Everybody who's curious about what's going on in international literature should check out the newest volume of TWO LINES, titled Passageways. Long-time Center friends will immediately notice the new trim—instead of the 8.5-inch wide x 5.5-inch tall that we used for a brave 18 years, for our 19th year we're going with a sporty 5 x 8 that you can see to the left.

In this first episode, Scott Esposito interviews Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review and former senior editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. They discuss editing the English version of Jean-Christophe Valtat’s 03 (translated by Mitzi Angel), procuring the rights to Roberto Bolaño’s works and editing Natasha Wimmer’s translations, and Stein's translation of Edouard Levé's book Autoportrait. Daniel Medin and Scott Esposito also chat about César Aira’s Varamo, László Krasznahorkai’s Satantango, and Robert Walser’s Berlin Stories.

On August 13, Margaret Jull Costa joined the Center to discuss her work with some of the greatest authors to emerge from Spain and Portugal in the 20th century. Translator of Javier Marias, Antonio Lobo Antunes, and Nobel laureate Jose Saramago, among many others, Costa gave an insightful overview of Saramago's long career while discussing his perculiar, beautiful, and wholly original prose style. Costa began her presentation by giving some idea of Saramago's context as a writer, developing a sense of his literary roots.