Being Kafka #7 with Ross Benjamin

02/28/24 • 22 min

This time, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson’s guest in our Kafka podcast is Ross Benjamin. Ross lives in New York and translates German literature into English. He has received awards including the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his work. His latest project is a translation of the diaries of Franz Kafka. He spent eight years on this, and came to know the author from Prague like a close friend in the process. What does Ross admire most about Kafka? He tells you that in the podcast – listen in and find out.

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Being Kafka #6 with Jaroslav Rudiš

Czech author and musician Jaroslav Rudiš is touring Europe with his group, the Kafka Band. These concerts attract audiences young and old, as he tells Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson in the podcast. What particularly fascinates the musician about Kafka is the mixture of tragedy and comedy in his works. Jaroslav sings these works in German, Czech and English, against a backdrop of alternative rock ... it’s tricky to describe, you need to listen!

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Being Kafka #8 with Grzegorz Jankowicz

Dina Elsayed’s guest on the Kafka-Podcast is Polish philosopher and translator Grzegorz Jankowicz. Grzegorz hosts a reading circle in Kraków under the banner “How to survive with Kafka,” in which participants work as a group to navigate the disorientating words of Franz Kafka. His tip for anyone reading Kafka for the first time: relax, forget about the clichés, and have fun. And we hope you have fun listening to this episode too!