Category Archives: Asymptote

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New updates on 5 Cha contributors: Marc Vincenz, Mani Rao, Eleanor Goodman, Grace V. S. Chin and Rumjhum Biswas

Marc Vincenz, Mani Rao and Eleanor Goodman

The April 2012 issue of Asymptote is now available and you can read Marc Vincenz‘s Mani Rao‘s and Eleanor Goodman‘s work in it.
|| Read Marc Vincenz’s Cha profile. 
|| Mani Rao’s poetry was published in Issue #1 of Cha.
|| Eleanor Goodman’s poetry and translation were published in Issue 14 of Cha.


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Grace V. S. Chin

In the Spotlight: Bruneian Plays in English, an anthology edited by Grace V. S. Chin, is now published! Learn more about the book here.

|| Grace V. S. Chin’s poetry was published in Issue #4 and Issue #5 of Cha. Her poem “Clotheslines” was discussed on A Cup of Fine Tea. 

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Rumjhum Biswas

 Congratulations to Rumjhum Biswas! Her short story “The Well” has been named the winner of Anam Cara Short Fiction Competition. The judge Vanessa Gebbie has the following to say about Rumjhum’s work: “I thought the interpretation of the theme was great – slightly off-centre, unexpected and original. So many congratulations to the writer”. Rumjhum has won a place on Vanessa Gebbie’s short fiction retreat. Learn more about the competition and other winning stories here. 
|| See Rumjhum Biswas’s Cha profile. 

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Cha contributors in Asymptote

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The January 2012 issue of Asymptote is now available and it features work by Cha contributors Lucas Klein, Xi Chuan and Lee Yew Leong (editor of Asymptote). 
Read “Beast”, “The Distance” and “Poison” from Xi Chuan’s forthcoming Notes on the Mosquito. here. These poems are translated from the Chinese by Lucas Klein.
In the issue, Lee Yew Leong translates Jing Xianghai’s “The Bus Driver’s Face” from the Chinese.

  • See Lucas Klein’s Cha profile.
  • Xi Chuan’s poetry was published in Issue #14 of Cha.
  • Yew Leong Lee’s short story “The Disappearance” was published in Issue#6 of Cha.
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Cha contributors in Asymptote

The October 2011 issue of  Asymptote is now live. It features Murakami, Milosz and Szirtes, Lydia Davis’s first Dutch translations, essays by Dale Peck, various Burmese poets, Piyush Daiya, primers on Croatian novels and Eileen Chang, their first English Poetry Feature, an interview about the Arab uprisings and a video with sounds from outer space. Read the new issue here.
The new issue also includes works by several Cha contributors. 
-Mani Rao’s translation from the Sanskrit [Link]
-Cyril Wong’s poem “Camel” [Link]
-Lee Yew Leong (also editor of Asymptote) translated Jing Xianghai’s poetry from the Chinese [Link] and “Sex and Love Really Are Two Different Things” (originally a Chinese article on Eileen Chang by Belinda Chang) [Link]

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  • Mani Rao’s poetry was published in Issue #1 of Cha.
  • Cyril Wong’s poetry has been published in Issue #1 of Cha.
  • Yew Leong Lee’s short story “The Disappearance” was published in Issue#6 of Cha.
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Cha contributors in Asymptote

The July issue of  Asymptote is now live. This is the publication’s biggest and boldest issue to date. It features a new Upaniṣad translation, master of the lyric novel Shen Congwen, “Ghalib Redux”, poems by Tomaž Šalamun, the philosophy of Yoshimichi Nakajima, an interview with Chen Show Mao, Sven Birkerts on Bolaño, Péter Esterházy and Gábor Németh in our Hungarian Fiction Feature, and visual art from Russia and Thailand. Read the new issue here.
The new issue also includes works by several Cha contributors. 
-Marc Vincenz translated six poems by Erika Burkart from the German [Link]
-Mani Rao translated Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad from the Sanskrit [Link]
-Fiona Sze-Lorrain translated poems by Yang Zi (“Float” and “Ink”) from the Chinese [Link]
-Fiona Sze-Lorrain translated poems by Yi Liu (“Look at the Sunset”, “That Bouquet of White Flowers” and “Because There is Awakening”) from the Chinese [Link]
-Lee Yew Leong (also editor of Asymptote) translated Lin Yaode’s Hotel from the Chinese [Link]

