Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Peter Constantine
New Maps for Tamil Fiction: A Conversation with Ajithan
Home | Magazine  | November 2026 |  Interviews This page is available to subscribers. Click here to signin or get access. Mount Merapi / Photo by Myphotoxplore / Adobe Stock Ajithan (b. 1993) is one of the most talked-about young writers in Tamil literature today: a filmmaker who trained under Mani Ratnam and a fiction writer whose imagination reaches beyond the geography of his language in South India.
Van "tosselvin" tot Metamorfose: Peter Constantine in gesprek met Ilse van Staden
Ilse van Staden het met haar debuutbundel, Watervlerk (2003), dadelik ’n eie plek in die Afrikaanse digkuns ingeneem. Die bundel is met sowel die Eugène Marais-prys as die Ingrid Jonker-prys bekroon, en kritici het veral gelet op die vindingrykheid van haar taalgebruik: die woordvormings en samestellings waarmee sy nuwe ruimtes vir Afrikaans oopmaak. Vier verdere digbundels het gevolg, tot by verveertaal (2023), asook ’n kortverhaalbundel en romans in Afrikaans en Engels.
Ancient Words, Modern Words: A Conversation with Anne Carson
Anne Carson / Photo by permission of Beowulf Sheehan / www.beowulfsheehan.com Background by MiaStendal A prizewinning Canadian poet, essayist, and translator, Anne Carson (b. 1950) will receive the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature in Stockholm on December 10. The following interview first appeared in the “Classics Rekindled” section of the January 2014 issue of WLT. Reviews of her work that have appeared in the magazine can be found here.
Paul and Peter, by August Strindberg, Peter Constantine | Conjunctions — The forum for innovative writing
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE The novella, “Paul and Peter,” was first published in Strindberg’s collection Svenska Oden och Afventyr (Swedish Destinies and Adventures) in 1882. Strindberg was thirty-three and had already proven himself to be one of Sweden’s most versatile young writers. The Royal Theater had staged his first plays, The Outlaw and The Secret of the Guild. He was a journalist who wrote for major publications ranging from Dagens Nyheter (The Daily News) to Finsk Tidskrift (Finnish Magazine).
A Babel of Languages: Peter Constantine on the Joys of Translation and Multilingual Writing
The vastness of Peter Constantine’s personal linguistic range is almost unimaginable to most of us. He moves with ease between German, Modern Greek, Italian, Russian, Afrikaans, French, Ancient Greek—and those are just the languages I happen to know about. It’s no surprise that the Times asked Constantine to review Michael Erard’s book about hyperpolyglots, Babel No More—only that Erard didn’t feature him in it.
A Babel of Languages: Peter Constantine on the Joys of Translation and Multilingual Writing
Esther Allen Speaks with the Author of The Purchased Bride The vastness of Peter Constantine’s personal linguistic range is almost unimaginable to most of us. He moves with ease between German, Modern Greek, Italian, Russian, Afrikaans, French, Ancient Greek—and those are just the languages I happen to know about. It’s no surprise that the Times asked Constantine to review Michael Erard’s book about hyperpolyglots, Babel No More—only that Erard didn’t feature him in it.
The Purchased Bride - The American Scholar
The Viewing, Summer 1909, Constantinople My grandfather walks down the long corridor to the room where Maria and the other two girls he has purchased are waiting to be viewed. Maria has not seen the other girls before; they are both 15, like she is. They have been brought from across the border in Batum, and like her, they have each been sequestered in a separate room for a week before this final viewing that will decide their fates.
Time Stitches | Poetry Foundation
By Eleni Kefala Translated By Peter Constantine The fragments and cinematic vignettes that make up Eleni Kefala’s first poetry collection to appear in English are themselves the titular “time stitches,” poems woven by the fates.
Uncovering Buried Historical Memory: A Conversation with Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, by Peter Constantine
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access. Grzegorz Kwiatkowski is a new and dynamic poetic voice from Poland, with six volumes of poetry and several translations on the way, as well as the vocalist of the psychedelic postpunk band Trupa Trupa. His newest collection, Crops, translated into English by Peter Constantine, was published by Rain Taxi in November 2021.
Meeting Friederike Mayröcker (1924–2021): A Remembrance, by Sylvia Petter
Sylvia Petter recalls Austrian writer Friederike Mayröcker, who passed away June 4, not long after the book-themed TV series ÜBER featured her in its first episode. Friederike Mayröcker passed away on June 4, 2021, in Vienna, aged ninety-six. She was farewelled to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” and was laid to rest on June 17 in a grave of honor at the Central Cemetery beside her partner of many years, the poet Ernst Jandl, who died in 2000.
In Ruins: Reflections beyond Kuwait,by Mai Al-Nakib
Photos by Mai Al-Nakib / Courtesy of the author Civilizations, empires, dynasties, and monarchies end, leaving behind ruins of their fabled splendor. Traces of achievements become more or less decipherable, contingent upon the mercy of elements and vagaries of time. Global ascents have been awesome. The point, however, is that no matter how accomplished or established the power, no matter how seemingly eternal, its passing is guaranteed.
World Literature Today Announces Finalists for 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature
Left column (top to bottom): Boris Boubacar Diop, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya; Middle left column: Michális Ganás, Cristina Rivera Garza, Jean-Pierre Balpe; Middle right column: Natalie Diaz, Naomi Shihab Nye, Micheline Aharonian Marcom; Right column: Kwame Dawes, Reina María Rodríguez. Petrushevskaya photo © Anastassia Kazakova. Diaz photo © MacArthur Foundation.
