Three Percent Podcast

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

George Henson (Pitol’s translator) and Mark Haber (Lesser Ruins, Ada) join Chad to celebrate the recent release in English of the third volume in Sergio Pitol’s “Carnival Triptych,” Married Life. They talk about that book, but also spend a lot of time discussing The Art of Flight and the “Trilogy of Memory,” which propelled Pitol into the global spotlight both when it came out in the original Spanish, and in George’s translation. There’s also talk of translation theory and finding a voice, editing practices and intertextuality, and much more. This episode’s music is “Marriage” by Gold Panda.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

Dropping on the same day that Hagfish’s first publication—To Smithereens by Rosalyn Drexler—was named as one of the New York Times’s “100 Notable Books of 2025,” this podcast explores the Hagfish business model with its cofounders, Julia Ringo and Naomi Huffman. They discuss how the press came to be, what draws them to particular titles, the difficulty of distribution, why they’re only doing two titles a year, and much more. The conversation also focuses on their second title, Man Hating Psycho by Iphgenia Baal, a brilliant collection of stories that’s raucous, well-crafted, and, like what Dylan Thomas said about At Swim-Two-Birds, “just the sort of book to give your sister if she’s a loud, dirty, boozy girl!” (It really would make a great holiday present . . . just saying.)This is part of a new thread of Three Percent Podcasts in which an indie press discusses the inner workings of publishing, through the lens of one of their recent publications. This episode on World Editions and The Cracks We Bear by Catalina Infante & Michelle Mirabella was a sort of soft launch for this, and we do have several episodes lined up for the next few months . . . This week’s music is “The Bitter End” from Molly Nilsson.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

Christine Swedowsky, the newest publisher of World Editions, and Michelle Mirabella, translator of Catalina Infante’s The Cracks We Bear join Chad to discuss the various eras of World Editions and how an indie press can evolve over time, and a few upcoming titles. The conversation focuses on Mirabella & Infante’s forthcoming novel, discussing how the book is much more than another book about motherhood, the difficulty of translating certain titles for the American market, and how valuable a collaborative experience with your publisher can be. This week’s music is “Burn This Atlas Down (2 of Clubs)” from Hallelujah the Hills.You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.You can also find the Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.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

Quick Reminder: All Open Letter books either written or translated by women are on sale for 40% off to celebrate Women in Translation Month through August 31st! Shop the whole collection here!Jen Calleja, translator, author, musician, recent PhD recipient, joins Chad to talk about her recent book, Fair: The Life-Art of Translation. They discuss the origins of the book, the various types of “translation” books out there, Fair’s unique structure, the translator as storyteller, Jen’s writing voice, the role performance has played in her life, and much more.Three songs from Calleja on this podcast: “Transmitters” and “The Bridge” open and close the episode, with a bit of “Erase” popping up where appropriate.You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.You can also find the Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.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

In our ongoing celebration of Women in Translation Month, Chad talked to Suzanne Jill Levine about Unfaithful: A Translator’s Memoir, recently released by Bloomsbury Academic. They discuss her life as a translator who was there during “The Boom” and her work with Manuel Puig (who deserves another rediscovery), Adolfo Bioy Casares (Chad relates his Lost story about The Invention of Morel), Severo Sarduy (Cobra is now available as a Dalkey Essential), G. Cabrera Infante, Emir Rodríguez Monegal, intimacy and translation, and more. This episode’s music is “Lightning” by Arcade Fire, a problematic band for sure, but, given the storm that disrupted this recording, a song that sort of fits. (And isn’t Imagine Dragons.) Also, for the month of August, all Open Letter books either written or translated by women are on sale for 40% off to celebrate Women in Translation Month. Shop the whole collection here!You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.You can also find the Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.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 special 200th episode of the Three Percent Podcast, Tom Roberge—original co-host, former publicist for New Directions, co-founder of Riffraff Books, and current head of residencies at the Jan Michalski Foundation—returns to talk about life in Switzerland, his media diet, Swiss support for culture, how he no longer follows the Mets very closely, and much more. A number of books and authors are mentioned on the podcast, but special attention should be drawn to After 8 Books and A Forest Petrifies: Diamond Feedback by Félicia Atkinson.This episode’s music is “Box Elder” by Pavement.Also, for the month of August, all Open Letter books either written or translated by women are on sale for 40% off to celebrate Women in Translation Month. Shop the whole collection here!You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.You can also find the Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.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, Blake Butler (Molly, Void Corporation, Uxa.Gov, the Dividual Substack) joins Chad to discuss his recent piece, “What I Want In an Ideal Publisher.” They discuss various disconnects in publishing, what makes a great indie publisher, the possibility of doing things in a new way, financial transparency and editorial vision, and much more. Intro and outro music is “Couldn’t Get Ahead” by The Fall.Also, for the month of August, all Open Letter books either written or translated by women are on sale for 40% off to celebrate Women in Translation Month. Shop the whole collection here!You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.You can also find Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.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

