James Garza
@garzawords.bsky.social
Ph.D. // Lit translator (JP-EN) // 文芸翻訳者 // 翻訳研究者 // Poetry Magazine // Asymptote // Modern Poetry in Translation // Stephen Spender Prize winner // he/him
Reposted by James Garza
Reminder for the new year
December 27, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reminder for the new year
Reposted by James Garza
ICE has kidnapped so many people from their cars that the city had to put out this statement. Let that sink in.
Vehicles that are abandoned due to an ICE detention and towed to the City's impound lot will be released to their owners or a representative at no cost.
Learn more: https://www.minneapolismn.gov/getting-around/parking-driving/impound-lot/#d.en.200746
Learn more: https://www.minneapolismn.gov/getting-around/parking-driving/impound-lot/#d.en.200746
January 16, 2026 at 11:42 PM
ICE has kidnapped so many people from their cars that the city had to put out this statement. Let that sink in.
Reposted by James Garza
Shout out to the airport employee who pushed both up and down on the elevator and announced, "Screenshot!"
December 24, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Shout out to the airport employee who pushed both up and down on the elevator and announced, "Screenshot!"
Reposted by James Garza
billionaire: i have 3 brains. in my skull
interviewer: incredible
interviewer: incredible
December 20, 2025 at 4:33 AM
billionaire: i have 3 brains. in my skull
interviewer: incredible
interviewer: incredible
Been on a social media break. But happy to report that my work on Kojima Hiyori's collection "Water's Edge" has been shortlisted for the Poetry in Translation Prize, launched this year by Giramondo Publishing, Fitzcarraldo Editions and New Directions.
Extracts up at granta.com/the-poetry-i...
Extracts up at granta.com/the-poetry-i...
The Poetry in Translation Prize | 2025 | Granta
The Poetry in Translation Prize, founded by Fitzcarraldo Editions, New Directions and Giramondo, is a...
granta.com
December 14, 2025 at 3:40 AM
Been on a social media break. But happy to report that my work on Kojima Hiyori's collection "Water's Edge" has been shortlisted for the Poetry in Translation Prize, launched this year by Giramondo Publishing, Fitzcarraldo Editions and New Directions.
Extracts up at granta.com/the-poetry-i...
Extracts up at granta.com/the-poetry-i...
Reposted by James Garza
reminded of eric williams's observation about britain's relationship to its history with slavery. "British historians wrote almost as if Britain had introduced Negro slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it."
holy shit: “Among the 2,000 UK adults surveyed, 85% were unaware that Britain forcibly transported more than 3 million Africans to the Caribbean, 89% did not know that Britain enslaved people in the Caribbean for more than 300 years” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Caribbean reparations leaders in ‘historic’ first UK visit to press for justice
CRC mission will seek to deepen public understanding of Britain’s colonial legacy and its lasting impact
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 11:11 PM
reminded of eric williams's observation about britain's relationship to its history with slavery. "British historians wrote almost as if Britain had introduced Negro slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it."
Reposted by James Garza
now i'm seeing authors getting pumped about AI translations - and cheap AI-assisted translations (first pass is AI, then refined by translator)
i feel like these people are not valuing their own writing, or the complex work translators do. it's not really a word-for-word thing.
i feel like these people are not valuing their own writing, or the complex work translators do. it's not really a word-for-word thing.
November 15, 2025 at 3:36 AM
now i'm seeing authors getting pumped about AI translations - and cheap AI-assisted translations (first pass is AI, then refined by translator)
i feel like these people are not valuing their own writing, or the complex work translators do. it's not really a word-for-word thing.
i feel like these people are not valuing their own writing, or the complex work translators do. it's not really a word-for-word thing.
Reposted by James Garza
Reposted by James Garza
Reposted by James Garza
"It’s not that people actually think art is pointless. It’s that they are jealous of someone else getting paid to do it. They, too, want to be paid to make art. They find creation joyous, however small their attempts. There is art and there is work, and you only deserve money if you suffer."
Hello! I wrote about how and why Americans punish creators buttondown.email/algoldfuss/a...
