Asymptote Journal - October

At Asymptote, we sometimes wonder what it means to exist within a translation culture. Does such a thing even exist? Are readers and writers actively grappling with this strange process of leaping from one language to another? Then we get a barrage of emails answering us with a resounding 'Yes!' A sampling of this culture is within our brand new October issue, which includes work by the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, accompanied by a note from his translator Jay Rubin; animal stories by A.L. Snijders translated by Lydia Davis, who is working for the first time from the Dutch; the very latest poems by Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz, an essay by Dale Peck, and so much more. "Asymptote is trained to a new perimeter—excitingly so. There is the feeling that its editors are listening, not just for a new sound—though it feels very new—but for the full sound, taking in parts of the tonal spectrum that have been ignored for too long. Cosmopolitan and generous in the deepest sense. Its aura is that of excitement." ~Sven Birkerts