. LIAO Yun-chan)Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s OwnFemBooks est. 1994Witch House (located in the same building as FemBooks)Peng Wan-Ru Foundation (located in the same building as FemBooks)KANG Min JayNational Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Building and PlanningWenRooTin Cultural AreaEslite Bookstore(More on Eslite’s cultural significance and future)Treasure HillKANG Min Jay’s speech “Altered Space: Squatting and Legitimizing Treasure Hill, Taipei” presented at Cultural Development Network’s 2006 Forum, “Artivism: The Role of Arts in Regeneration”Public art project at Taipower Spider TreeTonsan Bookstore est. 1982 (the leftist bookstore referred to by KANG Min Jay)GinGin Books est. 1999 (the gay bookstore referred to by KANG Min Jay)(More on GinGin’s founder, LAI Jeng-jer 賴正哲)Taiwanese poet CHEN Kehua’s poem, “Anal Subjectivity”(Note: This webpage from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture has a different translation of the poem’s title. Google also translates differently as “The Need for Anal Sex.”)Taiwan’s 2018 ReferendumMusic“Monday Spirit”長笛Flute/作曲Composition：張瑛蘭 Ing Lan CHANG人聲Vocal/ 作詞 Lyrics：喜辰晨 XI Chenchen吉他Guitar：林華勁 Gin LINOther Relevant Links:Selected patrons will receive copies of Salsa by Taiwanese poet Hsia Yu translated by Steven Bradbury, courtesy of Zephyr Press.(More translations by Steven Bradbury)書店裡的影像詩 Video Poems Inside a Bookstore: 2016 Web Documentary Series Profiling 40 Different Independent Bookstores in Taiwan友善書業合作社 Taiwan's Independent Bookstore Culture AssociationDuring their trip, Rachel and Doreen also visited the Beitou Museum exhibit: “Stories Told Through Mother’s Hands: Children’s Textile & Embroidery Arts” guided by its curator Brenda Lin, who also serves as Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Les Enphants Co and is the author of Wealth Ribbon.The exhibit showcased items from Brenda’s mother, Christi Lan Lin’s, collection of traditional Asian textiles made by mothers for their children.Brenda’s forthcoming essay, “Things,” will be published Feminist Press’ WSQ in May 2020.Liner Notes:01:08 Doreen provides a brief overview of Taiwan’s history.09:55 Rachel and Doreen speak with CHANG Cheng, one of the co-founders of Brilliant Time Bookstore.19:28 Rachel and Doreen speak with YAO Yuting (Analeigh), a staff member of Brilliant Time Bookstore.25:50 Rachel and Doreen speak with LI Xiumei (Sophie), manager of FemBooks.28:35 Rachel and Doreen speak with KANG Min Jay, a professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, one of the activists behind the creation of the WenRooTin Cultural Area where FemBooks is located.1:00:29 Our gratitude to the many people who were involved with the making of this episode!

Relevant Links from Rachel’s Story“Diane Wolkstein, Children’s Author Who Spurred a Storytelling Revival, Dies at 70” via the New York TimesRachel on The Longest Shortest TimeAudio of Diane Wolkstein performing “The Monkey King”Relevant Links from Doreen’s StorySarah Doyle Center for Women and GenderHaunani Kay Trask (University of Hawaii)Daniel Kim (professor at Brown)Lois Ann YamanakaR. Zamora LinmarkSaigon Grill picket of 2008Audre Lorde ProjectRockefeller Brothers FundNaomi Jackson (friend)Sound Up BootcampBetty Dodson’s female sexuality classKundimanMuseum of Chinese in AmericaBOOK CLUBHsia Yu’s SALSA (Zephyr Press)Rachel Zucker’s MOTHERs (Counterpath)Brenda Lin’s THE WEALTH RIBBON (courtesy of the author)

Books by Christine LarussoThere Will Be No More Daughters (&Now/Lake Forest College Press, 2019)Other Texts and Writers Mentioned in the EpisodeMorgan ParkerAnne BoyerRachel ZuckerHome/BirthKimiko HahnCarmen Giménez SmithAda LimónVictoria Chang’s twitterTommy PicoJakob Vala (designer)Shira ErlichmanSharon OldsJuliana SpahrOther Relevant LinksMadeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writers Residency Prize at Lake Forest (currently on hiatus)

