Three Percent Podcast

We’re back! . . . And a few days late. Chad explains why on the podcast itself, but suffice it to say that last week was a bit, um, stressful. But Brian and Chad finally got together to talk about Antoine Volodine in general, post-exoticism, Brian Evenson’s introduction to Radiant Terminus , similarities between Evenson’s writing and Volodine’s, this season's game (SEND US YOUR DREAMS!), Volodine'...

As part of this month's ongoing series of posts about literature from Spain, I talked to author, translator, and publisher Jonathan Dunne, whose Small Stations Press has produced more translations of Galician literature into English than anyone else. On this bonus episode of the Three Percent Podcast, we talk about how to pronounce "Galician," how he got into translating and publishing these works...

Getting back on schedule for the new year, Chad and Tom convene to talk about two articles: " 7 Publishing Insights Revealed by Last Year's Top 100 Bestselling Books ," and " Virginia Woolf? Snob! Richard Wright? Sexist! Dostoyevsky? Anti-Semite! " They also talk a bit about YA books and the precipitous decline in reading as people age, terrible Instagram poetry, and the difficulties in getting bo...

It's all over! After eleven weeks of Pessoa, Chad and Brian have finished  The Book of Disquiet . And to celebrate, they each wrote some jacket copy and blurbs and went hard at trying to get BINGO for  someone . They also preview the next season of TMR and come up with a very marketable Pessoa-themed product idea . . .  As always, you can find the video for this episode on our YouTube channel , wh...

After a long conversation about a rather strange Rochester gathering of arts organizations, Chad and Tom get down to business: recommending their favorite books of 2018. Except, rather than just make a list, they decide which of their friends or relatives should receive each of these titles. Then they talk about a couple movies, heists, and NXIVM. A (hopefully) complete list of the recommended tit...

Probably the most controversial Two Month Review to date, so buckle up! Are there unhinged rants? You bet! Questions regarding the marketing and "completeness" of the New Directions edition? Yep! A long discussion about the differences in voice between the both excellent Margaret Jull Costa and Richard Zenith translations? That too! It's a jam packed penultimate episode that's not to be missed. As...

This week David Smith—former Open Letter intern and current grad student at the University of Iowa—joins Chad and Brian to debate poetry vs. prose, separating the p.o.v. of Pessoa's heteronyms from his own personal viewpoint, Soares's morality and metaphysics, how to judge the quality of a translation, and much more. As a bonus, Brian shares his first ever work of erasure poetry! As always, you ca...

This week, Kevin Williams of Talonbooks out of Vancouver, British Columbia joins Tom and Chad to talk about the state of publishing in Canada. He recaps his career in the book business—as a bookseller, distributor, agent, and publisher—and provides a lot of insight into the Canadian funding structures, the not-so-great state of the bookstore scene, the difficulties of breaking out a book, and the...

Chad and Brian fly solo this week, filling in dozens of TMR Bingo squares , and trying to come up with "rules for writers" based on this particular section of  The Book of Disquiet . It's a pretty imprecise set of rules, but whatever, in the words of Pessoa, "perfection is inhuman." They also talk a bit about a "Mount Rushmore of American Literature," whether or not listicles can hit a saturation...

LIVE PODCAST! Well, sort of. Tom was in Rochester, so he and Chad recorded a spontaneous podcast while being in the same room as one another. (And with eight-month-old Aleks, who makes an appearance.) They talk about bookstores Tom visited on this trip, the National Book Awards, and J Franz's now infamous " rules for writers ." (Poor, besieged J Franz! And poor, besieged LitHub! We feel bad for bo...

This week's special guest is Portuguese author and translator João Reis who knows  a lot  about Pessoa and the writings of his various heteronyms. He also talks about his forthcoming novel,  The Translator's Bride , and his work as a translator. There's some of the usual banter as well, including a solid rundown of everyone's favorite lines and some of Pessoa's sayings that have become Portuguese...

Sticking more or less to their biweekly schedule, Chad and Tom reconvene to talk about a couple recent articles, the challenges of being a literary nonprofit, interesting books they're reading, humblebrags about the Words Without Borders and PEN galas, and more. Surprising lack of sports talk this week, although there is a good vibe of resignation and slight depression that is a hallmark of a soli...

