The what? Glad you asked. The title of this blog comes from a short story entitled “The Third Bank of the River” (from the collection Primeira Estórias) by João Guimarães Rosa, often considered Brazil’s greatest writer, certainly its greatest writer of the twentieth century. Summarizing briefly: in the story, a father builds a canoe and abandons his family in an attempt to row upstream toward a third bank of the river. The metaphor is clear: the father is in search of a mythical bank, the unknown to be found in nature and within himself.

That, in short, is the aim of this blog. In search of the third bank, we’ll explore Brazilian literature—from the past up to the present—in an attempt to bring to readers of English insight into Brazil’s writers past and present. You can expect literary analysis, insights into the process of translating Brazilian literature, the occasional interview, and dispatches from and about the people and places that compose Brazil’s literary panorama. All from PEN/Heim-winning translator from the Portuguese Eric M. B. Becker.

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And an important note: the wonderful drawing that serves as this site’s logo is the handiwork of the fantastic Heather Simon.