Lit_cast Slovakia with Julia Sherwood
n.b. Author Michal Hvorecký is hosting a similar podcast in German entitled LIT_CAST Slowakei, available via the Literary Information Center website.
Episode 1
Donald Rayfield

photo by Marina Akinshina
Kicking off the series of podcasts, Donald Rayfield discusses the challenges of publishing translated literature, translating Russian, Georgian and Uzbek literature, and draws parallels between Peter Pišťanek and Quentin Tarantino, and Ján Johanides and Hilary Mantel.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-01-donald-rayfield.mp3
Episode 2
Rajendra Chitnis

photo by Kateřina Chitnis
Rajendra Chitnis talks about teaching Czech and Slovak in the UK, why Vladimír Mečiar was good for Slovak literature and Franz Kafka is the biggest problem for literatures of small European countries. Also: is knowledge of history needed to understand older Slovak literature and would the world think as highly of Milan Kundera if Ján Johanides had been translated into English.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-02-rajendra-chitnis.mp3
Episode 3
Magdalena Mullek

In the third episode of Lit_cast Slovakia, literature scholar and translator Magdalena Mullek talks with Julia Sherwood about living between three countries and multiple languages, the joys of translating living authors, cooperative translating, and forging relationships with publishers.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-03-magdalena-mullek.mp3
Episode 4
Charles Sabatos

photo by Adriana Raducanu
In Lit_cast Slovakia #4, American literary scholar and translator Charles Sabatos talks to Julia Sherwood about searching for his Slovak roots, University of Pittsburgh’s Slovak Studies Program and the legacy of Martin Votruba, about translating Pavel Vilikovský’s Ever Green Is... — “a side-splitting satire on totalitarianism, spy mania, Slovaks and nationalism,” as well as about translating Dominik Tatarka and Gejza Vámoš.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-04-charles-sabatos.mp3
Episode 5
Janet Livingstone

photo courtesy of family archive
In Lit_cast Slovakia #5, world traveler and translator Janet Livingstone talks to Julia Sherwood about reinventing herself in Seattle after living in Bratislava for 16 years, picking up foreign languages, translating Slovak women writers, cultural differences between Europe and the US, and she praises the politeness of the Slovak people.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-05-janet-livingstone.mp3
Episode 6
Jonathan Gresty

photo by Miriam Gurska
In Lit_cast Slovakia #6, Jonathan Gresty talks to Julia Sherwood about his British DNA and going native in Slovakia, about translating two very different books – Anton Baláž’s Camp of Fallen Women and Jana Bodnárová’s Necklace/Choker and explains what is skopos theory, and what is wrong with English-language information for tourists and why some Slovak books would benefit from some serious editing.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-06-jonathan-gresty.mp3
Episode 7
Katarína Gephardt

photo courtesy of family archive
In Lit_cast Slovakia #7, literature scholar Katarína Gephardt talks to Julia Sherwood about intrepid women travelers who helped shape an ambivalent image of Central and Eastern Europe in 19th-century Britain, about generational memory and productive nostalgia in the writing of Verona Šikulová and Maroš Krajňak, and about her plans for a Companion to Contemporary Slovak Literature.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-07-katarina-gephardt.mp3
Episode 8
Michael Stein

photo courtesy of the author
In Lit_cast Slovakia #8, writer and journalist Michael Stein talks to Julia Sherwood about the Central European literary sensibility, the surreal sight of a tourist-free Prague, and the unforced surrealism in the writing of Uršuľa Kovalyk, as well as the subtle irony of Jana Juráňová. He also recommends his other favorite Slovak writers, Pavol Rankov, Dušan Mitana, Peter Karpinský, and Ondrej Štefánik.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-08-michael-stein.mp3
Episode 9
Nataša Ďurovičová

photo by Renata Stewart
In Lit_cast Slovakia #9, Nataša Ďurovičová talks to Julia Sherwood about exile as the point of no return, reveals how creative writing came to be one of Iowa’s main exports alongside corn and pork, explains the different social needs fulfilled by creative writing in the U.S. and the rest of the world, and unpacks the writing and translation workshops at Iowa University.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-09-natasa-durovicova.mp3
Episode 10
James Sutherland-Smith

self portrait
In Lit_cast Slovakia #10, James Sutherland-Smith talks to Julia Sherwood about his own poetry and the intuitive link he feels with the poets he translates, why he doesn’t believe in creative infidelity, why he finds translating prose more difficult than poetry, and why he feels that being a man is not a hindrance to translating women poets.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-10-james-sutherland-smith.mp3
Episode 11
Mária Ferenčuhová

