You’re lucky I didn’t kill you the way my father asked me to. Lucky I didn’t abort you. Lucky I wheeled you across the country to flee the war. Not many of us are “lucky” enough to have had our mothers speak with such candor. But these are the three things Helga Schubert's mom told … Continue reading Helga Schubert: A Remarkable Literary Life
Author: Lillian Banks
Careful What You Look Like
So I guess it's been awhile, innit? I've been busy—gardening, translating, and lying around in big tubular machines that make a terrible racket but continue to produce unremarkable results. Meaning: the cancer remains stable. Among other things, I've been translating these little "tidbits"--"Gewissensbits" from German to English. I also discovered a new, and interesting blog, … Continue reading Careful What You Look Like
Bambiland is Back
Check it out! My translation of Bambiland is on the move! On Saturday, March 23rd, 2024, Berlin's Tatwerk will host director Peter Lorenz and actress Jelena Bašić as they bring their brilliant rendering of this Nobel Laureate Elfriede Jelinek's "Bambiland" to life (and in living color) to the stage in my translation. What's the big … Continue reading Bambiland is Back
Translating the Untranslatable: Elfriede Jelinek in Translation
(Hearty congratulations to translator Aaron Sayne, whose translation of Elfriede Jelinek's "Ahörnchen und Behörnchen" appears as "Chip 'n Dale" in the most recent edition of the University of Iowa's journal of literary translation, Exchanges. In his translator's note, Aaron mentions my Emory lecture on translating Jelinek and cites this blog as his reference, but since … Continue reading Translating the Untranslatable: Elfriede Jelinek in Translation
The N-Word Lover: A Domestic Terror Tale from the “Before Times”
This is a piece from the “Before Times.” The “Before Times”: That’s my term for the “good old days” when Dubya’s reign as worst US president in history seemed secure. When people were comparing him to Hitler. When others, myself included, were saying Bush was worse than Hitler. When Dick “Darth Vader” Cheney held the … Continue reading The N-Word Lover: A Domestic Terror Tale from the “Before Times”
Last Living Words: The Ingeborg Bachmann Reader
The catalyst for Last Living Words: The Ingeborg Bachmann Reader was Ingeborg Bachmann’s 1961 short story, “Undine geht,” which I translated into English under the title “Undine’s Valediction” in 1992/3. When I submitted the piece for publication to Trivia: A Journal of Ideas, the editors responded by saying: “We’ve never seen anything like this, but … Continue reading Last Living Words: The Ingeborg Bachmann Reader
Dare to Compare: Americanizing the Holocaust
In a previous post, titled I Remember Roger, I mention a speaking engagement held in Bascom Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on November 13, 2003. The presentation was based on an article I had published in American Indian Quarterly in the year 2000. The print version of the article is available as a free … Continue reading Dare to Compare: Americanizing the Holocaust
Uncomfortable Truths 