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Istros Conversations

Istros Books

Istros Conversations has been set up by Istros Books to talk about the art of literature, with particular attention to literature in translation, and the process through which words are remade and thoughts conveyed across languages and cultures.

Listen to interviews and discussions with authors, translators, and those working in the world of translation.

Istros Books is an independent publisher which specializes in literature in translation from the Balkans and South-East Europe. Istros is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

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  • 20 episodes
  • Avg 27 min
  • English

Episodes 20

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  • Oct 11, 2025 · 15 min

    Stratos comes to the UK

    They say that author Chrysoula Georgoula has written a pitch-perfect portrayal of the male psyche, of a certain kind of Greek male, often with brutal authenticity. We find out what inspired her, and why 'Call Me Stratos' is not just a good read, it is a vivid portrayal of some of the most important aspects of Greek society.

  • Sep 13, 2025 · 14 min

    Croatian Crime

    An interview with Jurica Pavičić, Croatian journalist and crime author

  • Sep 13, 2025 · 9 min

    'In Late Summer'

    A conversation with the author of 'In Late Summer', a novel published by Linden Editions, 2025.

  • Sep 7, 2025 · 9 min

    Travelling, Remembering, Investigating...

    The news of his mother's death finds the writer in Budapest and prompts the opening of an old black box of family mementos. Inevitably, this leads to an unravelling of multi-layered stories and an investigation into everyday lives and times that no longer exists. Christina Pribichevich-Zorić gives us her perspective, as the translator, on this gentle novel: the search for a lost mother, the story of a country and a people who have passed; an elegy for Yugoslavia as well as a family.

  • Aug 27, 2024 · 11 min

    A Grandma's Story through Younger Eyes

    Macedonian writer and poet, Lidija Dimkovska, talks to Lana Lazarevski about her latest novel, which takes the reader from a love affair on the Dalmatian coast during WWII to the wilds of Sicily where the young couple move from armies to mafia and a new life coloured by the old... 'Grandma Non-Oui' is published on Sept 1st, 2024 Translated by Christina E Kramer

  • Jun 27, 2024 · 8 min

    Expressing the inexpressible

    Çiler Ilhan writes about what most writers avoid: the maltreatment of women - and of dogs - family feuds fuelled by government policy, the suffering of children...For her first collection of short stories (Exile, Istros 2015), she was awarded the EU Prize for Literature. With her latest novella, Engagement, she delves into the mechanisms at work behind a massacre which took place in the east of Turkey, in Mardin, in 2009. Lana Lazarevski finds out what motivates her unwavering gaze....

  • Apr 4, 2022 · 33 min

    Special Needs

    Host Laura López speaks with Croatian author Lada Vukić and translator Christina Zorić, who also serves as live interpreter in this conversation. They discuss their shimmering novel, Special Needs, as well as the situation of Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian translation in literature. This episode has been kindly shared by Trafika Europe - https://www.trafikaeurope.org/podcast/women-in-translation

  • Nov 7, 2021 · 51 min

    The Fruit of our Labour - writing and translating from Slovenia

    'The Fig Tree' by Slovene author Goran Vojnović is an intergenerational family saga, set against the backdrop of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Host Joe Williams talks to Goran and translator Olivia Hellewell about the book’s narrative structure and themes, and the challenges of reproducing the Balkan context of the book for an English-language audience This podcast is re-posted here from Trafika Europe Radio · literary livestream: https://trafikaeurope.org/go/radio

  • May 12, 2021 · 48 min

    Mitja Čander in conversation

    For decades, Mitja Čander has been one of the most influential figures in Slovenia’s literary and publishing world – even though his literary debut, Blind Man(Slepec), appeared only in 2019. An editor and literary critic, the co-founder and director of Beletrina Academic Press, essayist, screenwriter, dramaturge, columnist, and candidate for national chess master. Here in conversation with the translator of his novel, Rawly Grau, Mitja talks about his life and his motivation for writing.

  • Jan 28, 2021 · 27 min

    Maramureș Remembered

    On the occasion of International Holocaust Memorial Day 2021, we launch a new collection of stories from the Romanian/Jewish writer, Ludovic Bruckstein. Erased from the national literature when he moved to Israel in the 70s, Bruckstein’s plays and prose writing remained undiscovered for half a century. We talk to his son about the life and work of this father's extraoridnary legacy.

  • Jan 21, 2021 · 46 min

    Interview with Katja Perat

    The author of THE MASOCHIST talks about her writing, the publication of her fist novel and the sense of home for a person who lives abroad This episode was recorded as part of Trafika Europe Radio's The Middle Ground series, exploring the literature of Central and Eastern Europe. See more at https://www.trafikaeurope.org/podcast/the-middle-ground/?c=04007ae3e449

  • Oct 19, 2020 · 1 hr 2 min

    A Tale from Montenegro

    An interview with Olja Knežević about her novel Catherine the Great and the Small, together with her translators, Paula Gordon & Ellen Elias-Bursać Re-posted with the kind permission of the Intralingo World Lit Podcast series

  • Sep 18, 2020 · 28 min

    United in Bread

    Christina Zoric and Stephen Watts discuss the author of 'Our Daily Bread', Predrag Matvejević, a European academic and writer whose life and work were committed to cross-cultural pollination and furthering understanding in our common humanity. Join us as we discuss this uniquely meditative history of bread and its long-standing importance to peoples and faiths across the Mediterranean and beyond.

  • Jun 7, 2020 · 27 min

    Talking Turkish

    This episode was originally produced for Trafika Europe Radio's Women in Translation series: https://trafikaeurope.org/go/radio

  • Dec 6, 2019 · 20 min

    A Room of One's Own

    Author Olja Knezevic talks about writing as a woman and the importance of finding one's own space; the dangers of national identities, and how a Creative Writing MA at Birkbeck (University of London) helped her find her true voice

  • Jun 4, 2017 · 29 min

    An English Home for a Slovenian Narrative - Talking to translator Rawley Grau

    Rawley Grau - in town to attend the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize ceremony - talks to poet and editor, Stephen Watts about his translation of the novel PANORAMA by Dušan Šarotar. Rawley is one of the finest translators working from Slovene into English today, and his work has included prose from Boris Pintar, plays by Ivan Cankar, and essays by Aleš Debeljak. Panorama is his second book translation for Istros Books.

  • Apr 24, 2017 · 19 min

    Aleš Šteger's novel 'Absolution' - The Power of Forgiveness

    The Slovenian writer Aleš Šteger talks to poet and translator, Stephen Watts about his debut novel, Absolution. In the tradition of Bulgakov and Gogol, Šteger lets the forces of good and evil collide in this grandiose literary thriller. This is a debut novel filled with striking personae, haunting images and a grotesque plot. It proves, in the end, to be a journey into the heart of a European darkness.

  • Nov 30, 2016 · 34 min

    Discussing Antonín Bajaja's novel with Rajendra Chitnis

    'Burying the Season' is an affectionate, multi-layered account of small town life in central Europe in the 20th century, just out from Jantar publishing. Listen to Rajendra Chitnis of Bristol University read from his foreword to the book, and tell us how Fellini’s Amarcord and Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons play a role in the lives of the citizens of Zlin, as they navigate through turbulent decades with humour and integrity.

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes