Mahmud Rahman's Blog, page 3
April 11, 2015
The Aerogram Book Club discussion on Uday Prakash’s The Girl with the Golden Parasol
I was asked recently by The Aerogram Book Club to organize a discussion on a translation of a book from South Asia. I proposed Uday Prakash’s The Girl With the Golden Parasol, originally published in Hindi. The book was translated by Jason Grunebaum. Here’s the conversation between me, Daisy Rockwell, and Kevin Hyde: Aerogram […]
August 20, 2014
On the Dearth of South Asian translations in the U.S.
August 2014: I’ve begun a series of columns at the Asymptote Blog on the near invisibility of South Asian translations in the U.S. From the first post: A small percentage of literary books published in the U.S. are translations. The translation program at the University of Rochester maintains yearly databases of translated titles available […]
November 9, 2013
Letter from America: FICTION FACTORIES
This was published in the Arts & Letters supplement of the Dhaka Tribune, a new English daily in Bangladesh, on November 3, 2013. You can read the Arts & Letters Supplements here. I took a journey back in time. At the local library, I wandered to the children’s section and spotted a neatly stacked row […]
Letter from America: DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA IN DHAKA
This was published in the Arts & Letters supplement of the Dhaka Tribune, a new English daily in Bangladesh, on October 12, 2013. You can read the Arts & Letters Supplements here. Step back fifty years. Monday evening, 28 October, 1963. Hundreds take their seats at the Race Course in Dhaka, excitement buzzing through the […]
Letter from America: LIBRARY LOVE
This was published in the Arts & Letters supplement of the Dhaka Tribune, a new English daily in Bangladesh, on September 1, 2013. You can read the Arts & Letters Supplements here. I work at a college. One morning talking books with a friend, I realize that although I read a lot of crime fiction […]
Letter from America: NOIR ALGERIA
This was published in the Arts & Letters supplement of the Dhaka Tribune, a new English daily in Bangladesh, on July 7, 2013. You can read the Arts & Letters Supplements here. I remain preoccupied with Algeria. This spring when the police battled Jamaat supporters on the streets and war crimes opponents rallied at Shahbagh, […]
Letter from America: A DETOUR TO ROME
For a few months now I’ve been publishing a “Letter from America” in the monthly Arts & Letters supplement of the Dhaka Tribune, a new English daily in Bangladesh. I’m reposting them here after they’ve been published. This one was published on May 6, 2013. You can read the Arts & Letters Supplements here. A […]
January 21, 2011
Pirates of translation
The author Laila Lalami recently discovered that her first book had been published in Pakistan in an unauthorized translation in Urdu. She writes: Not long ago, I received a kind email from a reader in Pakistan, telling me how much he enjoyed reading my first book, which he had read in its Urdu translation. An […]
April 28, 2010
Reviews of “Killing the Water”
My short story collection Killing the Water: Stories was published in January 2010 by Penguin Books India. In the last few months, several reviews of the book have appeared in Indian and Bangladeshi publications. Some highlights: From Open Magazine, Delhi, India Rahman’s stories, all 12 of them, have backdrops as varied as the lingering smell […]
October 17, 2009
Remembering Leila Abu-Saba (1962-2009)
Earlier this week, the morning, already dreary from the dampness and rain, brought the news that Leila Abu-Saba had died at her home in Oakland. Cancer finally took her. She had beat it before, but it returned. It is a familiar, painful story. Eight years ago, my younger sister, about the same age, died after […]
