Three Percent Podcast

This week's episode kicks off the four-week discussion of Four by Four by Sara Mesa, translated from the Spanish by Katie Whittemore. A great book for our time (for all times) in relationship to power structures and their systems. And whether it's better to be "free and vulnerable or protected but under control." In this first episode, Max Besora (Adventures and Misadventures of the Extraordinary and Admirable Joan Orpí, Conquistador and Founder of New Catalonia) talks with Chad about campus novels, the various power relationships in the first section of the novel, the difficulties of translating "culo," the precision of Mesa's prose, the way Celia's and Ignacio's storylines run in parallel, the two timelines of this section, and much more. Solid ground-setting episode for what promises to be an amazing season.

This week's music is a little gem from Miley Cyrus called "4x4."

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. The next broadcast will be on July 1st. We'll be talking about pages 87-156 of Four by Four, which is available in bookstores everywhere. (And as an audiobook via Tantor Media!)

Derek Maine will be the special guest next week, and produced this amazing review of the book for his channel. Check it out!

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is now officially available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions. And you can get 20% off Four by Four by using the code 2MONTH at checkout. (Offer only good in the U.S., since we can't ship overseas, but to be honest, we can't ship right now! Order it from Bookshop.org.)

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.

On this episode of the Two Month Review, translator Robin Myers joins Chad and Brian to talk about her translation, Mexican and Argentine poetry, what was most challenging/liberating about the text, ALTA 2009, and much much more. Very insightful conversation for anyone interested in professional translators, or starting out in the field.

This week's music is "Rebel Girl" by Bikini Kill.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. The next broadcast will be on June 24th. We'll be talking about Sara Mesa/Katie Whittemore's Four by Four, which is available in bookstores everywhere. (And as an audiobook via Tantor Media!)

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is now officially available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions. And you can get 20% off Four by Four by using the code 2MONTH at checkout. (Offer only good in the U.S., since we can't ship overseas, but to be honest, we can't ship right now! Order it from Bookshop.org.)

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.

This week, Mónica Ramón Ríos joins Chad and Brian to talk about her literary career, how she came to write Cars on Fire, Rutgers, some movies she's recently watched, how to read "Invocation," protests in Chile and NYC, and much much more. An incredibly interesting and informative episode that serves as an incredible guide to approaching and reading these short stories.

This week's music is "Dead Men Don't Rape" by 7 Year Bitch.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. The next broadcast will be on June 17th. Robin Myers will be the special guest, and we'll focus on pages 152-175. This will be the final episode on Cars on Fire before we move on to Four by Four by Sara Mesa and Katie Whittemore. (For which there is an audiobook version!)

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is now officially available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions. And you can get 20% off Cars on Fire by using the code 2MONTH at checkout. (Offer only good in the U.S., since we can't ship overseas, but to be honest, we can't ship right now! Order it from Bookshop.org.)

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.

Season 12 of the Two Month Review kicked off with Cristina Rodriguez from Deep Vellum Bookstore joining Chad and Brian to talk about the first section of Mónica Ramón Ríos and Robin Myers's Cars on Fire. They talk about The Gits, "Dead Men Don't Rape," the connections between academy and power structures, how "timely" this connection is, the clarity of the prose, and much more.

In honor of Mia Zapata, this week's music is "Another Shot of Whiskey" by The Gits.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. The next broadcast will be on June 10th. Mónica Ramón Ríos will be the special guest, and we'll focus on pages 64-151.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is now officially available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions. And you can get 20% off Cars on Fire by using the code 2MONTH at checkout. (Offer only good in the U.S., since we can't ship overseas, but to be honest, we can't ship right now! Order it from Bookshop.org.)

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.

On this special edition of the Three Percent Podcast, you can hear short readings of all fifteen finalists for this year's Best Translated Book Awards. You can find all of the titles here on Bookshop.org (fiction, poetry), and you can still RSVP to see the live awards ceremony on Friday, May 29th at 6pm eastern.

This week's music is "Famous" by Car Seat Headrest.

And if you like the podcast, tell a friend and rate us or leave a review on iTunes!

You can also follow Open Letter, Riffraff, and Chad on Twitter and Instagram (OL, Riffraff, Chad) for book and baseball talk.

If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, and other places. Or you can always subscribe by adding our feed directly into your favorite podcast app: http://threepercent.libsyn.com/rss

Rodrigo Fresán himself joins Chad and Brian to talk about phones, Riverdale, Ada or Ardor, Dracula, the world-building in Fresán's oeuvre, the overall structure and focus of the triptych, what to read and watch in quarantine, and much more!

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. The next broadcast will be on June 3rd and will focus on pages 1-63 of Mónica Ramón Ríos's Cars on Fire.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is now officially available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions. And you can get 20% off Cars on Fire by using the code 2MONTH at checkout. (Offer only good in the U.S., since we can't ship overseas, but to be honest, we can't ship right now! Order it from Bookshop.org.)

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.

