Three Percent Podcast

Open Letter Books

The Three Percent Podcast is a weekly(ish) conversation about new books, the publishing scene, international literature in translation, and many other random rants and raves. Chad W. Post of Open Letter Books and Tom Roberge of New Directions and Albertine Bookstore keep things irreverent, informed, and funny in a podcast that'll keep you up to date on the international literary and publishing worlds. Maybe. (Presented by Three Percent @ the University of Rochester.) threepercentproblem.substack.com

  1. Three Percent Podcast #209: Arunava Sinha on South Asian Literature in Translation

    APR 14

    Three Percent Podcast #209: Arunava Sinha on South Asian Literature in Translation

    Arunava Sinha—professor, journalist, translator of over 100 works, including The Laboratory by Rabindranath Tagore—discusses his new venture, Chowringhee Press, his career in translation, the literary scene in India writ large, and provides a list of books to check out if you’re looking for entryways into South Asia’s diverse literary scene (see below). Books published by Chowringhee Press: I Murdered Mine, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, translated from the Hindi by Sakshi Agarwal Premchand X Ray + Sen, Munshi Premchand aka Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava, translated from the Hindi by Sayari Debnath Writing Death—Ego: A Novel, Rajalekshmi, translated from the Malayalam by Dhiya Sony The Laboratory, Rabindranath Tagore, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha Finalists for the JCB Prize for Literature: Jasmine Days, Benyamin, translated from the Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib The One Legged, Sakyajit Bhattacharya, translated from the Bengali by Rituparna Mukherjee Imaan, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha The Nemesis, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by V. Ramaswamy There’s Gunpowder in the Air, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha Moustache, S. Hareesh, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil Anti-Clock, V.J. James, translated from the Malayalam by Ministhy S. The Paradise of Food, Khalid Jawed, translated from the Urdu by Baran Farooqi Song of the Soil, Chuden Kabimo, translated from the Nepali by Ajit Baral Sanatan, Sharankumar Limable, translated from the Marathi (via Hindi) by Paromita Sengupta Maria, Just Maria, Sandhya Mary, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil Delhi: A Soliloquy, M. Mukundan, translated from the Malayalam by Fathima E.V. & Nandakumar K. Fire Bird, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan A Lonely Harvest‌, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan The Story of a Goat, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by N. Kalyan Raman Trial by Silence‌, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan I Named My Sister Silence, Manoj Rupda, translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar Tomb of Sand, Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell (also featured on the Two Month Review) Valli, Sheela Tomy, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil This episode’s music is “Looking for a Ghazal” by Sarathy Korwar. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

    52 min
  2. Hagfish

    11/25/2025

    Hagfish

    Dropping on the same day that Hagfish’s first publication—To Smithereens by Rosalyn Drexler—was named as one of the New York Times’s “100 Notable Books of 2025,” this podcast explores the Hagfish business model with its cofounders, Julia Ringo and Naomi Huffman. They discuss how the press came to be, what draws them to particular titles, the difficulty of distribution, why they’re only doing two titles a year, and much more. The conversation also focuses on their second title, Man Hating Psycho by Iphgenia Baal, a brilliant collection of stories that’s raucous, well-crafted, and, like what Dylan Thomas said about At Swim-Two-Birds, “just the sort of book to give your sister if she’s a loud, dirty, boozy girl!” (It really would make a great holiday present . . . just saying.) This is part of a new thread of Three Percent Podcasts in which an indie press discusses the inner workings of publishing, through the lens of one of their recent publications. This episode on World Editions and The Cracks We Bear by Catalina Infante & Michelle Mirabella was a sort of soft launch for this, and we do have several episodes lined up for the next few months . . . This week’s music is “The Bitter End” from Molly Nilsson. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

    1h 6m

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

The Three Percent Podcast is a weekly(ish) conversation about new books, the publishing scene, international literature in translation, and many other random rants and raves. Chad W. Post of Open Letter Books and Tom Roberge of New Directions and Albertine Bookstore keep things irreverent, informed, and funny in a podcast that'll keep you up to date on the international literary and publishing worlds. Maybe. (Presented by Three Percent @ the University of Rochester.) threepercentproblem.substack.com

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