I was working at the Iowa Review when I first read a section from Mary Jo Bang's new translation of Dante's Inferno. Like many who've read the work since, I was bowled over. The translation is not simply a modern adaption of an old classic a la O, the basketball-themed filmic version of Othello, or an Anime retelling of Faust. No. Bang's Inferno still reads very much like the tour of hell I remember from high school. And yet the story feels much closer, so much more alive and fresh. John Wayne Gacy is there. So are Southpark and Star Trek.

Welcome to Exchanges's new home. This cozy new (web) space is yet another evolution in our little magazine's history. We began in 1989 as a print magazine, a project of the poet and translator Daniel Weissbort. In the early 2000s, Exchanges shifted to publishing solely on the web, partly to reduce costs but mostly because that was the best way to reach a wider audience. Though our focus has always been on English-language translations, we publish translations alongside the original texts. As such, our intended audience stretches far beyond the U.S.-Canandian borders, where print subscription lists tend to be confined.