Three Percent Podcast

• Three Percent Podcast: Why Fund a Nonprofit Publisher?

  In the final entry in this series of podcasts on the NEA (for now . . . there may be a return to industry-based Three Percent episodes in the near future), Chad welcomes Hilary Plum (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, Rescue Press, author of State Champ) and Lissie Jaquette (executive director of Words Without Borders, translator from the Arabic of Minor Detail, Thirteen Months of Sunrise, The Queue, among others) to discuss the way in which nonprofit literary presses distinguish themselves from their for-profit counterparts, and what makes a convincing narrative to attract public and private funding. Specifically: what value can a nonprofit press provide to culture that goes beyond the transactional nature of producing and selling books?Part One of this series is available here and is a scripted presentation on the history of the NEA and various attacks it has suffered over the years. (Possibly the most professional Three Percent Podcast episode ever?) And Part Two is a conversation with three literary organizations and presses about the immediate impact of these lost grants.The music for these NEA episodes is the Matmos version of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which deconstructs John Philip Sousa’s patriotic march.If you want to support Open Letter’s publications and all related activities—such as this podcast, reading tours, etc.—consider contributing to Deep Vellum Publishing, the nonprofit organization subsidizing and supporting OL’s operations.You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

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• Three Percent Podcast: The Impact of the Terminated and Withdrawn Grants

  Our series on the National Endowment for the Arts continues by talking with three organizations and publishers about both the specific impact of the May 2nd “termination/withdrawal” emails, and the broader impact the shuttering of the NEA could have on the literary arts in the long term. Featured on this episode are: Michael Holtmann of the Center for the Art of Translation, Adam Levy of Transit Books, and, Mary Gannon of the Community for Literary Magazines and Presses.Part One of this series is available here and is a scripted presentation on the history of the NEA and various attacks it has suffered over the years. (Possibly the most professional Three Percent Podcast episode ever?) The music for both these episodes is the Matmos version of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which deconstructs John Philip Sousa’s patriotic march.If you want to support Open Letter’s publications and all related activities—such as this podcast, reading tours, etc.—consider contributing to Deep Vellum Publishing, the nonprofit organization subsidizing and supporting OL’s operations.You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

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• Three Percent Podcast: The History of the NEA (and the Attacks on It)

  This is part one of a two part series (for now) on the National Endowment for the Arts and the, by now, much reported on letters that NEA grantees received on May 2nd, 2025 terminating or withdrawing their approved funding. In this scripted episode, Chad goes over much of the history of the founding of the NEA, its core mission, the “Culture Wars” in the 1990s, trying to articulate how things are different today, and essentially providing a primer on what the NEA is, what nonprofit publishing is, and what the termination of this funds and possible dissolution of the agency might mean. Again, and for the first time, this is a scripted podcast loaded with information for anyone curious about this particular government organization—much more professional than the usual episode. That said, he’s joined by Kaija Straumanis (The River, High Tide), Tom Flynn (Paratext Publicity), and Brian Wood (Joytime Killbox) to comment on this history and reflect on where we are now with arts in America.Stay tuned for part two, which will be a conversation with three organizations impacted by this letters and how this will impact both their orgs—and the field of literary as a whole.The music for these episodes is the Matmos version of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which deconstructs John Philip Sousa’s patriotic march.If you want to support Open Letter’s publications and all related activities—such as this podcast, reading tours, etc.—consider contributing to Deep Vellum Publishing, the nonprofit organization subsidizing OL’s operations. You can subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch us on YouTube.And be sure to follow our sister podcasts: Two Month Review (Apple, Spotify) and Mining the Dalkey Archive (Apple, Spotify) for more book and industry talk! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

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• Three Percent Podcast #196: The Latvian Triptych

  As a special episode of the Three Percent Podcast, Kaija Straumanis (curator of the Latvian Triptych, translator of The River by Laura Vinogradova) discussed language, literature, art, life, and guilt with the two other translators who contributed to the triptych: Ian Gwin, who translated Berlin by Andris Kuprišs, and Uldis Balodis, who did Birthday by Jana Egle. It’s a fun, illuminating conversation, and one that will hopefully inspire you to read these Latvian books or, you never know, learn some Latvian?The music on this episode is “Visi gali ūdenī” by Jana Egle.If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. And follow Open Letter and Chad W. Post on Bluesky for more info about upcoming episodes and guests. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

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• Three Percent Podcast #196: Emyr Wallace Humphreys

  Every spring, I teach a “World Literature & Translation” class in which I select 10 translations from 10 languages and 10 different translators—most of which I also haven’t read (but which have been on my “to read” shelves)—and force my students to choose one to receive the “Best Translated Book of the Class” prize.And every spring, I want to share our excitement about these various titles, either in the form of interviews with the translators, or by writing something about them. So, over the next few months, I’ll do my best to promote each of these titles—and, when the time comes, let you know which one the class selected to be the winner. A full list of the included titles is below (and yes, I know there are 11, with one overlap language, but we’ve all got to swerve sometimes, right?) and if you’d like to debate which books you loved or disliked, which ones deserve more attention, praise, and, possible, the class prize, please check out the Substack chat, which can serve as a sort of forum for all of these posts and podcasts.Today’s guest is Emyr Wallace Humphreys, who started his translation career working from Brazilian Portuguese before returning to his native tongue, Welsh, to translate one of the most interesting works of Welsh science-fiction ever written. The Last Day came out in 1976 and predicts a future in which human beings give themselves over to a sort of AI computer . . .On this podcast—recorded with my class at the University of Rochester—we talk about the novel, Emyr’s journey as a translator, Welsh literature as a whole, working from a “small” language, Welsh music (shouts to Gwenno and Los Campesinos!), and much more. The music on this episode is “Y Dydd Olaf” by Gwenno.If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. And follow Open Letter and Chad W. Post on Bluesky for more info about upcoming episodes and guests. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

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