Three Percent Podcast

This podcast comes in HOT. Lots of talk about how Peter Handke doesn't deserve any award, much less the Nobel Prize. (And if you don't know why, just listen for his quote at the end denying Serb atrocities at Srebrenica by saying "You can stick your corpses up your arse.") Then things transition to an existential conversation about the future of the Best Translated Book Award (really, Chad is stil...

The tenth season of the Two Month Review gets underway with special guest Dan Wells of Biblioasis talking about how they came to publish Lucy Ellmann's  Ducks, Newburyport , and the risks involved in doing a 1,020-page book. They also introduce Ellmann--who has one of the greatest bios ever--and the novel itself. Conversation topics include: kidneys vs. cinnamon rolls, "torrent of consciousness" w...

And just like that, season nine of the Two Month Review comes to an end. But first, we have a very nice discussion with Kjersti Skomsvold herself about  Monsterhuman , trends in Norwegian writing, autofiction vs. creative nonfiction vs. memoir, authors to read, and much more. (Spoiler: She's just as interesting and charming in real life as she is in the novel.) If you prefer to watch the show inst...

After an update from Chad about his trip to London and Amsterdam, he and Tom break down the National Book Award for Translated Literature longlist , exposing their general ignorance along the way. (They've read, combined, like two of the ten titles?) Also, sure are a lot of Penguin Random House books on these longlists! They also talk a bit about future podcast, rave about Lawrence Ventuti's new b...

Translator Becky Crook comes on this week's podcast to talk about the process of working on  Monsterhuman , all the things that she couldn't quite get in there, ones she's very proud of, the reasons why she thinks the book works, and much much more! Only one episodee left! You can watch the Wednesday, September 25 episode on pgs 407-448 live on YouTube, or listen to it on Thursday the 26th. Also,...

This week, Brian is AWOL BUT Patrick Smith brings his A-game. He and Chad talk about the self-conscious humor in  Monsterhuman , awkward interactions, the shape and evolution of the narrative as a whole, some info about  The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am , and much more. A very fun episode that opened as awkwardly as ever . . . Only two episodes left! And because Chad's going to be in London for...

Although this episode isn't as funny as last week's discussion of " lay-down Sally ," it does get into some of Brian's neuroses about his  forthcoming book, which is entertaining. They talk a lot about Skomsvold's humor, about the creepy ways in which various photographers and interviewers treat her as a young female artist, and the bit where John O'Brien of Dalkey Archive Press makes an appearanc...

On this episode, Chad shares some interesting data about the number of books by women in translation before and after the creation of Women in Translation Month, Tom talks about the most recent Amazon controversy, they breakdown the National Translation Award for Prose Longlist (they'll talk poetry in a future episode), and Chad shows that libraries are using a digital information system that's  l...

Caitlin Baker from Island Books joins Chad and Brian this week to talk about "The Herring Factory" from Kjersti Skomsvold's  Monsterhuman . After a strong pitch for nominating Brian for "Best Local Author" in  City Paper's  annual Best of Rochester voting, they get into the book itself, talking about the meta-textual moment of Kjersti writing in the third-person and acknowledging it doesn't quite...

Tom Flynn from Volumes opens up today's episode with a reading from Brian's first book, Joytime Killbox . Then, along with Chad, they break down the rest of "The Human School" from  Monsterhuman , talk about how much they love Skomsvold's voice and sense of humor, look at the way in which she starts playing with first- and third-person narration in the opening bits of "The Herring Factory," and cr...

Meytal Radzinski (@biblibio, founder of Women in Translation Month) joins Chad and Tom to talk about Women in Translation Month, depressing statistics, Virginie Despentes, nonfiction in translation, hopes for the future, and much more.  As always, feel free to send any and all comments or questions to: threepercentpodcast@gmail.com . Also, if there are articles you’d like us to read and analyze (o...

Even though the first few seconds ("On today's Two Month Review we'll be talking about . . . ") got cut off, Chad gives his most professional podcast introduction to date, before he and Brian talk about the Nansen Academy , the cyclical nature of chronic illness, the idea of plot points vs. events, and reasons their respective spouses would give for leaving them. (Maybe an all-time TMR highlight.)...