In this episode, Tom Comitta (The Nature Book, Patchwork) joins Chad to talk about their book(s) People’s Choice Literature: The Most Wanted and Unwanted Novels, for which they used survey results, The Bestseller Code, various best-selling novels, and the OpenAI Playground to write two very entertaining novels: one using everything people want in a book, the other doing the exact opposite. The result is a wildly compelling reading experience that opens up ideas about aesthetics, readerly desires, the future of “collage literature,” and, naturally, a little bit of baseball talk.You may want to watch this episode on YouTube, since there are graphs, charts, data, and other images that Comitta refers to in explaining their process.The music on this episode is “The Most Wanted Song” and “The Most Unwanted Song.” (The latter of which is far far far more interesting!)You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.You can also find Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.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

In the final entry in this series of podcasts on the NEA (for now . . . there may be a return to industry-based Three Percent episodes in the near future), Chad welcomes Hilary Plum (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, Rescue Press, author of State Champ) and Lissie Jaquette (executive director of Words Without Borders, translator from the Arabic of Minor Detail, Thirteen Months of Sunrise, The Queue, among others) to discuss the way in which nonprofit literary presses distinguish themselves from their for-profit counterparts, and what makes a convincing narrative to attract public and private funding. Specifically: what value can a nonprofit press provide to culture that goes beyond the transactional nature of producing and selling books?Part One of this series is available here and is a scripted presentation on the history of the NEA and various attacks it has suffered over the years. (Possibly the most professional Three Percent Podcast episode ever?) And Part Two is a conversation with three literary organizations and presses about the immediate impact of these lost grants.The music for these NEA episodes is the Matmos version of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which deconstructs John Philip Sousa’s patriotic march.If you want to support Open Letter’s publications and all related activities—such as this podcast, reading tours, etc.—consider contributing to Deep Vellum Publishing, the nonprofit organization subsidizing and supporting OL’s operations.You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.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

Our series on the National Endowment for the Arts continues by talking with three organizations and publishers about both the specific impact of the May 2nd “termination/withdrawal” emails, and the broader impact the shuttering of the NEA could have on the literary arts in the long term. Featured on this episode are: Michael Holtmann of the Center for the Art of Translation, Adam Levy of Transit Books, and, Mary Gannon of the Community for Literary Magazines and Presses.Part One of this series is available here and is a scripted presentation on the history of the NEA and various attacks it has suffered over the years. (Possibly the most professional Three Percent Podcast episode ever?) The music for both these episodes is the Matmos version of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which deconstructs John Philip Sousa’s patriotic march.If you want to support Open Letter’s publications and all related activities—such as this podcast, reading tours, etc.—consider contributing to Deep Vellum Publishing, the nonprofit organization subsidizing and supporting OL’s operations.You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.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

This is part one of a two part series (for now) on the National Endowment for the Arts and the, by now, much reported on letters that NEA grantees received on May 2nd, 2025 terminating or withdrawing their approved funding. In this scripted episode, Chad goes over much of the history of the founding of the NEA, its core mission, the “Culture Wars” in the 1990s, trying to articulate how things are different today, and essentially providing a primer on what the NEA is, what nonprofit publishing is, and what the termination of this funds and possible dissolution of the agency might mean. Again, and for the first time, this is a scripted podcast loaded with information for anyone curious about this particular government organization—much more professional than the usual episode. That said, he’s joined by Kaija Straumanis (The River, High Tide), Tom Flynn (Paratext Publicity), and Brian Wood (Joytime Killbox) to comment on this history and reflect on where we are now with arts in America.Stay tuned for part two, which will be a conversation with three organizations impacted by this letters and how this will impact both their orgs—and the field of literary as a whole.The music for these episodes is the Matmos version of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which deconstructs John Philip Sousa’s patriotic march.If you want to support Open Letter’s publications and all related activities—such as this podcast, reading tours, etc.—consider contributing to Deep Vellum Publishing, the nonprofit organization subsidizing OL’s operations. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.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

As a special episode of the Three Percent Podcast, Kaija Straumanis (curator of the Latvian Triptych, translator of The River by Laura Vinogradova) discussed language, literature, art, life, and guilt with the two other translators who contributed to the triptych: Ian Gwin, who translated Berlin by Andris Kuprišs, and Uldis Balodis, who did Birthday by Jana Egle. It’s a fun, illuminating conversation, and one that will hopefully inspire you to read these Latvian books or, you never know, learn some Latvian?The music on this episode is “Visi gali ūdenī” by Jana Egle.If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. And follow Open Letter and Chad W. Post on Bluesky for more info about upcoming episodes and guests. 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