Episode transcripts available here.Books by Anne BoyerThe Undying (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019)A Handbook of Disappointed Fate (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2018)Garments Against Women (Ahsahta, 2015)The Romance of Happy Workers (Coffee House Press, 2008)Other Texts and Writers Mentioned in the EpisodeCassandra GilligSiddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies (Scribner, 2011)Bernadette MayerPatricia Lennox BoydClaudia Rankine’s Citizen (Graywolf, 2014)Maggie NelsonArthur RimbaudOcean VuongElizabeth Barrett BrowningJanet HolmesLeo TolstoyOther Relevant LinksExcerpt of Anne Boyer’s The Undying in The New YorkerFergusonCoupdizzleBreast Cancer ActionAshata PressJeremy CorbynBernie SandersElizabeth Warren

Books by Tina ChangHybrida (W.W. Norton, 2019)Of Gods & Strangers (Four Way, 2011)Language for a New Century [Editor, alongside Nathalie Handal and Ravi Shankar] (W.W. Norton, 2008)Half-Lit Houses (Four Way, 2004)Other Texts and Writers Mentioned in this EpisodeKimiko HahnAracelis Girmaysam saxAgha Shahid AliMira JacobToni Morrisonlucille cliftonBrenda ShaughnessyCarolyn ForchéMichael Cunningham’s The Hours (Picador, 2000)Edwidge Danticat“With the Birth of My Son, I Stopped Hiding”—Tina Chang’s Modern Love ColumnOther Relevant LinksSarah Lawrence Poetry FestivalNapa Valley Writer’s ConferenceThe Case of Loving V. Virginia

Books by Ada LimónThe Carrying (Milkweed, 2018)Bright Dead Things (Milkweed, 2015)Sharks in the Rivers (Milkweed, 2010)lucky wreck (Autumn House, 2006)This Big Fake World (Pearl Poetry Prize series, 2006)Other Relevant LinksThe theory and play of duende by LorcaAdrian Matejka’s One Big SmokeNyorican PoetryEpisode 16: Jericho BrownCD WrightBernadette Mayer’s conversation with Charles BernsteinEpisode 60: Robin Coste LewisRobin Coste Lewis’ acceptance speech for NBAAda Limon’s acceptance speech for NBCCAOne Art by Elizabeth Bishop

Books by Victoria ChangBarbie Chang (Copper Canyon, 2017)Is Mommy? (With Marla Frazee) (Beach Lane, 2015)The Boss (McSweeney’s, 2013)Salvinia Molesta (University of Georgia Press, 2008)Circle (Crab Orchard/Southern Illinois University Press, 2005)Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation (Editor) (University of Illinois Press, 2004)Other Books and Writers Mentioned in the EpisodeChen ChenKristin ChangFatimah AsgharPaige LewisKaveh AkbarCathy Park HongMary RuefleLouise GlückJorie GrahamAnne CarsonTerrance HayesIlya KaminskyOther Relevant LinksCommonplace interview with Richard SikenCommonplace interview with Ilya KaminskyVictoria Chang at McSweeney’sCopper Canyon PressAntioch UniversityCalArts School of Critical Studies

Books/Projects by Rachel ZuckerSoundMachine (Wave, 2019)The Pedestrians (Wave, 2014)Mothers (Counterpoint, 2013)Museum of Accidents (Wave, 2009)The Bad Wife Handbook (Wesleyan University Press, 2008)The Last Clear Narrative (Wesleyan University Press, 2004)Eating in the Underworld (Wesleyan University Press, 2003)Home/birth: a poemic with Arielle Greenberg ( 2011)Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections with Arielle Greenberg (University of Iowa Press, 2008)Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First One Hundred Days with Arielle GreenbergSoundMachine, the audio projectBooks by Guest InterviewersSharon OldsArias (Knopf, 2019)Odes (Knopf, 2016)Stag’s Leap (Knopf, 2012)One Secret Thing (Knopf, 2008)Strike Sparks (Knopf, 2004)The Unswept Room (Knopf, 2002)Blood, Tin, Straw (Knopf, 1999)The Wellspring (Knopf, 1996)The Father (Knopf, 1992)Gold Cell (Knopf, 1987)The Dead and the Living (Knopf, 1984)Satan Says (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980)Wayne KoestenbaumCircus (Soft Skull, 2019)Camp Marmalade (Nightboat, 2019)Double Talk (Routledge, 2018)Notes on Glaze (Cabinet, 2016)Andy Warhol (Open Road, 2015)The Pink Trance Notebooks (Nightboat, 2015)My 1980s and Other Essays (FSG, 2013)The Anatomy of Harpo Marx (UC Press, 2012)Blue Stranger with Mosaic Background (Turtle Point, 2012)Humiliation (Picador, 2011)Jackie Under My Skin (Picador, 2009)Hotel Theory (Soft Skull, 2007)Best-selling Jewish Porn Films (Turtle Point, 2006)Model Homes (BOA Editions, 2004)Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes (Soft Skull, 2004)The Queen’s Throat (De Capo, 2001)The Milk of Inquiry (Persea, 1999)Rhapsodies of a Repeat Offender (George Brazillier, 1995)Ode to Anna Moffo (Persea, 1991)Cathy Park HongMinor Feelings (One World, 2020)Engine Empire (WW Norton, 2013)Dance Dance Revolution (WW Norton, 2008)Translating Mo’um (Hanging Loose, 2002)Craig Morgan TeicherWe Begin in Gladness (Graywolf, 2018)The Trembling Answers (BOA Editions, 2017)To Keep Love Blurry (BOA Editions, 2012)Cradle Book (BOA Editions, 2010)Brenda Is In the Room (Center for Literary Publishing, 2008)Liner notes03:08 Introduction to episode08:45 Conversation with Josh Goren13:40 Conversation with Wayne Koestenbaum35:35 Conversation with Sharon Olds43:40 Conversation with Craig Morgan Teicher55:35 Conversation with Cathy Park Hong1:15:30 Conversation with Josh Goren1:23:19 Excerpt from “The Moon is in Her Caul Tonight”1:41:17 Outro to the episodeAll audio was recorded by Rachel Zucker.