Life Is Pain, Highness
I’ve been thinking about art and punishment. That is, how we punish people for making art. There’s the more nuanced form, where we project our own...
buttondown.email
November 1, 2025 at 6:22 PM
"It’s not that people actually think art is pointless. It’s that they are jealous of someone else getting paid to do it. They, too, want to be paid to make art. They find creation joyous, however small their attempts. There is art and there is work, and you only deserve money if you suffer."
Reposted by James Garza
If you live in Japan, I recommend printing some of these out and just having them on you. Sadly, I could have really used one last night at dinner...
t.co/rOZdnPIHFb (the link goes to a download site with an ad that is annoying to close etc. but the zip and enclosed pdfs are legit)
#NoHateOsaka
t.co/rOZdnPIHFb (the link goes to a download site with an ad that is annoying to close etc. but the zip and enclosed pdfs are legit)
#NoHateOsaka
October 27, 2025 at 4:52 AM
If you live in Japan, I recommend printing some of these out and just having them on you. Sadly, I could have really used one last night at dinner...
t.co/rOZdnPIHFb (the link goes to a download site with an ad that is annoying to close etc. but the zip and enclosed pdfs are legit)
#NoHateOsaka
t.co/rOZdnPIHFb (the link goes to a download site with an ad that is annoying to close etc. but the zip and enclosed pdfs are legit)
#NoHateOsaka
big taco with only a little meat
October 23, 2025 at 5:46 AM
big taco with only a little meat
Reposted by James Garza
There was a time when you could describe Gaza as an "open-air prison," and people would scoff at the ludicrous hyperbole, and now we're at "Gaza is an open-air death camp" and that's just ... true.
I think this is the most horrifying post I have ever read.
July 20, 2025 at 12:26 PM
There was a time when you could describe Gaza as an "open-air prison," and people would scoff at the ludicrous hyperbole, and now we're at "Gaza is an open-air death camp" and that's just ... true.
Reposted by James Garza
Daniel Hahn: "what AI can do is not yet a threat to human translators and human readers of sophisticated, textured human writing. The threat is what some people think it can do."
observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
AI won’t replace us human literary translators just yet
Yes, it can turn French words into English ones, but true translation is so much more than that
observer.co.uk
July 15, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Daniel Hahn: "what AI can do is not yet a threat to human translators and human readers of sophisticated, textured human writing. The threat is what some people think it can do."
observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
There's a piece of graffiti I see sometimes from the train. "BLACK ODEN PIZZA," it says. I try to imagine the circumstances. There are other words around it, but that's all I can ever make out.
July 11, 2025 at 4:27 AM
There's a piece of graffiti I see sometimes from the train. "BLACK ODEN PIZZA," it says. I try to imagine the circumstances. There are other words around it, but that's all I can ever make out.
Reposted by James Garza
Resistance to ICE raid at Camarillo farm.
Feds just threw tear gas at protesters so they’d clear the road for a US Marshals bus carrying people they arrested at the farm
July 10, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Resistance to ICE raid at Camarillo farm.
Reposted by James Garza
Joanna's recent piece on the short story form @literaryhub.bsky.social is great! And you can read her gorgeous short stories, which we published in 2015, here: www.nyrb.com/products/ver...
July 10, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Joanna's recent piece on the short story form @literaryhub.bsky.social is great! And you can read her gorgeous short stories, which we published in 2015, here: www.nyrb.com/products/ver...
Reposted by James Garza
Just circling back to this, o muse
Touch base with me, Muse, re: rage of Achilles
July 10, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Just circling back to this, o muse
なにこのそびえ立ち方。遠くの霞から姿を現す悪魔城に似すぎる
tech-dracula skyline on a poor air quality day in Sendagaya
tech-dracula skyline on a poor air quality day in Sendagaya
July 8, 2025 at 3:24 PM
なにこのそびえ立ち方。遠くの霞から姿を現す悪魔城に似すぎる
tech-dracula skyline on a poor air quality day in Sendagaya
tech-dracula skyline on a poor air quality day in Sendagaya