Every spring, I teach a “World Literature & Translation” class in which I select 10 translations from 10 languages and 10 different translators—most of which I also haven’t read (but which have been on my “to read” shelves)—and force my students to choose one to receive the “Best Translated Book of the Class” prize.And every spring, I want to share our excitement about these various titles, either in the form of interviews with the translators, or by writing something about them. So, over the next few months, I’ll do my best to promote each of these titles—and, when the time comes, let you know which one the class selected to be the winner. A full list of the included titles is below (and yes, I know there are 11, with one overlap language, but we’ve all got to swerve sometimes, right?) and if you’d like to debate which books you loved or disliked, which ones deserve more attention, praise, and, possible, the class prize, please check out the Substack chat, which can serve as a sort of forum for all of these posts and podcasts.Today’s guest is Emyr Wallace Humphreys, who started his translation career working from Brazilian Portuguese before returning to his native tongue, Welsh, to translate one of the most interesting works of Welsh science-fiction ever written. The Last Day came out in 1976 and predicts a future in which human beings give themselves over to a sort of AI computer . . .On this podcast—recorded with my class at the University of Rochester—we talk about the novel, Emyr’s journey as a translator, Welsh literature as a whole, working from a “small” language, Welsh music (shouts to Gwenno and Los Campesinos!), and much more. The music on this episode is “Y Dydd Olaf” by Gwenno.If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. And follow Open Letter and Chad W. Post on Bluesky for more info about upcoming episodes and guests. 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

In the penultimate episode of this season, there’s a lot of talk about Melville’s relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne as we get more of Melville’s life as he bounces through time, writes Moby-Dick and the creation of “its own kind of reader: an inexhaustible reader. A reader that didn’t yet exist . . .” The "Grifters Gonna Grift" t-shirt is still available and still sexy. Next episode will be next week at the regularly scheduled time and will cover the end of Rodrigo Fresán's Melvill. You can find the full reading schedule here. This week's music is "Vertigo" by FM Belfast. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Please rate and review! It helps more than you know. Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.   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

[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. And this one if you listen on Spotify. The others will be going away in the near future.] On the final episode of 2024, Chad, Brian, and Kaija talk about Nico C. and being unmoored from time, last words, footnotes and ellipses, some highlights from the past year, ice, and more. The "Grifters Gonna Grift" t-shirt is still available and still sexy. Next episode will be next week at the regularly scheduled time and will cover pages 189-245 of Rodrigo Fresán's Melvill. You can find the full reading schedule here. This week's music is "Water" by Ra Ra Riot. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Please rate and review! It helps more than you know. Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. 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

[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please subscribe to this feed.] Lori Feathers (Across the Pond podcast, Involutions of the Seashell, Interabang Books, and Republic of Consciousness Prize USA) joins Chad and Kaija to talk about prizes—Melvill is longlisted for the NBCC Greg Barrios Prize for Translated Literature!—the narrative structure of Melvill, Nico C., and vampires. A lot of fun is had along the way. The "Grifters Gonna Grift" t-shirt is still available and still sexy. Next episode will be in TWO WEEKS and will cover pages 123-188 of Rodrigo Fresán's Melvill. You can find the full reading schedule here. This week's music is "WHALE" by Yellow Ostrich. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Please rate and review! It helps more than you know. Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. The large image associated with this post is AI generated. 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

[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.] With Melville's Fidèle receding into the dark distance, we turn our attention to Rodrigo Fresán's Melvill, a bombastic book about Alan Melvill and Herman and the passing down of stories from one generation to the next. On this special episode, translator Will Vanderhyden joins Brian, Chad, and Kaija to talk about translating Fresán, about the style and word play found in his books, about the footnotes, about what's to come. They also talk about the line connecting this to Confidence-Man, and how to read footnotes. And about the interplay between two narratorial voices in this first part. Also mentioned are this interview with Fresán on Between the Covers, this one with Will Vanderhyden on Beyond the Zero, and this new Fresán story ("Music to Destroy Worlds" (An Exoeriment)") in Southwest Review.  And here's where you can get your own "Grifters Gonna Grift" t-shirt mentioned in this episode. Next episode will cover pages 62-123 of Rodrigo Fresán's Melvill. You can find the full reading schedule here. This week's music is "Sink or Swim" by Young Fathers. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Please rate and review! It helps more than you know. Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. 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

[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.] Chad, Brian, and Kaija venture into the darkness and turn off the light on Melville's The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade, one of the oddest, most slippery books to be included in the Two Month Review. They talk about transcendentalism, self-reliance, Melville's interludes, Jean Giono's Melville, and more.  And here's the "Grifters Gonna Grift" t-shirt mentioned in this episode. Next episode will cover pages 1-61 of Rodrigo Fresán's Melvill. You can find the full reading schedule here. This week's music is "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness" by The National.  You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Please rate and review! It helps more than you know. Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.   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

[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.] Opening with a couple of rants, this week's podcast is spicy and also tries to make sense of a few of the more perplexing parts of the book. There's a wonderful interlude in this section from the narrator themselves, and, apparently, nine jokes? And a magic trick involving coins. You'll have to listen to understand. And here's the "Grifters Gonna Grift" t-shirt mentioned in this episode. This week's music is "Jealousy" by Phantogram. Next episode will cover all of of The Confidence-Man. You can find the full reading schedule here. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Please rate and review! It helps more than you know. Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.   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