Three Percent Podcast

On this episode, special guest Aryan Omar Hassan talks about Henar Press and their first publications: Gābor by Seyed Qader Hedayati, translated from the Kurdish by Chiya Parvizpur & Hourieh Maleki Qouzloo; I Am Going to Kill Somebody by Firat Ceweri, translated from the Kurdish by Jeannette Okur; and Who’s Afraid of Kurdistan?: An Anthology of Contemporary Plays, edited by Aryan himself. He also discusses the Kurdish Literary Database he built and maintains, along with discussing the element of suppression (of language, of the people) in Kurdish literature and some other common tropes, and makes a number of recommendations.
This episode’s music is “Damascus” by Gorillaz.
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Arunava Sinha—professor, journalist, translator of over 100 works, including The Laboratory by Rabindranath Tagore—discusses his new venture, Chowringhee Press, his career in translation, the literary scene in India writ large, and provides a list of books to check out if you’re looking for entryways into South Asia’s diverse literary scene (see below).
Books published by Chowringhee Press:
I Murdered Mine, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, translated from the Hindi by Sakshi Agarwal
Premchand X Ray + Sen, Munshi Premchand aka Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava, translated from the Hindi by Sayari Debnath
Writing Death—Ego: A Novel, Rajalekshmi, translated from the Malayalam by Dhiya Sony
The Laboratory, Rabindranath Tagore, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha
Finalists for the JCB Prize for Literature:
Jasmine Days, Benyamin, translated from the Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib
The One Legged, Sakyajit Bhattacharya, translated from the Bengali by Rituparna Mukherjee
Imaan, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha
The Nemesis, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by V. Ramaswamy
There’s Gunpowder in the Air, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha
Moustache, S. Hareesh, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
Anti-Clock, V.J. James, translated from the Malayalam by Ministhy S.
The Paradise of Food, Khalid Jawed, translated from the Urdu by Baran Farooqi
Song of the Soil, Chuden Kabimo, translated from the Nepali by Ajit Baral
Sanatan, Sharankumar Limable, translated from the Marathi (via Hindi) by Paromita Sengupta
Maria, Just Maria, Sandhya Mary, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
Delhi: A Soliloquy, M. Mukundan, translated from the Malayalam by Fathima E.V. & Nandakumar K.
Fire Bird, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan
A Lonely Harvest‌, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
The Story of a Goat, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by N. Kalyan Raman
Trial by Silence‌, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
I Named My Sister Silence, Manoj Rupda, translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
Tomb of Sand, Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell (also featured on the Two Month Review)
Valli, Sheela Tomy, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
This episode’s music is “Looking for a Ghazal” by Sarathy Korwar.
You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk!


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Jeffrey Angles (translator of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again and many non-Kaiju related titles) joins Chad and special guest Joanne Bernardi (Writing in Light: The Silent Scenario and the Japanese Pure Film Movement, Provenance and Early Cinema (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Japanese Cinema (ed.), and the multimedia resource, ReEnvisioning Japan) to talk about the recent release of The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Shin’ichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta, recently released by University of Minnesota Press. They discuss how this project came about, the relationship between the books and the films, the political ideas evident in Mothra, the gender of Godzilla and Mothra in the original texts, and how Mothra is related to Doctor Doolittle. A very interesting, lively conversation about “monster studies,” translation, and cultural representation from two experts, who are also big Godzilla-verse fans!
This episode’s music is “Mothra’s Song.”
You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk!


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

On this episode of the Three Percent Podcast, French translator and University of Rochester MALTS grad, Allison Charette, joins Chad to discuss her most recent translation: Return by Raharimanana (Seagull Books). A structurally complex, evocative work about memory, trauma, family, and beauty, Return is also a great introduction to the modern history of Madagascar—a history filled with political upheaval and division. From translation issues and the lack of Malagasy works in English, to comparisons between Raharimanana and António Lobo Antunes, this episode goes deep into a number of issues surrounding the publication and presentation of world literature.
This episode’s music is “Window to Your World” by Mammal Hands.
You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk!


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Leif Høghaug (who is currently translating Finnegans Wake into Norwegian) and David M. Smith join Chad and Kyle Semmel to talk about The Calf, one of the strangest books to come out in 2025. They provide curious readers with some guideposts to approaching this book, talk about influences and specific Norwegian dialects, David’s choice to write this in the Appalachian dialect his dad speaks, deciding to “write like an idiot” and enjoy the play and music of language, and much more. If you’re at all curious about this unique book, this episode may well convince you to pick up a copy.
This episode’s music is “Idiot Box” by Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory.
You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk!


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com