Jury Announced for the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature
Left column (top to bottom): R. O. Kwon, Matthew Shenoda. Center left: Carlos Labbé, Fowzia Karimi, Jennifer Croft. Center right: Carlos Pintado, Hamid Ismailov, Eleni Kefala. Right: Olga Zilberbourg, Tarfia Faizullah World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, has announced the names of the jury members who will select the next round of finalists for the renowned Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
A Farewell to Adam Zagajewski, by Marek Makowski
Photo by Jerry Bauer I was waiting for a tennis court on the lakeshore in Chicago when I read that Adam Zagajewski died. I have always considered tennis like writing: you practice to get into a rhythm, you wait for moments of inspiration, and sometimes you play out your imagination without feeling yourself thinking or moving at all.
“I’ll lay down my life for you all”: Poetry and Activism on the Streets of Myanmar, by James Byrne
Poet and teacher K Za Win (1982–2021) / Photo courtesy of the author When I last visited Myanmar in 2013, it was to participate in the Irrawaddy Festival to launch Bones Will Crow: 15 Contemporary Burmese Poets. Soon after arriving, I realised the festival was somewhat dubious. They put me up in a colonial relic called the British Club, and the festival itself was organised by the then–British ambassador’s wife, who often kept separate the international from the local writers.
My Childhood Bedroom, by Loubna El Amine
Beirut; Credit: George Azar A writer reflects on her relationship to home in Beirut. Why the windows of the room did not shatter from the August 4 explosion is still a mystery. The building is only five kilometers away from the port of Beirut, and the windows of the neighbors’ apartment broke. In other buildings nearby, even the aluminum frames came off; photos circulating showed the big metal pieces, mixed with glass shards and drops of blood, covering disordered furniture.
Remembering Neustadt Laureate Adam Zagajewski (1945–2021), by The Editors of WLT
When we heard the news yesterday that Adam Zagajewski had passed away at the age of seventy-five in Kraków, Poland, we immediately thought not only of his exceptional poetry and essays but also of his exceedingly warm congeniality. Zagajewski and his wife, Maya, graced us with their presence at the University of Oklahoma in October 2004, on the occasion of his receiving that year’s Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a year that also saw Chinua Achebe, J. M.
Poetry and Wordplay in Afrikaans: A Conversation with Ilse van Staden, by Peter Constantine
When South African poet Ilse van Staden’s first poetry collection, Watervlerk, was published in 2003, it was heralded as one of the groundbreaking poetry works of the new millennium that steered Afrikaans literature toward new and brave directions.
Desegregating Language: The New Afrikaans Crime Novel, by Peter Constantine
Photo: Quinn Makabe played by Thapelo Mokoena in the TV drama of Trackers by Deon Meyer Encountering postapartheid Afrikaans fiction for the first time, particularly the fast-paced crime novels of Deon Meyer, the author finds that the most unexpected element is the new lack of segregation between Afrikaans and English. Since the end of South Africa’s apartheid regime in 1994, there has been an unexpected boom in crime fiction written in Afrikaans.
Intrigues | Harper's Magazine
Sign in to access Harper’s Magazine Need to create a login? Want to change your email address or password? Forgot your password? Sign in to Customer Care using your account number or postal address. Select Email/Password Information. Enter your new information and click on Save My Changes. Locked out of your account? Get help here. Subscribers can find additional help here. Not a subscriber? Subscribe today!
Machiavelli, Not Such a Bad Guy?
Note: Translator's footnotes have been omitted. Niccolò Machiavelli to His Magnificence Lorenzo de' Medici Those who wish to win the favor of a prince will generally approach him with gifts of what they value most or what they believe will most delight him. Hence we see princes being offered horses, arms, vestments of gold, precious stones, and similar accoutrements worthy of their grandeur.
Anton Chekhov: A Post-Post-Modernist Way Ahead of His Time
I have been translating Anton Chekhov for over 20 years, bringing into English more than a hundred stories that are lesser-known, unknown, or untranslated. I have been asking myself throughout these two decades: What is Chekhovian? We hear of Chekhovian situations, Chekhovian despair, Chekhovian resolutions.
The Young Literary Scene in Kosovo: A Conversation with Ragip Luta
Kosovo is a young and vibrant country striving to prevail in a harsh new Balkan reality. Ragip Luta is the director of Kosovo’s Festival of Literature in Orllan. The festival is held annually in July by Lake Batlava, bringing together Kosovar and international writers and artists. The festival’s theme for 2015 was “Writers and Writing in Exile.” It brought back to Kosovo exiled writers such as Xhevdet Bajraj (Mexico) and Skënder Sherifi (Belgium).
Saunders on Babel, Prose Poet of the Grotesque
Excerpt: 'The Story of My Dovecote' As a child I wanted a dovecote very badly. In all my life I have never desired anything more intensely. I was nine years old when my father promised to give me the money to buy some planks and three pairs of doves. The year was 1904. I was getting ready for the examinations for the preparatory class of the Nikolayev Lycée. My family lived in Nikolayev, in the province of Kherson. This province no longer exists; our town was absorbed into the district of Odessa.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Peter
Contact Peter, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack