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Jeremy Tiang and Bruna Dantas Lobato get things started this episode by talking about Violent Phenomena: Essays Toward the Future of Literary Translation, a collection of essays about the art and politics of translation. That’s followed by a conversation with Makana Eyre about a piece he wrote for Now Voyager about the two translations of Ludmila Ulitskaya’s The Big Green Tent. And finally, Katrine Øgaard Jensen and Kelsi Vanada preview ALTA 49: Give and Take, taking place in Portland, OR from October 21–24. This episode’s music is “Kick Stones (The Boys)” by Westside Cowboy. Upcoming Open Letter Events: Friday, September 25, 4:30pm: What French and Francophone Literature Offers the American Imagination at Albertine Books, NYC. Saturday, October 3, 1pm: Time and Water: Film Screening and Conversation at Scandinavia House, NYC. Tuesday, October 6, 7pm: The 2026 Icelandic Translator Triptych at Scandinavia House, NYC. Saturday, October 10, 4pm: Icelandic Translator Triptych Celebration at Milkweed Books, Minneapolis, MN. Saturday, October 17, 2pm: Translating Scandinavia at Scandinavia House, NYC. Friday, October 23, 5pm: Boudoir Book Club at The Siren and the Sea, Rochester, NY. Translator Triptych (Iceland) Bundle for $35. As always, if you’d like to support Open Letter Books and all of its projects, you can donate here. Subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcast, the Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) for sustained, multi-week discussions centered around complicated, long books. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

On this episode, Vince Francone (A Book No One Wants) finds out that Patrick McGinley wrote more than one book, and Chad posits a Shklovskian reading of Bogmail: A Tale of Murder. Vince and Chad work through the red herrings and unexpected ending of this strange book that foregrounds some questionable wordplay (“bogmailer” for “blackmailer”), and also take time to check in on the state of literary education via this WaPo article about how reading extracts has basically the same value as reading a full book. This episode’s music is “Bog” by Be Your Own Pet. Upcoming Open Letter Events: Albertine Books, NYC, 9/25, 4:30pm: What French and Francophone Literature Offers the American Imagination Scandinavia House, NYC, 10/6, 7pm: The 2026 Icelandic Translator Triptych Milkweed Books, Minneapolis, MN, 10/10, TBD: Icelandic Translator Triptych Celebration Scandinavia House, NYC, 10/17, 2pm: Translating Scandinavia The Siren and the Sea, Rochester, NY, 10/23, 5pm: Boudoir Book Club Translator Triptych (Iceland) Bundle for $35. As always, if you’d like to support Open Letter Books and all of its projects, you can donate here. Subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcast, the Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) for sustained, multi-week discussions centered around complicated, long books. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

On this episode, Vince Francone (A Book No One Wants, Jabber) and Chad W. Post discuss Brian Dillon’s forthcoming book, Ambivalence: An Education (NYRB/Fitzcarraldo) as part of their ongoing series of podcasts on Irish literature. (You can find earlier episodes in this series here.) They discuss how Dillon’s book hovers between memoir and criticism, and how that passion for literature was fostered within academia, then turn to the realities of 2026 and a few pieces by The Atlantic writer Rose Horowitch, especially “The End of Reading Is Here.” Also mentioned in this podcast: Chad’s piece on an earlier article of Horowitch’s, “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books,” and the start of Vince’s serialized book, Compendium of Eccentrics. This episode’s music is “Libraries” by Yellow Ostrich. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcast, the Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) for sustained, multi-week discussions centered around complicated, long books. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

On this episode, Daniel Hahn OBE joins Chad to talk about his new book, If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation. They discuss how the book foregrounds the roles creativity and interpretation play in translation, what a good companion piece it is to Hahn’s Catching Fire: A Translator’s Diary, the ways this book may bring people to both translation and Shakespeare, and the state of the field as a whole. This episode’s music is “Kate’s Theme” by Kloyd. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

