In Concrete
Anne Garréta has come into the English-speaking world with high acclaim. Her book Sphinx (also translated by Emma Ramadan) is our best seller ever. She has big fans among LGBTQ+ readers, translation fans (of course), fans of experimental writing (especially assured by her place in the Oulipo). Sphinx is still receiving reviews and spotlights to this day. In addition, translator Ramadan runs RiffRaff bookstore in Providence Rhode Island. This is her fifth translation for Deep Vellum.
"In Concrete is Anne Garréta’s greatest narrative accomplishment to date. Translator Emma Ramadan has skillfully managed to recreate lewd jokes, playful puns, and linguistic puzzles resulting in an utterly delightful read." — Deep Vellum Books, Cristina Rodriguez
“Garréta and Ramadan continue to redefine the limits of language—these are not words to read but words to bite, chew, choke on. Consuming In Concrete, with all its pleasures and surprises, feels like learning a new game, ruled by Garréta's definitive and mystifying blend of folklore and testimony.” — Book Culture, Kyle Alderdice
Anne F. Garréta is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, received her License de Lettres at the Université Paris 4 (Sorbonne), her Maitrise and her D.E.A at the Université Paris 7 (Diderot), and a PhD at New York University. The author of six novels, Garréta was coopted to the Oulipo in 2000. Her first novel, Sphinx (1986), which caused a sensation when Deep Vellum published its first English translation in 2015, tells a love story between two people without giving any indication of grammatical gender for the narrator or their lover. She won France’s prestigious Prix Médicis in 2002 and the Albertine Prize in 2018 for her book, Not One Day, which was also nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. Garréta teaches regularly in France at the Université Rennes 2, and more recently at Paris 7 (Diderot), and is a professor at Duke University.
Emma Ramadan is a literary translator of poetry and prose from France, the Middle East, and North Africa. She is the recipient of a Fulbright, an NEA Translation Fellowship, a PEN/Heim grant, and the 2018 Albertine Prize. Her translations for Deep Vellum include Anne Garréta’s Sphinx and Not One Day, Fouad Laroui's The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers, and Brice Matthieussent's Revenge of the Translator. She is based in Providence, RI, where she co-owns Riffraff bookstore and bar.
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