Frank Wynne Reads Kangni Alem

The Stinging Fly Podcast

On this month's episode of the podcast, editor Danny Denton is joined by translator Frank Wynne, to read and discuss a short story, "Britney Spears' Sandwich", by Togolese writer Kangni Alem, which first appeared in English in our most recent issue, Summer 2021.

Kangni Alem is an award-winning Togolese writer, critic and playwright. He founded the Atelier Théâtre de Lomé in 1989. He has published five novels and three collections of short stories, the most recent of which is Britney Spears’ Sandwich (Lomé, 2019). This is the first time his work has been translated into English.

Frank Wynne is an Irish literary translator from French and Spanish whose authors have included Michel Houellebecq, Javier Cercas and Virginie Despentes. He jointly won the DUBLIN Literary Award, and has twice won both the Scott Moncrieff Prize and the Premio Valle Inclán. He edited the anthologies Found in Translation (2018) and QUEER: LGBT writing from Ancient Times to Yesterday (2021). During 2021, Frank is collaborating with The Stinging Fly as our first translator-in-residence.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available for everyone to read during the coronavirus crisis.