On this episode, special guest Aryan Omar Hassan talks about Henar Press and their first publications: Gābor by Seyed Qader Hedayati, translated from the Kurdish by Chiya Parvizpur & Hourieh Maleki Qouzloo; I Am Going to Kill Somebody by Firat Ceweri, translated from the Kurdish by Jeannette Okur; and Who’s Afraid of Kurdistan?: An Anthology of Contemporary Plays, edited by Aryan himself. He also discusses the Kurdish Literary Database he built and maintains, along with discussing the element of suppression (of language, of the people) in Kurdish literature and some other common tropes, and makes a number of recommendations. This episode’s music is “Damascus” by Gorillaz. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Arunava Sinha—professor, journalist, translator of over 100 works, including The Laboratory by Rabindranath Tagore—discusses his new venture, Chowringhee Press, his career in translation, the literary scene in India writ large, and provides a list of books to check out if you’re looking for entryways into South Asia’s diverse literary scene (see below). Books published by Chowringhee Press: I Murdered Mine, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, translated from the Hindi by Sakshi Agarwal Premchand X Ray + Sen, Munshi Premchand aka Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava, translated from the Hindi by Sayari Debnath Writing Death—Ego: A Novel, Rajalekshmi, translated from the Malayalam by Dhiya Sony The Laboratory, Rabindranath Tagore, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha Finalists for the JCB Prize for Literature: Jasmine Days, Benyamin, translated from the Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib The One Legged, Sakyajit Bhattacharya, translated from the Bengali by Rituparna Mukherjee Imaan, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha The Nemesis, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by V. Ramaswamy There’s Gunpowder in the Air, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha Moustache, S. Hareesh, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil Anti-Clock, V.J. James, translated from the Malayalam by Ministhy S. The Paradise of Food, Khalid Jawed, translated from the Urdu by Baran Farooqi Song of the Soil, Chuden Kabimo, translated from the Nepali by Ajit Baral Sanatan, Sharankumar Limable, translated from the Marathi (via Hindi) by Paromita Sengupta Maria, Just Maria, Sandhya Mary, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil Delhi: A Soliloquy, M. Mukundan, translated from the Malayalam by Fathima E.V. & Nandakumar K. Fire Bird, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan A Lonely Harvest‌, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan The Story of a Goat, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by N. Kalyan Raman Trial by Silence‌, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan I Named My Sister Silence, Manoj Rupda, translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar Tomb of Sand, Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell (also featured on the Two Month Review) Valli, Sheela Tomy, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil This episode’s music is “Looking for a Ghazal” by Sarathy Korwar. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Jeffrey Angles (translator of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again and many non-Kaiju related titles) joins Chad and special guest Joanne Bernardi (Writing in Light: The Silent Scenario and the Japanese Pure Film Movement, Provenance and Early Cinema (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Japanese Cinema (ed.), and the multimedia resource, ReEnvisioning Japan) to talk about the recent release of The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Shin’ichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta, recently released by University of Minnesota Press. They discuss how this project came about, the relationship between the books and the films, the political ideas evident in Mothra, the gender of Godzilla and Mothra in the original texts, and how Mothra is related to Doctor Doolittle. A very interesting, lively conversation about “monster studies,” translation, and cultural representation from two experts, who are also big Godzilla-verse fans! This episode’s music is “Mothra’s Song.” You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

On this episode of the Three Percent Podcast, French translator and University of Rochester MALTS grad, Allison Charette, joins Chad to discuss her most recent translation: Return by Raharimanana (Seagull Books). A structurally complex, evocative work about memory, trauma, family, and beauty, Return is also a great introduction to the modern history of Madagascar—a history filled with political upheaval and division. From translation issues and the lack of Malagasy works in English, to comparisons between Raharimanana and António Lobo Antunes, this episode goes deep into a number of issues surrounding the publication and presentation of world literature. This episode’s music is “Window to Your World” by Mammal Hands. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Leif Høghaug (who is currently translating Finnegans Wake into Norwegian) and David M. Smith join Chad and Kyle Semmel to talk about The Calf, one of the strangest books to come out in 2025. They provide curious readers with some guideposts to approaching this book, talk about influences and specific Norwegian dialects, David’s choice to write this in the Appalachian dialect his dad speaks, deciding to “write like an idiot” and enjoy the play and music of language, and much more. If you’re at all curious about this unique book, this episode may well convince you to pick up a copy. This episode’s music is “Idiot Box” by Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