In this episode, Chad and Brian applaud Kjersti for not getting back together with her ex-boyfriend, talk about circular structures, about the evolution of her written voice, about Antony and the Johnsons, the myth-making behind Babe Ruth, and much more. This week's music is "Patterns Prevail" by Young Guv. Next episode will cover pages 144-180 and will be livestreamed on YouTube next Wednesday. Y...

One of the funniest TMR episodes in weeks, Chad and Brian crack each other up over writerly anxieties, the sharp wit Kjersti displays in this section, the White Claw Phenomenon, writer vs. author vs. journaler, Kjersti's distain for bad poetry (and TV) about chronic fatigue syndrome, pop culture references from the early-1990s, and much much more. They do also talk quite a bit about the book itsel...

Chad and Tom drop a number of recommendations for Women in Translation month, some that they've read, some that they're planning on reading. They also discuss possible infographics that Three Percent can produce over the course of the month (if you have any other suggestions, please email), and discuss Chad's new plan to try and review 20 books without knowing the author, translator, publisher, ti...

We finish up Norwegian Month at Three Percent by talking to Annette Orre of the Oslo Literary Agency . We talk trends, 1,000-page books,  The History of Bees , Norway being the Guest of Honor at Frankfurt, using a "die" to rate all products from books to cheese, and much much more.  This episode's music is " Ashes & Embers " by the Casket Girls.  If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent...

The new season of the Two Month Review starts here! Through the end of September we'll be discussing Kjersti Skomsvold's  Monsterhuman , translated from the Norwegian by Becky L. Crook. Marius Hjeldnes from Cappelen Damm joins Chad and Brian to provide a bit of background on Skomsvold, on trends in Norwegian literature, on that whole "dice" thing, and much more. They cover the first three sections...

To celebrate Norwegian Month at Three Percent, Chad talked with John Erik Riley, author, photographer, editor of Norwegian literature for Cappelen Damm, and member of the " Blindness Circle ." They talk about current trends in Norwegian literature, American comparisons for various authors, a couple really long books, Norwegian science-fiction, and much more.  You can follow John Erik Riley on Inst...

This episode of the Three Percent Podcast never gets to its actual topic, but includes minor disagreements about ebooks in libraries and its impact on ebook revenu, more questions about Book Culture's situation, a general sense of malaise, trying to make sense of Dean Koontz, Audible's "Caption" program, a wild idea about shelving and how people browse, and recommendations for Marías's Berta Isla...

We did it! Chad and Rachel Cardasco (with an assist from Tom Flynn of Volumes) talk about the last sections of Sjón's  CoDex 1962.  It's been quite the season and they bring it home in old school TMR style with a lot of  Twin Peaks  talk, many many digressions, acknowledging motifs and ideas that may or may not actually be in the text, and having a lot of fun. This is the most sci-fi section of th...

Chad shares his stupid dreams, Tom questions translators who work for AmazonCrossing and then want indie bookstores to help them out, and they both marvel over Deep Vellum's acquisition of Phoneme Media and A Strange Object (and the launching of the La Reunion imprint). It's a short episode, but filled with great moments, really lukewarm takes, and a revisiting of James Wood's takedown of Paul Aus...

Things start to come clear in this penultimate episode of this season of the Two Month Review. We get a new story about Joséf's birth, along with some absolutely incredible writing by Sjón. Lots of parallels and mirroring in this section, and the discussion helps set up next week's conclusion. The next episode will focus on the first eight chapters of this third volume (pages 345-406). The complet...

As part of "Norwegian Month" here at Three Percent, translator Becky Crook ( The Black Signs, Monsterhuman, Silence: In the Age of Noise , and many more) came on the podcast to talk about her first cover letter, in which ways she's become a better translator over the past half-decade, what to watch out for in contracts, the difficulties in translating intentional mistakes, Norwegian dream projects...

We're into the homestretch! Today episode, featuring special guest Katie Whittemore, kicks off the discussion of the third and final volume of Sjón's  CoDex 1962 , "I'm a Sleeping Door: A Science-Fiction Story." More origin myths in this volume, ranging from the epic and literary, to the mundane and realistic. A woman gives birth to a daughter made up of sperm from four men, and we get to see the...

Chad and Tom talk about a number of interrelated issues related to the costs of bookstore ownership and being a bookseller. They talk about the recent letter from Chris Doeblin at Book Culture , The Book Diaries , H uman Rights for Translators ,  the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , the Internet and Book Culture , and the new " Translators on Books That Should Be Translated " feature at Rea...