Sarah Gear

An Interview with Hamid Ismailov - Asymptote When Hamid Ismailov answered my questions, he had just returned from a tour of the United States promoting his most recent book to appear in English, We Computers (Yale University Press, 2025), t...

Just what we need at the end of January - the new edition of Asymptote is out! You’ll find my interview with the inspirational Hamid Ismailov there, alongside all sorts of other wonderful things www.asymptotejournal.com/interview/an...

Our Top Ten Articles of 2025, as Chosen by You: #2 An Interview with Anton Hur - Asymptote Blog Hur holds language in the highest esteem. Rightly so, for when we all turn to dust, poetry is our final imprint on the universe.

Kind of tickled that my interviews with @antonhur.com and @jencalleja.bsky.social were the second, and third most read on Asymptote's site in 2025! Here's to a 2026 of more fun interviews - thank you to everyone who took the time to chat with me! www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2025/12...

Thank you too Jen!

An Interview with Jen Calleja - Asymptote I met with Jen Calleja—author, musician and translator from German extraordinaire—at the Edinburgh International Book Festival where she was taking part in two events. In the first, she ap...

The new edition of Asymptote is out today - and I got to interview the wonderful @jencalleja.bsky.social for it 😊 Have a read here!
www.asymptotejournal.com/interview/an...

Translating Mothersland Shahzoda Samarqandi, Shelley Fairweather-Vega, and the Politics of Language Dr Sarah Gear, School of Modern Language 6.00pm - Pay What You Can £6.00 / £4.00 Novelist Shahzoda Samarqandi and translat...

Come and join me for a chat with author Shahzoda Samarqandi about her wonderful novel Mothersland! Her translator Shelley Fairweather-Vega will be there too for a discussion of language, politics, and Central Asian literature. 23rd Sept, Byre Theatre, St Andrews
byretheatre.com/shows/transl...

So lovely to chat with you!

An Interview with Boris Dralyuk - Asymptote Corresponding with Boris Dralyuk is always a pleasure. He is one of those people whose thoughtfulness and genuine interest just make the world feel like a better place. Having read most of his transla...

And a lovely interview with the wonderful @bdralyuk.bsky.social www.asymptotejournal.com/interview/an...

Summer 2025 Featuring Alda Merini, Bassam Yousuf, Carolina Brown, MARGENTO and Daniel Saldaña París in our AI-themed Feature

New edition of Asymptote out today! www.asymptotejournal.com

Reading “The Eyes of Gaza” from wartime Ukraine — APOFENIE Reviewed by Kate Tsurkan Reading “The Eyes of Gaza” from Ukraine, I was reminded of how no war occurs in a vacuum — the fight for survival, freedom, and justice is never isolated, but part of a larg...

We're bringing back Apofenie Magazine. Among other things, expect book reviews from me there that aren't related to Ukraine and the surrounding region. For our triumphant return, I reviewed Palestinian journalist Plestia Alaqad's wartime memoir "The Eyes of Gaza."

www.apofenie.com/the-latest-c...

An Interview with Anton Hur - Asymptote Anton Hur is a genuine literary force. As one of the most prolific translators of Korean literature, and an author, too, since the publication of Towards Eternity (HarperVia) in 2024, he has...

I have been absent for a while - coming back to post this very fun interview with the wonderful @antonhur.com! www.asymptotejournal.com/interview/an...

‘A changing of the epochs’

Sarah Gear: Recording a complex tapestry of life

Inventing a history

'In Russia, fact and record shift like quicksand.'

Bryan Karetnyk: How Stalin shaped the Soviet collective memory

Translating Macedonian Literature and Lidija Dimkovska’s Personal Identification Number: An Interview with Christina Kramer - Asymptote Blog No matter how much I read, no matter how well I know the language, that language is constantly changing, and authors are creative.

An interview with with wonderful Christina Kramer about translating Macedonian literature on the Asymptote blog today! Thank you Christina! www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2025/03...

Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East A PIMs book discussion with Victoria Donovan, Uilleam Blacker and Volodymyr Kulikov

With eastern Ukraine again at the centre of world events, it's never been more important to listen to those who come from there. This is what Victoria Donovan does in her new book. Join our discussion @uclssees.bsky.social next Friday! @dauntbookspub.bsky.social www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees/events...

Very excited to announce this new podcast!

Narrating a Violent Childhood: A Q&A with Fiona Bell and Margarita Vaysman about Avdotya Panaeva’s The Talnikov Family Avdotya Panaeva was born in 1820 and first began publishing her work in one of Russia’s premier literary magazines, Sovremennik, in 1846. The author of numerous short stories, novels, memoirs, as w…

Huge thank you to @olgaz.bsky.social for this Q&A about Avdot'ia Panaeva and to Margarita Vaysman and Fiona Bell for the marvelous discussion.

"Hers is a rare female voice in the predominantly male chorus of other big nineteenth-century Russian writers."

puncturedlines.com/2025/02/28/n...

2025 Books by Post-Soviet Authors 2025 is going to be a big year for books written by immigrant authors hailing from the Soviet Union who now call North America home. Since 2021, I’ve kept a running list of books coming out from ou…

This list of 2025 Books by Post-Soviet Authors has been updated with two new titles (Julie Masis and Olga Stein). Thank you @sashavasilyuk.bsky.social for putting this list together and staying on top of it! So exciting to see all of these books in one place.

puncturedlines.com/2025/02/11/2...

Event poster for 'Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East' with a photo of the book cover.

Please join us for a conversation with Prof Victoria Donovan on her latest book 'Life in Spite of Everything. Tales from the Ukrainian East', which explores the lived experiences of communities in Ukraine’s #Donbas region.

🗓️ 14 March at 5.30pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ buff.ly/41bybJE

Announcing the Translation Prizes 2024 shortlists - The Society of Authors There are 41 shortlisted works across eight prizes

See the full shortlists here: authr.uk/TP24
Shop the shortlists - uk.bookshop.org/lists/transl...

#TranslationPrizes

Very excited that I'll be presenting on Russian literature, translation and soft power at the EST 2025 Congress in Leeds this summer! #EST2025

Vision, Capacity, and Patience: Interview with Shelley Fairweather-Vega, Part II - Asymptote Blog Kazakhstani [authors] are . . . trying to decide what story to tell the world about themselves.

I was also able to chat to Shelley Fairweather-Vega about her work as a translator - out today on the Asymptote blog www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2024/11...

Mothersland – Shahzoda Samarqandi Mahtab has translated herself into her mother, and she has translated the past to make it her own.

Time for my first post here :) I was lucky enough to review Mothersland by Shahzoda Samarqandi, translated by the wonderful Shelley Fairweather-Vega. www.full-stop.net/2024/10/14/r...

Thank you!! This is super helpful :)