George Henson (Pitol’s translator) and Mark Haber (Lesser Ruins, Ada) join Chad to celebrate the recent release in English of the third volume in Sergio Pitol’s “Carnival Triptych,” Married Life. They talk about that book, but also spend a lot of time discussing The Art of Flight and the “Trilogy of Memory,” which propelled Pitol into the global spotlight both when it came out in the original Spanish, and in George’s translation. There’s also talk of translation theory and finding a voice, editing practices and intertextuality, and much more. This episode’s music is “Marriage” by Gold Panda. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Dropping on the same day that Hagfish’s first publication—To Smithereens by Rosalyn Drexler—was named as one of the New York Times’s “100 Notable Books of 2025,” this podcast explores the Hagfish business model with its cofounders, Julia Ringo and Naomi Huffman. They discuss how the press came to be, what draws them to particular titles, the difficulty of distribution, why they’re only doing two titles a year, and much more. The conversation also focuses on their second title, Man Hating Psycho by Iphgenia Baal, a brilliant collection of stories that’s raucous, well-crafted, and, like what Dylan Thomas said about At Swim-Two-Birds, “just the sort of book to give your sister if she’s a loud, dirty, boozy girl!” (It really would make a great holiday present . . . just saying.) This is part of a new thread of Three Percent Podcasts in which an indie press discusses the inner workings of publishing, through the lens of one of their recent publications. This episode on World Editions and The Cracks We Bear by Catalina Infante & Michelle Mirabella was a sort of soft launch for this, and we do have several episodes lined up for the next few months . . . This week’s music is “The Bitter End” from Molly Nilsson. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Christine Swedowsky, the newest publisher of World Editions, and Michelle Mirabella, translator of Catalina Infante’s The Cracks We Bear join Chad to discuss the various eras of World Editions and how an indie press can evolve over time, and a few upcoming titles. The conversation focuses on Mirabella & Infante’s forthcoming novel, discussing how the book is much more than another book about motherhood, the difficulty of translating certain titles for the American market, and how valuable a collaborative experience with your publisher can be. This week’s music is “Burn This Atlas Down (2 of Clubs)” from Hallelujah the Hills. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find the Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Quick Reminder: All Open Letter books either written or translated by women are on sale for 40% off to celebrate Women in Translation Month through August 31st! Shop the whole collection here! Jen Calleja, translator, author, musician, recent PhD recipient, joins Chad to talk about her recent book, Fair: The Life-Art of Translation. They discuss the origins of the book, the various types of “translation” books out there, Fair’s unique structure, the translator as storyteller, Jen’s writing voice, the role performance has played in her life, and much more. Three songs from Calleja on this podcast: “Transmitters” and “The Bridge” open and close the episode, with a bit of “Erase” popping up where appropriate. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find the Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

In our ongoing celebration of Women in Translation Month, Chad talked to Suzanne Jill Levine about Unfaithful: A Translator’s Memoir, recently released by Bloomsbury Academic. They discuss her life as a translator who was there during “The Boom” and her work with Manuel Puig (who deserves another rediscovery), Adolfo Bioy Casares (Chad relates his Lost story about The Invention of Morel), Severo Sarduy (Cobra is now available as a Dalkey Essential), G. Cabrera Infante, Emir Rodríguez Monegal, intimacy and translation, and more. This episode’s music is “Lightning” by Arcade Fire, a problematic band for sure, but, given the storm that disrupted this recording, a song that sort of fits. (And isn’t Imagine Dragons.) Also, for the month of August, all Open Letter books either written or translated by women are on sale for 40% off to celebrate Women in Translation Month. Shop the whole collection here! You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find the Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

On this special 200th episode of the Three Percent Podcast, Tom Roberge—original co-host, former publicist for New Directions, co-founder of Riffraff Books, and current head of residencies at the Jan Michalski Foundation—returns to talk about life in Switzerland, his media diet, Swiss support for culture, how he no longer follows the Mets very closely, and much more. A number of books and authors are mentioned on the podcast, but special attention should be drawn to After 8 Books and A Forest Petrifies: Diamond Feedback by Félicia Atkinson. This episode’s music is “Box Elder” by Pavement. Also, for the month of August, all Open Letter books either written or translated by women are on sale for 40% off to celebrate Women in Translation Month. Shop the whole collection here! You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find the Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube. And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com