Translations from ... Russia
At Russia Beyond the Headlines Phoebe Taplin reports that 'New novels from some of Russia's most inventive writers are published in English this year', in Russian fantasies for rebels and...
View ArticleWriting in ... Burma
At The Dissident Blog James Byrne writes about being On the Precipice: Burmese Literature Post-censorship (mainly from a poetry perspective). He notes: If you probe deeper and talk to...
View ArticleCommentary review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the Best Translated Book Award-longlisted Commentary by Marcelle Sauvageot. The Ugly Duckling Presse edition is the first...
View ArticlePremio Alfaguara de novela
As the Latin American Herald Tribune reports, Colombian Author Wins Spain's Alfaguara Novel Prize as El mundo de afuera, by Jorge Franco, has won this year's Premio Alfaguara de novela -- at...
View ArticleHelen Oyeyemi profile
In The Independent Alexander Nazaryan profiles Helen Oyeyemi, a postmodern literary wizard. It's worth it just for the mention that: In 2007, she enrolled in a creative writing graduate...
View ArticleBookstores in ... New York
In The New York Times Julie Bosman reports that New York is a Literary City, Bookstore Desert, as: "from 2000 to 2012, the number of bookstores in Manhattan fell almost 30 percent, to 106...
View ArticlePEN World Voices
The schedule for the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature -- running 28 April through 5 May in New York -- is up (not that I noticed until now ...). As always, certainly...
View ArticleFriedrich-Hölderlin-Preis
They've announced that Peter Stamm will be awarded the Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis. No, not the biennial €10,000 Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis awarded by 'the university and university city...
View ArticleGame for Five review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Marco Malvaldi's Game for Five, the first of his popular 'Bar Lume' mysteries. Europa Editions is bringing out another of...
View ArticleThe Mewar Ramayana
In The National Ben East writes about Making a digital masterpiece: British Library gathers antique Ramayana into one virtual location -- and you can see The Mewar Ramayana: a digital...
View ArticleDefining Irish texts ?
In the Irish Times Martin Doyle writes about Bryan Fanning and Tom Garvin's The Books That Define Ireland, in which the authors select: "31 definitive texts" as defining Ireland; the article,...
View ArticleWriting in ... Slovakian and Finnish
Okay, so if you're born in Slovakia and want to write, but decide to move beyond your native -- and tough-sell-abroad-- language, Slovakian, of all the languages to choose to write in would you...
View ArticleWürth-Prize for European literature
They've announced that the biennial, €25,000 Würth-Preis für Europäische Literatur goes to Hungarian author Nádas Péter this year; see, for example, the (German) report in Der Standard....
View ArticleEdible Book Festivals
On (or around -- they show some flexibility) 1 April it's again International Edible Book Festival time. As that official site notes, it's not just for April Fool's Day's sake -- 1 April...
View ArticleThe Restless Supermarket review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ivan Vladislavić's The Restless Supermarket, finally available in a UK/US edition, from And Other Stories.
View ArticleSibylle Lewitscharoff mess
A couple of weeks back, Apostoloff-author Sibylle Lewitscharoff gave one of the prestigious 'Dresdner Reden' and chose as her topic Von der Machbarkeit. Die wissenschaftliche Bestimmung über...
View ArticleLinn Ullmann Q & A
At Tweed's (a name I still can't get used to; I really much preferred: 'The Coffin Factory') Laura Isaacman interviews Linn Ullmann, and despite the horrific intro ("The thing about Linn...
View ArticleAlan Ayckbourn profile
In The Guardian Nicholas Wroe profiles playwright Alan Ayckbourn: 'I've never been a political writer: I'm a social writer'. Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business is being revived at the National...
View ArticleBeer in the Snooker Club review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Waguih Ghali's 1964 classic Beer in the Snooker Club -- apparently soon to be re-issued yet again, by Vintage. [Aside:...
View Article'Chick-lit' in ... Africa
At Standard Digital Anjellah Owino considers: Is there a chick-lit gap in African literature ?
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