Episode 3 of Commonplace’s special series on translation. Jennifer Croft is a writer, translator and critic. She was awarded the Man Booker International Prize in 2018 and a National Book Award Finalist for her translation from Polish of Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights. She is the recipient of Fulbright, PEN, MacDowell, and National Endowment for the Arts grants and fellowships, as well as the inaugural Michael Henry Heim Prize for Translation and a Tin House Workshop Scholarship for her memoir Homesick, just released from Unnamed Press. She holds a PhD from Northwestern University and an MFA from the University of Iowa. She is a founding editor of The Buenos Aires Review and has published her own work and numerous translations in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Granta, VICE, n+1, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She currently divides her time between Buenos Aires and Los Angeles. [Bio adapted from Unnamed Press and the NEA.]In this episode Jennifer Croft speaks to Commonplace host Rachel Zucker about her childhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, falling in love with Russian language and Slavic grammar, the accidental way she ended up becoming a translator of Polish (rather than Russian), and how her study of Polish led her to Argentina, the place she feels most herself. Croft describes translating Olga Tokarczuk’s novel Flights (Riverhead, 2018) for which Croft and Tokarczuk won the Man Booker International Prize, her relationship with Tokarczuk, and the pleasures and challenges of her current translation project: translating Tokarcuzk’s thousand-page historical novel, The Books of Jacob, about 18th century figure Jacob Frank. Croft also speaks about the connection between translation and creative writing and her newly-released illustrated novel-memoir, Homesick (Unnamed Press, 2019) which she wrote in Spanish and then again in English. Croft touches on existential questions about being oneself in a place where one has no history and how one’s life is a mysterious interplay of destiny, accident, choice and perseverance.Books by Jennifer CroftHomesick (Unnamed Press, 2019)Books translated by Jennifer CroftFlights by Olga Tokarczuk (Riverhead Books, 2018)August by Romina Paula (The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2017)Lovely, Human, True, Heartfelt: The Letters of Alina Szapocznikow and Ryszard Stanislawski (Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2012)Other Books, Translators and Writers Mentioned in the EpisodeAron AjiDaniel WeissbortAntonia Lloyd JonesHanna KrallClaire CavanaghWisława SzymborskaStanislaw BaranczakMaxine SwannWiltold GombrowiczOther Relevant LinksThe NIKE awardUnnamed PressBoris DralyukThe New York Public Library’s Cullman Center“Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz dies after being stabbed in heart on stage” by Helen Regan and Stephanie Wells, for CNN“When An Author You Translate Gets Death Threats” by Jennifer Croft, for LithubNEA Translation grantsBuenos Aires ReviewMusic for this episode provided by PayadoraLiner notes14:25 “La Humilde” Argentine folk song arranged and performed by Payadora.16:40 Jennifer Croft reads “Birthday” by Wisława Szymborska translated by Wisława Szymborska and Stanislaw Baranczak25:51 “Nostalgias Tucumanas” by Atahualpa Yupanqui arranged by Drew Jurecka and performed by Payadora.26:30 Jennifer Croft reads from Flights by Olga Tokarczuk (Riverhead Books, 2018)27:33 “Volando” composed by Rebekah Wolkstein and performed by Payadora.57:58 Jennifer Croft reads her novel/memoir Homesick in Spanish and English.1:03:40 “Adios Muchachos” by Julio César Sanders arranged by Rebekah Wolkstein, performed by Payadora.All audio of Jennifer Croft was recorded by Rachel Zucker in New York City on February 13, 2018 at the Cullman Center. Theme music composed and performed by Nathaniel Wolkstein.