This week's episode is quite possibly the wildest one yet . . . Chad paid a BookTuber for some promotional love and, well, you'll have to watch/listen to see how that went. Then they talk about outsiders, Franco Moretti, autofiction, HE-IKEA (the Writer's nemesis), overblown rants about reading and phones, and much more.

This week's music is "Date with IKEA" by Pavement.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the May 6th episode (covering pages 487-End) here. And you can discuss this book at the reactivated Goodreads Two Month Review Discussion Group.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. You can get all of Carlos's books via your local bookstore or Open Letter, and you can follow him on Twitter as well.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is now officially available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions. And you can get 20% off The Dreamed Part by using the code 2MONTH at checkout. (Offer only good in the U.S., since we can't ship overseas, but to be honest, we can't ship right now! Order it from Bookshop.org.)

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.

A bit of an experimental episode, Chad is joined by five indie booksellers to talk about the "new normal," fears of reopening, what booksellers are doing now, and—most importantly—actual books. The complete rundown of recommendations is below, but one note: please buy these titles from the bookseller who recommended them. Sparks said it diplomatically at the end, but if at all possible, order directly, not through Bookshop.org. (Although given that zero Open Letter books were plugged, maybe you should buy our books only from Amazon? KIDDING. Buy them from Bookshop.org.)

Also, if you like this podcast and all the free programming that Open Letter/Three Percent provides, consider donating to us as well. You have to write us in on that U of R form so that the money comes directly to Open Letter, but we absolutely need your support right now. (Especially as Chad tries to figure out the future with no employees for part of the summer . . . Yay mandatory furloughs!)

Anyway, here are the recommendations, with links directly to the store recommending said title:

Emma Ramadan, Riffraff

The Word Pretty by Elisa Gabbert (Black Ocean)

Pizza Girl: A Novel by Jean Kyoung Frazier (Doubleday)

That Time of Year by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (or "Stumps" if you believe Amazon) (Two Lines)

Shuchi Saraswat, Brookline Booksmith

Calamities by Renee Gladman (Wave Books)

Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima (Picador)

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette (New Directions)

Nick Buzanski, Books Are Magic

Luminous Republic by Andres Barba, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

All My Cats by Bohumil Hrabal (New Directions)

On Lighthouses by Jazmina Barrera, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines)

Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books

The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen, translated from the Norwegian by Don Shaw and Don Bartlett (Biblioasis)

Grove by Esther Kinsky, translated from the German by Caroline Schmidt (Transit)

Cristina Rodriguez, Deep Vellum Books

throughsmoke by Jehanne Dubrow (New Rivers Press)

Cockfight by María Fernanda Ampuero, translated from the Spanish by Frances Riddle (Feminist Press)

Ancestry of Objects by Tatiana Ryckman (Deep Vellum)

As always, feel free to send any and all comments or questions to: [email protected]. Also, if there are articles you’d like us to read and analyze (or just make fun of), send those along as well.

And if you like the podcast, tell a friend and rate us or leave a review on iTunes!

You can also follow Open Letter, Riffraff, and Chad on Twitter and Instagram (OL, Riffraff, Chad) for book and baseball talk.

If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, and other places. Or you can always subscribe by adding our feed directly into your favorite podcast app: http://threepercent.libsyn.com/rss

This week, Chad and Brian talk about the desires of readers, the "middle mind," writing without a hook, Nabokov's "The Vane Sisters," the one contribution Chad made to this book, vocal tics, cocaine, and much more. They both came in high energy on this episode, so sit back and enjoy all the jokes and enthusiasm.

This week's music is for a certain type of insomniac.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the May 6th episode (covering pages 424-487) here. And you can discuss this book at the reactivated Goodreads Two Month Review Discussion Group.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. You can get all of Carlos's books via your local bookstore or Open Letter, and you can follow him on Twitter as well.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is now officially available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions. And you can get 20% off The Dreamed Part by using the code 2MONTH at checkout. (Offer only good in the U.S., since we can't ship overseas, but to be honest, we can't ship right now! Order it from Bookshop.org.)

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.

In his most dangerous gag to date, Chad drinks a giant bullshot as he, Brian Wood, and special guest Carlos Labbé talk about Nabokov's Transparent Things, transparency as a concept, the wild bed that The Writer is insomniacing in, Uncle Hey Walrus's hypnosis gone awry, why quarantine time is so crazy yet our dreams are getting so boring, and much much more.

This week's music is "Comeback Baby" by Kiwi Jr.

If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can find it on YouTube along with all our past episodes. You can watch the May 6th episode (covering pages 362-424) here. And you can discuss this book at the reactivated Goodreads Two Month Review Discussion Group.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. You can get all of Carlos's books via your local bookstore or Open Letter, and you can follow him on Twitter as well.

Be sure to order Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is now officially available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions. And you can get 20% off The Dreamed Part by using the code 2MONTH at checkout. (Offer only good in the U.S., since we can't ship overseas, but to be honest, we can't ship right now! Order it from Bookshop.org.)

You can also support this podcast and all of Open Letter's activities by making a tax-deductible donation through the University of Rochester.