Translation
I am a French to English translator, with a particular focus on contemporary Caribbean and French poetry.
Outside: Poetry and Prose by André du Bouchet is now available from Bitter Oleander Press! This bilingual collection (co-translated with Hoyt Rogers), brings together a cross-section of verse from over five decades du Bouchet’s work, including a selection of his legendary notebook fragments.
For more context, see these excerpts—
AGNI, The Cortland Review, and Exchanges
—as well as these reviews:
Reading in Translation, LA Review of Books, and ArtsFuse.
“Despite the immense importance of André du Bouchet in French letters, he remains an obscure figure to English readers … Fishman and Rogers never stumble as they translate along du Bouchet’s razor-thin semantic edges, boiling language down to its fundamentals: images and space.” -Michael Overstreet, LA Review of Books
I’m currently translating a collection of poetry by the Martinican writer Monchoachi, supported by a grant from the government of Martinique. Samples of this project are available on Asymptote, Poetry Daily, Two Lines, AGNI, and Arc Poetry.
Two other Monchoachi translations: a contribution to Violent Phenomena: 21 Essays on Translation (Tilted Axis), and a poem accompanying a photo series by David Damoison, in the collection Visible: Text + Image (Two Lines).
Writing
As a literary and music critic, my essays use texts (broadly interpreted) as starting points for the investigation of larger questions.
(For my writing about education, see here.)
Book Reviews:
Are Translators Ventriloquists? On Reviewing Literary Translations. Rain Taxi.
A Playful Polish Epic: Pan Tadeusz, Translated by Bill Johnston. ArtsFuse.
It Sticks in the Throat, Beyond Speech: Poems by Pierluigi Cappello, Translated by Todd Portnowitz. Cortland Review.
Age Plays the Ouroboros: The Last Poems of Ursula K. Le Guin. Rain Taxi.
On Humanity and the Beech Tree: C.D. Wright’s Casting Deep Shade. ArtsFuse.
Poems, Not Artifacts: New Poets of Native Nations and a “Poet’s Playlist” at the Peabody. ArtsFuse.
Science Fiction as a Tool for Critical Consciousness? Olivia A. Cole’s A Conspiracy of Stars (paired with a review by one of my students). ArtsFuse.
Music Reviews:
A Healing Space: A Far Cry and the Miró Quartet Present “Loss and Resurrection.” ArtsFuse.
Reflections and Echos: Colin Carr Plays the Complete Bach Cello Suites. ArtsFuse.
Music as Metaphor: An Orchestra, A Physicist, and a Composer Reflect on “Gravity.” ArtsFuse.
The Verona Quartet Takes on Shostakovich, Haydn, and Brahms. ArtsFuse.