This week's podcast goes off the rails pretty quickly, and includes a hungover dismissal of this version of  The Book of Disquiet , the phrase "reclaim some of the douchery" is spoken, there is a lot of laughter, a discussion about the tensions between trying to read this as poetry vs. the expectations that come from trying to read it as fiction, and much more.  Get your BINGO card here ! And if y...

This week Chad and Brian come to some conclusions about the Vicente Guedes part of  The Book of Disquiet   and get very excited about the more "mature, sophisticated" writings of Bernardo Soares. They both love this new voice and dig into what separates the heteronyms and their philosophies on life. And without a guest, Chad and Brian go on some entertaining digressions and keep trying to crack ea...

This week's episode is mostly inspired by an email from a listener about evaluating translations, and although Tom and Chad don't provide the hardest and fastest rules, they do have an interesting conversation about how they read and judge translated books. They also follow up on a few different threads from earlier episodes (like the neverending disappointment of The Great American Read ), compla...

BINGO! That's the theme of today's episode, which includes a Twin Peaks reference, awkward introduction, LitHub reference, and many other squares on the recently released Two Month Review bingo cards . It's explained in full at that post and on the podcast, but every week, the first person to email Chad  with "bingo" in the subject line and a picture of their card will receive a one-time code to g...

Jerónimo Pizzaro—editor of the "complete edition" of  The Book of Disquiet  published by New Directions—is the special guest on this week's Two Month Review . He discusses his history with Pessoa, how this volume came to be, the next three volumes in the New Directions project, how to approach  The Book of Disquiet  and its separate halves, some of the philosophical shift that take place over the...

An all-banter episode that touches on an array of topics, from ranking ideas on how to save indie bookstores, to The Great American Read's (embarrassing) top 10 vote getting books (are we sure Outlanders  doesn't include people riding on dragons?), the Frankfurt Book Fair, self-censorship, QAnon + Marlins Man, a book scam, "up-lit" (barf), ALTA, random typos, and a few book and TV recommendations....

This is one of the most Two Month Review podcasts yet. Chad, Brian, and Tom Flynn (Volumes Books in Chicago) come together to discuss the first forty-six pages (sections 1-39) of the complete version of Fernando Pessoa's  The Book of Disquiet.  In addition to breaking down the philosophy and literary style representing Vicente Guedes--Pessoa's heteronym for this section of the book--they swap favo...

The Two Month Review is back! This season we'll be reading the New Directions publication of  The Book of Disquiet  by Fernando Pessoa, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa, one of the greatest works of literature (or poetry?) from the past century. To kick things off Declan Spring joined Brian Wood and a (happily hungover on baseball and beer) Chad W. Post to introduce Pessoa and...

In response to a listener email, Tom expands on his comments from last podcast about the American Booksellers Association . Chad shares some data about genre works in translation and wonders about adding this to the Translation Database . He also has some curious info about Icelandic books in translation and then promotes one of his favorite books of 2018 . As can be expected, things take a turn w...

Dubravka Ugresic is in Rochester for Open Letter's tenth anniversary celebration , so she got together with Chad and Brian to talk about how she wrote  Fox , Melania-related tourism, the two story points that launched the book, her writing process, and more! As always, Fox (and all the previous Two Month Review titles) is available for 20% off through our website. Just use the code 2MONTH at check...

Were the National Book Award longlists announced last week? Do Chad and Tom have opinions? YES AND YES. That conversation leads into talking about Penguin Random House, the "perfect publishing house," and then into a frank discussion about the future of small press publishing and the challenges of having a career in nonprofit publishing or bookselling. As always, they have some book recommendation...

Ryan Chapman ( Conversation Sparks ,  Riots I Have Known ) came on this week to talk about the final section of Dubravka Ugresic's  Fox.  They discuss "business class vs. economy class" writers, authenticity and performing in the role of a writer, Franzen, the overall genius of Ugresic's writing, and much more. It's a very thoughtful final episode, enthused about having completed the project, yet...

This week, Chad and Tom return to basics--more book talk than industry talk, a promise to release a new episode every other Wednesday--but start off with something that's very, very Three Percent: #Cockygate . Although the #Cockygate lawsuit is interesting in its own right, it's the breakdown of the seedy underworld of gaming Kindle Unlimited that really catches their imagination. Then they recomm...