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  • Marc Vincenz’s poetry was published in Issue 10 of Cha.
  • Mani Rao’s poetry was published in issue #1 of Cha.
  • Fiona Sze-Lorrain’s poetry was published in issue #12 of Cha.
  • Yew Leong Lee’s short story “The Disappearance” was published in Issue#6 of Cha.
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Asymptote Journal: A New International Literary Journal

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Announcing the launch of ASYMPTOTE, a new international literary journal dedicated to the art and practice of translation. Founded out of Singapore, with editors scattered across the globe, ASYMPTOTE offers a well-calibrated window on world literature, in all its forms.
Issue Jan 2011 features original essays by Mary Gaitskill and Alain de Botton, fiction by Thomas Bernhard and Yoram Kaniuk, poetry by Aimé Césaire, Tan Chee Lay, and Ko Un, drama by Toshiki Okada, and nonfiction by Masahiko Fujiwara and Pablo Martín Ruiz. In total, ASYMPTOTE presents more than thirty-five authors via some of the finest translators working today, including Clayton Eshleman, Forrest Gander, Soren Gauger, Rika Lesser, Pierre Joris and Howard Goldblatt. Also in ASYMPTOTE’s debut issue are visual poems (one on video from Iceland), critical essays, and reviews of the latest books. All of it is available free online at our aesthetically exciting website, where we post not only the translated texts, but also, when available, the works in their original languages, audio recordings of those originals, and accompanying artwork specially curated for each issue.
Asymptote Issue One is available now, by clicking here: http://asymptotejournal.com
Editors,
Asymptote Journal
(Lee Yew Leong
Brandon Holmquest
Nathalie Handal
Anthony Luebbert
Nathalie Handal
Wong Chee Meng
and Aditi Machado)
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Yew Leong Lee’s short story “The Disappearance” was published in Issue#6 of Cha.
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Introducing Asymptote

I am very excited to have the opportunity to introduce Asymptote to Cha readers. Asymptote is a new journal dedicated to literary translation and is run by a team of talented people from different parts of the world — Singapore, Taiwan, Germany, and the U.S. Cha contributor Yew Leong Lee (Singapore/Taiwan) is the founder of the publication while another contributor, Ng Yi-Sheng (Singapore), is the Drama editor. The editorial team also comprises the following: Poetry/Criticism: Brandon Holmquest (US), Nonfiction: Wong Chee Meng (Singapore/Germany), Special Feature: Anthony Luebbert (US). They will also run interviews, conducted by the editors. 

From the Asymptote website:

George Bernard Shaw famously said, “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange those ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” Similarly, incorporeal works of art (poems, short stories etc.) have the potential to affect millions since unlike apples, they are unencumbered by the problem of scarcity (Lewis Hyde). The value of translation is that it unleashes from latency ideas and emotions to a vast sea of others who do not have access to the language in which these ideas and emotions reside.

In an email, Yew Leong told me:

What differentiates Asymptote from other magazines is that we not only intend to display the original text after the translation, but we also encourage translators (especially of poems) to provide MP3 recordings of a reading of the original text so as to offer the reader a feel of what the original material sounds like. We even have a visual poetry section where we showcase the intrinsic visual characteristics of the non-English language under scrutiny.

(Don’t you love that Shaw quote?) The first issue of Asymptote is due out in January 2011 and if you look at their website, you will find that they have already secured a great lineup of works: a despatch from Afghanistan, translated from the Farsi; an essay from Japan by a noted mathematician/essayist titled “Literature and Mathematics”; poems from Melih Cevdet Anday translated from the Turkish by Sidney Wade and Efe Murad; a dramatic excerpt from the critically-acclaimed “Nadirah”, translated by Alfian Sa’at, one of Singapore’s top playwrights; and an interview with the Golden Melody Award-winning Chinese lyricist. Also, Kevin Kunstadt of K&K Photography Gallery has agreed to curate the illustrations for the first issue of Asymptote. [See here for a full description of this lineup — it is also updated by the editors every now and then.]
This sounds extremely interesting. And if you want to be part of this exciting project, they are currently accepting submissions of poetry, fiction (short fiction or excerpts of longer works), drama as well as certain categories of nonfiction (memoir, despatch, and the occasional essay on literature or translation) for their debut issue (Deadline for submissions is 20 December 2010). Read the guidelines to learn more. 

A promising journal to watch/read/enjoy!
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Like Asymptote on Facebook. 

  • Yew Leong Lee’s short story “The Disappearance” was published in Issue #6 of Cha.
  • Ng Yi-Sheng’s poetry has been published in issue #8 of Cha.

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