Lawrence Schimel's avatar

Lawrence Schimel

@lawrenceschimel.bsky.social

680 followers 17 following 644 posts

Bilingual (Spanish/English) author & literary translator. Kidlit. Poetry. Comics. 🌈 He/él I’ve translated: Maggie Nelson, Danez Smith, George Takei, Juan Villoro, Carmen Boullosa, Trifonia Melibea Obono, Koleka Putuma, etc.

Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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I also really like Higashino's NEWCOMER, which has a very different feel. It's a cozy, seems like a bunch of slice-of-life vignettes by a bumbling cop, new to neighborhood, but he's actually relentlessly, quietly solving a murder you realize by end. A book about community and kindness, too.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Anyway, the Pavesi is not as ground breaking, it's just well-written. But the twists (though foreseeable in Pavesi's case) had a similar feel, if that makes sense.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Have you read Keigo Higashino's mysteries THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X and THE SALVATION OF A SAINT? Japanese detective, best friend is a physics prof. Both impossible to talk about because EVERYTHING is a spoiler. How to prove a negative as mystery. Mind blowing, before-and-after good. So original.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Barnes & Noble's 25% off preorders promotion includes my book HAICUBA/HAIKUBA co-written with Carlos Pintado, illus. by JuanJo Colsa, out in September from NorthSouth Books.

The promotion runs till 17 July 2024 - use this code at checkout: PREORDER25

www.barnesandnoble.com/w/haicuba-ha...

#kidlit

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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I’d also recommend Alex Pavesi’s EIGHT DETECTIVES. (Or THE EIGHTH DETECTIVE, depending on US vs UK title.) Very well-written literary mystery. Story within a story, some of the stories deliciously dark. It’s almost like the Horowitz Magpie series crossed with Highsmith’s LITTLE TALES OF MISOGYNY.

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Roxane Gay's avatar Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social
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Flight attendant just used a wet wipe to open the bathroom door and that tells me everything I need to know.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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More community focus.

Better control, to see what you actually want—like all the great feeds set up by people like @debbieohi.com !

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Dr. Lucky Tran's avatar Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.bsky.social
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In France, the left coalition comes in first, Macron second, the far-right third. The best way to defeat fascism is not centrism, it’s a strong left.

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Greg Pak's avatar Greg Pak @gregpak.bsky.social
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Finally reading Octavia Butler's PARABLE OF THE SOWER. I know everyone talks about how prescient it is, but I was honestly shook on the very first page.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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BLACKTONGUE was very good. Enough so that, while I am usually leery of prequels, I am looking forward to giving this a try.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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THE DAUGHTERS’ WAR (because you recommended BLACKTONGUE THIEF so often to people, ages ago, I had to check it out :) )

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Much more freedom as a translator or author to recreate the text (especially wordplay, rhyme, etc) when it isn't parallel text!

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Glad you recognize the effort of writing a bilingual book--and especially haikus--versus writing and translating monolingual editions. Doesn't matter which language I/we started with, when we worked on the other, we had to go back to the original and tweak it.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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This book was published when Enchanted Lion was switching distributors earlier this year and seems to have flown under the radar...

#kidlit

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Debbie Ridpath Ohi's avatar Debbie Ridpath Ohi @debbieohi.com
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You're so kind, Moira! I'm just passing it forward (as is Harold); so many people helped ME when I first joined Bluesky. I'm really excited to see more of the #kidlit community joining AND helping each other.

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Moira Ratchford's avatar Moira Ratchford @moiraratchford.bsky.social
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I just want to give a shout-out to @debbieohi.com and @hunderdown.bsky.social. They are beyond generous in sharing their advice and years of experience with the rest of us. This is a tough field to stand out in, but they're by our side, helping us all follow our kidlit dreams. Thank you!

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Here are some spreads from a powerful hybrid book from Mexico that I translated, THE BOOK OF DENIAL by Ricardo Chávez Castañeda and Alejandro Magallanes, published recently by Enchanted Lion:

enchantedlion.com/all-books/th...

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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It was a mindblowing before-and-after book for me, how she sets up the world philosophically and linguistically. *chapeau

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Have you read Emma Donoghue’s THE LOTTERYS books yet? Big unruly cast of kids, with queer parents. I found them fun and charming.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Frances Hardinge’s DEEPLIGHT is a really-good, fairly-recent and innovative cosmic horror novel.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Have you read Pamela Dean? Lovely coming of age fantasy stories, and I think especially THE DUBIOUS HILLS might scratch a similar Samatar itch.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Maybe Robert Jackson Bennett's THE TROUPE, if you haven't already read it? Maybe Melissa Marr's WICKED LOVELY or Holly Black's Curse Workers series? For conspiracies with supernatural elements, that're still dark even though published as YAs. But language-wise the RJB is a better match for you...

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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For something very dark (but still poetic) if I might suggest a powerful Mexican book I translated: THE BOOK OF DENIAL by Ricardo Chávez Castañeda & Alejandro Magallanes:

enchantedlion.com/all-books/th...

Also look at some of the Argentine women writers: Mariana Enriquez, Samantha Schweblin, etc.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Patricia McKillip feels a little like the fantasy equivalent of Colette... her ALPHABET OF THORNS is a lovely fantasy about translation, so slightly slant-wise but still maybe of interest?

I'm looking forward to reading the Irish novel-in-verse THE LONELY BOOK:
www.littleisland.ie/collections/...

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Will look for PARASON AGAINST THE AXE.

Reminds me a little of the Mexican bibliofantasy I translated, THE WILD BOOK, although in that case, it's a book that had never been read by anyone:

restlessbooks.org/bookstore/th...

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Lynch's editor, Anne Groell, published a fantasy trilogy in the 90s that was definitely fun & may have enough foul language. (I know one1of the 2 kept sleeping with the murder suspects.) ANVIL OF THE SUN was the first book. Also maybe Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series? (Anne was also editor.)

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Yes BLACKTONGUE THIEF definitely has rich foul language as well as adventure. As I read it, I pitied his translators into other languages…

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Also very good if diff in feel is Annaleee Newitz’s feminist time travel political thriller THE FUTURE OF ANOTHER TIMELINE. (This would be closer to Connie Willis, in “feel,” whereas the other is closer to GGK.)

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Have you tried Ian Pears’ ARCADIA yet? Has the textured language and epic scope of GGK as well as the time travel.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Yes, they’re very good. Read them in order! Things that happen in each book have consequence for rest of series.

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Debbie Ridpath Ohi's avatar Debbie Ridpath Ohi @debbieohi.com
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Browsing shops along the Danforth while waiting to meet a friend. Love the sign outside indie bookstore The Scribe! #uplift #indiebookstores

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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They seemed to respond to the Carrington/curveball request. (BITTER is good but it is more a companion book to PET, probably. I would maybe read other works of theirs first.)

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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For you, Kelly, I would say read their romance novel YOU MADE A FOOL OF DEATH WITH YOUR BEAUTY (also very much about making art & also grief & pulls no punches) and/or their epistolary memoir (which is also a #publishingpaidme masterclass about writing) DEAR SENTHURAN.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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Maybe Akwaeke Emezi? Especially their two utopian novels, PET and BITTER, which are also very much about making art and the power of art.

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Lawrence Schimel's avatar Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
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It really did make me think of your household as I was reading it.

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