photo by Jaro Ridzoň
In Lit_cast Slovakia #11, Slovak poet and translator Mária Ferenčuhová talks with Julia Sherwood how the pandemic has made her appreciate virtual literary events and has turned her from writing straight poetry to writing texts dealing with fragility. She also talks about aging and dying, about working in an interdisciplinary and intuitive way, about translating Michel Houellebecq, and about cooperative translation of poetry. And she offers recommendations of other Slovak poets, both who have been and who ought to be translated into English.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-11-maria-ferencuhova.mp3
Episode 12
Sarah Hinlicky Wilson

photo by Andrew L. Wilson
In Lit_cast Slovakia #12, Lutheran pastor, publisher, editor, and blogger
Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, who grew up in the US and now lives in Japan, talks with Julia Sherwood about diving into the history of Slovakia and unearthing some forgotten gems in her quest to read every single Slovak novel available
in English. She explains her criteria for rating books, recommends her favorite Slovak works of literature, and unveils the most translated Slovak writer of all times.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-12-sarah-hinlicky-wilson.mp3
Episode 13
Marie-Theres Cermann

photo by Christian Cermann
In Lit_cast Slovakia #13, translator Marie-Theres Cermann talks with Julia Sherwood about persuading German-language publishers to give Slovak writers a chance; about the joys and challenges of translating Balla, Marek Vadas, and Ivan Medeši; and about why she believes the plight of refugees remains relevant even during the pandemic.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-13-marie-theres-cermann.mp3
Episode 14
Ľudmila Pánisová

photo by Kristína Brezinová Rídekyová
In Lit_cast Slovakia #14, translation studies scholar Ľudmila Pánisová talks with Julia Sherwood about the legacy of Professor Anton Popovič and about the need to treat the source text with respect. She welcomes the growing number of English translations of Slovak literature and suggests that more writing from the interwar and postwar periods, as well as crime stories and books for children and young adults, should be translated.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-14-ludmila-panisova.mp3
Episode 15
John Minahane
In Lit_cast Slovakia #15, translator John Minahane talks with Julia Sherwood about why a new English translation of the anti-war cycle The Bloody Sonnets was needed, and what their author, Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, has in common with the Russian futurist poet Velemir Khlebnikov. Minahane’s succinct and vivid characterizations of a range of Slovak writers from Ladislav Novomeský, Miroslav Válek, and Milan Rúfus; through Ivan Štrpka; to Ivan Kolenič and Peter Macsovszky are accompanied by spirited readings from his translations of their works.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-15-john-minahane.mp3
Episode 16
Lucia Duero

photo by Christian Morales
In Lit_cast Slovakia #16, writer and translator Lucia Duero talks with Julia Sherwood about the chance encounter in Spain that led her from Slovakia
to Mexico and about navigating cultural differences between these two countries. She discusses her favorite Slovak poets whom she has introduced
to Spanish readers through her translations and to the Anglophone public through the journal Tupelo Quarterly. She also talks about the irrational criteria she uses to choose the authors she translates regardless of commercial considerations and why she enjoys translating without a contract with a publisher.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-16-lucia-duero.mp3
Episode 17
Mária Modrovich

photo by Marika Majorová
In Lit_cast Slovakia #17, writer and editor Mária Modrovich talks with Julia Sherwood about the works of literature and cinema that have inspired her writing, about Slovak literary prizes and festivals, about the literary scene
in New York City, and about helping people to navigate the waters of Slovak literature through the website Books from Slovakia (main page and current catalog).
(These links are also available via our resources page.)
lit-cast-slovakia-en-17-maria-modrovich.mp3
Episode 18
Ivana Taranenková

photo by Tatiana Liptáková
In Lit_cast Slovakia #18, literature scholar Ivana Taranenková talks with Julia Sherwood about the literary output of 2020, both by established and by emerging Slovak writers, and assesses the impact of the pandemic on the country’s literary life and on research. She introduces a forthcoming English-language guide to contemporary Slovak literature and discusses why Martin Kukučín is her favorite 19th century Slovak author.
lit-cast-slovakia-en-18-ivana-taranenkova.mp3
Lit_cast Slovakia is produced by Peter Michalík at The Centre for Information on Literature (LIC) with theme music by Jason Shaw. For more information about Jason’s music, see Creative Commons Music by Jason Shaw
on Audionautix.com.
SlovakLiterature.com provides hosting of Lit_cast Slovakia on this page through an agreement with LIC
in order to offer a repository with more stable links than other services are sometimes able to allow. For the most up-to-date information and the latest episodes, see the LIC page itself, or one of the podcast services linked
at the top of this page.
Lit_cast Slovakia is produced by Peter Michalík at The Centre for Information on Literature (LIC) with theme music by Jason Shaw. For more information about Jason’s music, see Creative Commons Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com.
SlovakLiterature.com provides hosting of Lit_cast Slovakia on this page through an agreement with LIC in order to offer a repository with more stable links than other services are sometimes able to allow. For the most up-to-date information and the latest episodes, see the LIC page itself, or one of the podcast services linked at the top of this page.