Paraphrasis Podcast Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard

Anna meets Jess Jensen Mitchell in Katowice, Poland  —  once a hub of Central Europe’s coal mining industry —  to talk about her translation of Dominika Słowik’s eco-critical short story collection, Self-Sowing. Jess recalls an adventure that led her to publish a story from the collection, “Blizzard”(Two Lines Journal), and how she learned to find humanity in nonhuman characters. She also hints at an upcoming project.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

In this episode, Poorna Swami discusses her in-progress Urdu to English translation of Murmurs, a collection of love letters written by Safiya Akhtar. While looking for something to read in her grandmother’s study, Poorna found a scintillating glimpse into the tumultuous romance between the author and her poet husband. Anna and Poorna delve into the challenges of translating elaborate declarations of love into a different language and adapting intimate correspondence for performance and publication. 


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

Kareem discusses the challenges of translating character names rife with meaning or derived from Kurdish encounters with other world cultures.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

In this episode, Anna talks to Kareem Abdulrahman about his translation of The Last Pomegranate Tree (Archipelago Books) by Bachtyar Ali. Based in Germany, Bachtyar has received the Nelly Sachs Prize (2017) and the Hilde-Domin-Prize (2023). Kareem’s translation was recently shortlisted for the 2023 National Books Critics Circle Award. Kareem tells us about producing the first-ever English translation of a Kurdish novel, finding the universal in Bachtyar’s prose, and his experience of the Kurdish comedy scene. 





This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

Lara takes us on a journey through Jakarta and Java, exploring the specificity of the Indonesian word “warung.” We learn about the place of the warung in the Indonesian urban ecosystem, its role in Lara’s translation of the novel 24 Hours with Gaspar by Sabda Armandio, and why translators choose to keep words for spaces and food in the original language.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com