Born in San Francisco to Russian parents, Misha Semenov is currently studying Translation and Urban Design at Princeton University. Misha wants English-language readers to truly experience Russian poetry, its waves of sound, its rhythms, its cadences, and its rhymes, and thus believes in the importance of keeping the meter and rhyme in his translations as close to the original as possible, resulting in English poems that focus on music and flow. His work has appeared in the Medieval and Hysteria issues of Spolia.… Continue Reading
Hysterical Speech with Mats Kempe
Mats Kempe, a Swedish writer little known in the States unfortunately, contributed two pieces to our Hysteria issue. (You can read an excerpt from “Concepts” here.) Here he discusses writing and other hysterical states with his translator, BJ Epstein.… Continue Reading
Lia Mills Speaks About our Chapbook Series
At the launch for Mia Gallagher’s Spoils chapbook “Quasimodo,” the writer Lia Mills gave this rousing introduction, in support of the written word, the short story, the physical object. And if you are so inspired after reading Mills’s piece, you can then buy copies of our chapbook in our store.… Continue Reading
Read an excerpt from Mats Kempe’s “Concepts”
The Swedish writer Mats Kempe has two pieces running in the Hysteria issue of Spolia, both translated by B.J. Epstein. Below is an excerpt from the abstract yet emotionally complex “Concepts”:… Continue Reading
The Hysteria of Multiple Personality Disorder
Your therapist is probably giving you multiple personality disorder. Oh sure, he’s going to deny it. He will say you obviously had some problems to begin with, and that he just uncovered the form they’re taking and their source. And there you will be, disassociated into several different personalities. People you don’t know will greet… Continue Reading
Introducing Our Sixth Issue, Hysteria
Now available for download: Hysteria. With contributions by Rebecca Brown, Ana María Shua, Andrei Codrescu, Sjón, Suzanne Scanlon, and more. In 1518, in Strasbourg, a woman began to dance in the street. She danced for days without stop. Soon, other people joined her in the dancing, and found that they too either could not stop or had no… Continue Reading
Read an Excerpt from The Turkish Mirror by Viktor Horváth
In our Medieval issue, we have the first English language excerpt from Viktor Horváth’s European Union Prize winning novel Turkish Mirror. In the following selection, “Madonna,” a boy’s sexual awakening happens in front of a religious icon of the Virgin Mary. You can read the rest of the excerpts from Turkish Mirror in our issue.… Continue Reading
A Medieval Charm
Eleanor Johnson not only translated a section of Dante’s Paradiso for our Medieval issue, she also sent in translations from Anglo Saxon charms, written in verse, with instructions on how to bring on a delayed birth or how to get rid of a wen. (That would be a cyst.) In this excerpt from her charms, we… Continue Reading
In Light Of Tragedy, Mia Gallagher’s “Quasimodo”
“Quasimodo” begins with two sisters doing something they’ve done a hundred times before: entering their parents’ house. But something is different. The lighting is wrong. The normally soft hues and gentle lamp-lit shadows have been washed out by hard fluorescent overhead bulbs. Carpet stains– once hidden– are exposed and the wallpaper is peeling. It isn’t… Continue Reading
Read an Excerpt from Spolia’s Modern Medieval Bestiary
By far the strangest, and most thrilling, submission we got for our Medieval issue was Patrick Stuart’s “Pariahs,” a video game, D&D, Borges, Medieval inspired bestiary. It is funny, it is dark, it is poetic and strange. We fell in love with it immediately. He sent in a bestiary of many menacing creatures, and you… Continue Reading
