''Asymptote'' is a print and online literary magazine dedicated to translations of world literature, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama, mostly to English, but also to other languages. Reviews, interviews, blogs, visual arts and audiovisual materials are also found on the website; issues are released four times a year. As of July, 2018, ''Asymptote'' had published work translated from 100 language by writers from 117 different countries. Writers such as

Mary Gaitskill Mary Gaitskill (born November 11, 1954) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. Her work has appeared in ''The New Yorker'', ''Harper's Magazine'', ''Esquire (magazine), Esquire'', ''The Best American Short Stories'' (1993, 20 ...

Jose Saramago Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. Given name Mishnaic and Talmudic periods *Jose ben Abin *Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galilean *Jose ben Halafta * ...

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Australia, AC Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 ...

Junot Díaz Junot Díaz ( ; born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a former fiction editor at '' Boston Review''. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience ...

Yann Martel Yann Martel, (born June 25, 1963) is a Canadian author who wrote the Man Booker Prize–winning novel '' Life of Pi'', an international bestseller published in more than 50 territories. It has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and spe ...

, and

Mo Yan Guan Moye (; born 5 March 1955), better known by the pen name Mo Yan (, ), is a Chinese novelist and short story writer. In 2012, Mo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work as a writer "who with hallucinatory realism merges fol ...

have appeared in the magazine. The magazine was established in 2011 by the Taipei-based Singaporean writer Lee Yew Leong, who is the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

. Lee said in 2011, "We operate differently from other translation journals in that we don't just sit back and wait for translations to come to us. We actually identify the good work from writers

hat haven't yet been introduced to the English-speaking world A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...

and actively seek out translators to help to translate the work for us." In 2016, ''Asymptote'' celebrated its fifth anniversary with public events held in New York, London, Ottawa, and Chicago.

Awards

In 2015, the magazine received the International Literary Translation Initiative Award, one of a dozen awards given yearly by the

London Book Fair The London Book Fair (LBF) is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually, usually in April, in London, England. LBF is a global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and d ...

''Asymptote'' (1950)

''Asymptote'' - an earlier, but fictional, avant garde literary magazine - features in the

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-th ...

short story ''A Rattling Good Yarn'', published in 1950 in his collection ''A Table Near the Band''. The story is summed up on the dust wrapper as "''a hilarious spoof about an extremely ''popular'' writer and an ''avant garde'' literary critic''." ''Asymptote'' is the "''advanced literary monthly''" wherein the two protagonists do battle.

References

External links

* 2011 establishments in Singapore English-language magazines Literary translation magazines Magazines established in 2011 Online literary magazines Quarterly magazines Magazines published in Singapore Literary translation websites {{asia-lit-mag-stub