Yale University Press Launches New Website for the Margellos World Republic of Letters

NEW HAVEN, Conn., April 3, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yale University Press is very pleased to announce the launch of a new website, www.worldrepublicofletters.org, for The Cecile and Theodore Margellos World Republic of Letters. The website is the latest step forward for this ambitious new translation series, which is dedicated to making literary works from around the globe available in English through translation.

The Margellos World Republic of Letters identifies works of cultural and artistic significance previously overlooked by translators and publishers, canonical works of literature and philosophy needing new translations, as well as works by important contemporary authors whose work has not yet been translated into English. The series is designed to bring to the English-speaking world leading poets, novelists, essayists, philosophers, and playwrights from Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, in order to stimulate international discourse and creative exchange.

The new series website features:

• In-depth interviews with authors and translators
• Expanded book excerpts from all published series titles, available for free download
• An essay by acclaimed translator Edith Grossman, excerpted from her book Why Translation Matters
• Writing by series donor Cecile Margellos and Yale University Press Director, John Donatich

For National Poetry Month in April, we are pleased to celebrate the work and publication of several important contemporary poets. With the publication of Second Simplicity: New Poetry and Prose, 1991-2011, by Yves Bonnefoy, translated by Hoyt Rogers, we have an exclusive conversation between the author and translator. Titles to be published in the series this month include The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition, translated and annotated by award-winning Peter Cole, and Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me: And Other Poems, by Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan, translated by Yale Younger Poet, Fady Joudah, with free book excerpts and forthcoming online exclusive material for each.

As the series grows this spring with more new titles and the publication of many of our titles in handsome paperback editions, the website will soon feature the Margellos WRL blog, a newsfeed, an events calendar, and more – all ways of inviting and enlarging participation from and dialogue among our readers in the world of translation. In the meantime, you can follow along with new updates every other Thursday beginning April 12, 2012, by signing up on the website and reading the "Lost Without Translation" column on the Yale Press Log. Twitter users can extend the conversation by using the hashtag #wrlbooks.

Forthcoming titles of works appearing in English for the first time include:

• The Lair, by Norman Manea, published in the author's native Romania in 2010;
• The Brazen Plagiarist: Selected Poems, by Kiki Dimoula, the most highly acclaimed Greek poet of her generation; and
• several canonical works by Witold Gombrowicz, including a new translation of his famous Diary, long out of print for English readers, in a single-volume edition featuring ten never-before-published pages and a fascinating preface by Rita Gombrowicz.

You can listen to a March 2012 Poetry Magazine podcast interview with Peter Cole, attached with this release, and also available on the Poetry Foundation website.

Learn more about series titles, ordering information, and booksellers supporting the Margellos World Republic of Letters at http://worldrepublicofletters.org/order.html.

Brenda King

Publicity Director

Yale University Press

(203) 432-0917

brenda.king@yale.edu

Yale University Press is a premiere scholarly book publisher of art, architecture, business, economics, environmental studies, history, law, literature, philosophy, political science, psychology, reference, religion, science, and world languages titles.

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