Publishers Spotlight: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers – by Yeshira Roseborough

Posted on by Karen Van Drie

Through our work we aim to encourage and develop a culture of reading in Tanzania, as well as nurturing indigenous literature as a method of preserving and sharing stories.                                                                                                           -Mkuki na Nyota Publishers During my research I stumbled upon one of the most navigable publishing sites which showcased both the original and translated books. Mkuki … Continue reading Publishers Spotlight: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers – by Yeshira Roseborough

How We Read: Western Projections into the African Literature Space – by Yeshira Roseborough

Posted on by Karen Van Drie

As an English major, I have been able to get a glimpse at how African literature is perceived in American society. We regularly consume images of Africans that depict low access to education, poverty, war, and disease as the continent’s major characteristics. For me, this highly publicized, dehumanizing narrative of Africa reinforces the importance of … Continue reading How We Read: Western Projections into the African Literature Space – by Yeshira Roseborough

Memories of a GLLI Intern: Must-Read Children’s & YA Books from the Middle East and North Africa (Part 3) – by Nneka Mogbo

Posted on by Karen Van Drie

For children’s translated literature, I attempted targeting Arabic as an original language, which significantly limited the pool of children’s writers. This was disheartening for me. In my previous post, I discussed the Royal Diaries series, a historic fiction depiction of diaries from the point of views of real-life princesses. My love for Princess Nzingha of … Continue reading Memories of a GLLI Intern: Must-Read Children’s & YA Books from the Middle East and North Africa (Part 3) – by Nneka Mogbo

Memories of a GLLI Intern: Must-Read Adult Literature from the Middle East and North Africa (Part 2) – by Nneka Mogbo

Posted on by Karen Van Drie

The works I chose for my adult and college-aged list tell stories of conflicts (both good, bad and internal or external) that stem from interacting with different cultures. An interaction may be caused by one’s exile from a home country, moving to a new country for better opportunities, changes in generational beliefs or living in … Continue reading Memories of a GLLI Intern: Must-Read Adult Literature from the Middle East and North Africa (Part 2) – by Nneka Mogbo

Memories of a GLLI Intern: Culture Meet Identity or Identity Meet Culture? (Part 1) – by Nneka Mogbo

Posted on by Karen Van Drie

Every day I take note of the way I interact with world. I attend a private college in the American south just two hundred miles from where I grew up. I grew up in a suburban town outside Metro Atlanta. My family was one of the few black families in our neighborhood. My parents are … Continue reading Memories of a GLLI Intern: Culture Meet Identity or Identity Meet Culture? (Part 1) – by Nneka Mogbo

Rwandan Genocide, The Task of Translation, and Western Markets for Testimony: Part II – by Kim Rostan

Posted on by Karen Van Drie

Whoever writes is exiled from writing, which is the country—his own—where he is not a prophet. Maurice Blanchot,  The Writing of the Disaster   This summer, while collaborating with Rachel Hildebrandt of GLLI and a group of undergraduates at Wofford College, in the midst of collating lists of contemporary literature in translation, I pondered the … Continue reading Rwandan Genocide, The Task of Translation, and Western Markets for Testimony: Part II – by Kim Rostan

Rwandan Genocide, The Task of Translation, and Western Markets for Testimony: Part I—by Kim Rostan

Posted on by Karen Van Drie

Whoever writes is exiled from writing, which is the country—his own—where he is not a prophet. Maurice Blanchot,  The Writing of the Disaster   When the Rwandan genocide began in 1994, the “era of testimony” (as dubbed by scholar Shoshana Felman) was already well underway. Following the Nazi genocide in Europe, there was initially relative … Continue reading Rwandan Genocide, The Task of Translation, and Western Markets for Testimony: Part I—by Kim Rostan

The Particular Sadness of the Three Percent Problem: Part 3 – by Lydia Estes

Posted on by Karen Van Drie

Just as my Art History studies in college have allowed me to make sense of centuries of history through art, and this research with GLLI has emphasized how much I have learned about the world through the books I read.  As a teenager, I explored novels set in Mexico (Esperanza Rising) and short stories inspired … Continue reading The Particular Sadness of the Three Percent Problem: Part 3 – by Lydia Estes

THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF THE THREE PERCENT PROBLEM: PART 2 – BY LYDIA ESTES

Posted on by Karen Van Drie

Acts of translation occur everywhere around us. My final essay for an AP Literature course in high school concerned a novel from the magical realism genre but with a twist; set in Los Angeles, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake certainly is not a book in translation and is not your typical magical realism novel. … Continue reading THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF THE THREE PERCENT PROBLEM: PART 2 – BY LYDIA ESTES

The Particular Sadness of the Three Percent Problem: Part 1 – by Lydia Estes

Posted on by Karen Van Drie

When I was in the second grade, the visits to the library were often the best part of any day.  To this day, bookstores are still a sacred space to me. A voracious reader with a fixation on spelling, it was a competition every week with my best friend to see who could learn all … Continue reading The Particular Sadness of the Three Percent Problem: Part 1 – by Lydia Estes