The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe "True! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in …
Silver Linings (4) Sliding Down the Banister of Life
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!! From our Irish Friends: Old Irish saying, “As you slide down the banister of life, May the splinters never point the wrong way.” And from our Italian Friends (by way of Barcelona) who are always up for a celebration, "Cin Cin, Cin Cin!":
Silver Linings (3) All The World’s A Stage
So I teach this wonderful literary translation class at NYU fully online asynchronous and it is my place of normalcy right now. Being a virtual world where I have been together with my students since January, we are in a bubble of calm there to which the outside world has little access. As often as …
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Silver Linings (2) Tipped Toward Joy
Happy Sunday. From our friends in Italy: Some innovative ideas for an indoor exercise routine 🙂 The Time the Universe Spoke to Me So, I wanted to tell you a story about my recent visit to Costa Rica where I went for my birthday in January. My great friend Paola Piglia has a house …
Silver Linings (1)
Hello and Happy Saturday, I have been looking around for silver linings to all this mayhem and terror over COVID-19 and one of them, for me, is the intention to return to posting on my blog which I have really missed. Over the coming weeks, I would like to use my blog to share any …
NYRB Celebrating 20 Years
I'm always thrilled to talk about the amazing and enduring Natalia Ginzburg. Hope to see you there!
Beautiful reading and fascinating discussion of Primo Levi’s story “Quaestio De Centauris” by Jhumpa Lahiri on The New Yorker Fiction Podcast
I highly recommend this reading and discussion of Primo Levi's Quaestio De Centauris, which I translated a few years ago as part of the story collection Natural Histories included in The Complete Works of Primo Levi, edited by Ann Goldstein. When you translate something you spend so much time with the text, and on such an initmate …
CURZIO MALAPARTE: THE CRUELTY OF LITERATURE BOOK LAUNCH with Franco Baldasso at The Center for Italian Modern Art in Soho
24 SEPTEMBER 2019 / 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CIMA is thrilled to host a book launch and conversation with the author of “Curzio Malaparte: The cruelty of Literature,” Franco Baldasso and NYRB translator and novelist Jenny McPhee Curzio Malaparte is today at the center of an international debate reappraising his work as a key …
“Sometimes Women Do Like Women”: On Nancy K. Miller’s “My Brilliant Friends”
My review in the Los Angeles Review of Books MY BEST FRIEND died not long ago after a 15-month illness that was relentless in its attack on her body and soul. She and I first met in the eighth grade, and we were soon closer than sisters or lovers. Indeed, we were often mistaken for …
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The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories Event with Jhumpa Lahiri at The Center for Fiction this Friday
A celebration of the Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories with editor Jhumpa Lahiri and translators Ann Goldstein, Jenny McPhee, and Michael F. Moore. This will be fun! And fascinating. The stories are each intriguing and surprising and Jhumpa is so passionate about all things Italian, but especially the language and literary tradition. Plus The …
Jenny McPhee 