What to Read When You Want to Read Women in Translation
A list of books written by women, translated by women, and in many instances, both!
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Posts Tagged: elena ferrante
The Earth Recycles All of Us: Talking with Micheline Aharonian Marcom
Micheline Aharonian Marcom discusses her novel, The Brick House, female sexuality in literature, and transcendence through dreaming.
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What to Read When: A Holiday Book-Gifting Guide
Rumpus editors share their favorite books to gift to friends and family, from recent 2017 releases to longtime literary loves.
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What to Read When You Don’t Want Summer to End
A list of books that take place in the summer, remind us of summer, and/or just make for great beach reads.
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Scripting New Narratives: Mandy Len Catron’s How to Fall in Love with Anyone
I can’t help but wonder what if, in detangling love stories and our relationships to them, Catron is building yet another narrative—an anti-narrative, perhaps—of love.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #90: Erika Carter
Erika Carter’s debut novel Lucky You tells the story of three young women in their early twenties who leave their waitressing jobs in an Arkansas college town to embark on a year off grid in the Ozark Mountains. In a remote house, without a washing machine or cell phone reception, Ellie, Chloe, and Rachel grapple […]
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Saying What Shouldn’t Be Said: A Conversation with Julie Buntin
Julie Buntin discusses her debut novel, Marlena, why writing about teenage girls is the most serious thing in the world, and finding truths in fiction.
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What to Read When You Need More Anne Shirley in Your Life
Today, the new series Anne with an E premieres on Netflix. Here’s a list of books for times when you need a strong female protagonist like Anne Shirley.
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Funny Women #152: Features of the Groundbreaking American Writers Museum
We’ll be open as long as the National Endowment for the Arts is.
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The Rumpus Interview with D. Foy
D. Foy discusses his latest novel, Patricide, the evolution of “gutter opera,” his writing process, free will, and memes.
...moreHigh Fidelity: Anita Raja on Translation
The editors at Asymptote Journal certainly couldn’t have expected Elena Ferrante to be outed when they planned their October 2016 issue, which includes Rebecca Falkoff and Stiliana Milkova’s translation of a 2015 speech given by Anita Raja. In “Translation as a Practice of Acceptance,” Raja argues that “to confront translational difficulty with inventiveness does not […]
...moreElena Ferrante and the Picture on the Back Cover
Essayist Marie Myung-Ok Lee’s obsession with author photos leads to authorial reflections on gender, representation, and what writers owe the public in “Occupy Author Photo: On Elena Ferrante, Privacy, and Women Writers” at The Millions. Starting with her own experiences and branching out to Mary Oliver, Sarah Howe, and eventually Elena Ferrante, she calls for […]
...moreWhat Elena Ferrante and Kim Kardashian Have in Common
While the outing of Elena Ferrante and the robbing of Kim Kardashian were not inherently gendered acts, the responses to them certainly have been. In light of these two seemingly divergent issues, the New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino meditates on the framing of female ambition in the media, and what happens “when women signify too much”: …the […]
...moreThe Story of A New Name
Earlier this week, Aaron Brady wrote presciently in his column for The New Inquiry about the ethical implications of revealing Elena Ferrante’s identity. He pointed out that in searching for her “real” identity, reporters were forgetting that one of the greatest things about Elena Ferrante is her fictions, and that at the heart of it, they are still […]
...moreThe Generosity of Anonymity
At n+1, Dayna Tortorici defends Elena Ferrante’s anonymity against yet another round of exposure, calling the unmaskers out for insensitivity and greed. Tortorici believes it’s all too easy to be distracted from the integrity of the book by the author’s bio and personality. She writes, “Ferrante’s absence keeps things open: ‘Remove that individual [the author] […]
...moreThe Appeal of Ferrante and Knausgaard
On Lit Hub, Stephanie Grant examines the deep pleasure and connection readers experience with the works of Elena Ferrante and Karl Ove Knausgaard. She suspects the familiar tone of both authors’ recent series might help otherwise fiction-averse readers dive into the narrative: To put it another way, the intimacy of first-person narration in these novels […]
...moreThe Pleasure of Recognition
Ferrante’s novels about women like Lila and Lenu are a potent reminder that working-class women’s perspectives are out there, even if we can’t always hear each other, even if we’re sometimes embarrassed and alone, even if we feel exasperated by a system that valorizes experiences and credentials that we can never claim. At VIDA, Valeria […]
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The Surprising Magic of Bad Books
Any story about a fairy is a story about female power.
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HORN! REVIEWS: My Brilliant Friend
Since I’m nowhere near the first, let me be only the most recent to entreat you to read the story of Lenú…
...moreBook Covers: A Symptom of Sexism
For Lit Hub, book designer Jennifer Heuer reflects on sexism in publishing and analyzes “chick-lit” book covers that rely on gender stereotypes to target female readers: The bigger discussion is the genre itself: light-weight novels aimed at a female audience is a symptom of sexism in publishing. Whether high or lowbrow, the marketing of many […]
...moreFrom the Italian
The goal is to deliver something from another language into your own language so people will read it and like it. I think sometimes it’s forgotten that you have to be a good writer in your own language. As part of its “Multilingual Wordsmiths” series, the Los Angeles Review of Books features an interview with […]
...moreTo Collide Continually
Our entire body, like it or not, enacts a stunning resurrection of the dead just as we advance toward our own death. We are, as you say, interconnected. For the New Yorker, Nicola Lagioia, author of the forthcoming novel Ferocity, interviews Elena Ferrante about Ferrante’s own forthcoming novel, Frantumaglia. The two deftly touch on the interconnectivity of the “I,” what it […]
...moreGet ‘Em While They’re Young
This year’s children’s literature has some exceptional bonafides. Over the next few months, a number of acclaimed novelists, including Jane Smiley and Elena Ferrante, will be publishing children’s books. Whether a five-year-old can distinguish between literary and genre fiction, only time will tell.
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Idra Novey
Swati Khurana talks with novelist and translator Idra Novey about the challenges and joys of translation, the idiosyncrasies of language, the inextricable reception of women’s writing and women’s bodies, and much more.
...moreBooks Without Authors
At Electric Literature, Lincoln Michel wonders why readers care so much about Elena Ferrante’s “real” identity, particularly when the anonymous author has made it clear that she believes books “have no need of their authors” after they’ve been penned. Michel writes: Still, the greater question is why anyone cares? The obsession with Ferrante’s identity seems […]
...moreWhat’s in a Name?
The latest issue of The Gentlewoman features Deborah Orr’s email interview with Elena Ferrante, who shares her thoughts on anonymity, the protagonists in her Neapolitan novels, and feminism. Ferrante says: Using the name Elena helped only to reinforce the truth of the story I was telling. Even those who write need that “willing suspension of […]
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Sari Wilson
The Rumpus Book Club chats with Sari Wilson about her new book Girl Through Glass, the demands of the dance world, and New York City as a character.
...moreElena Ferrante Breaks into Television
Great news for everyone swept up in the recent #ferrantefever (or possibly terrible news for those who loathe book adaptations): Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series will be produced for television. The author herself is reported to be involved in the process.
...moreThe Brilliant Translator
Over at Guernica, Katrina Dodson interviews Ann Goldstein, Elena Ferrante’s translator, about the mysterious Italian writer, the final Neapolitan novel, and the meaning of life: Whether you’re a writer or not, you can imagine looking at your life and thinking, “What have I done?” What she’s doing in these books is asking, “What does my […]
...moreA Neapolitan Adventure
As I discovered during a visit in September, the series of books offered a unique view of this complicated city, leading me away from popular tourist sites and helping to explain the city’s social, economic and geographic divisions. To view the Naples of Ms. Ferrante is to view Naples like a native. Can’t get enough […]
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