Issue 17 Interviews
From its inspiration to its final arrival in the hands of the reader, writing undergoes a lengthy and complex process, and one that is too often overlooked. Each issue, Front Porch sits down with people who are engaged daily with the processes and industries of writing, be it by running community workshops, buying books at a used bookstore, organizing translations, and much more. These interviews seek to examine the many forces that shape literature, and to highlight the perceptive and passionate people to whom we owe the books on our shelves.
Front Porch: I'm sure you get this question all the time—why Czech?
Justin Quinn: Pure chance. I ended up here in the early 1990s to get away from Ireland for a while after graduating. One thing led to another...
Front Porch: Could you give a brief rundown of the languages you speak and how you came to speak them?
Hana Ulmanova: I speak English, Russian, and German and understand well enough French and Spanish. And since I translate American Jewish literature, I also have some awareness of Yiddish and Hebrew. I started to learn all of them under communism, since there was nothing else to do, and as I grew older, I realized that speaking or understanding any foreign language means enriching your horizons—both cultural and intellectual, as well as your way of thought.
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