Port Harcourt takes over as World Book Capital
Port Harcourt has taken over as World Book Capital for the next year; see the official site. Good to see the bookish attention there, and looks like things have gotten off to a decent...
View ArticleInternational Prize for Arabic Fiction
They've announced that Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi wins 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction as فرانكشتاين في بغداد by أحمد سعداوي took the prize. Gotta like the...
View ArticleBTBA ... 2015 ?
So, with the Best Translated Book Awards for books published in the US in 2013 behind us (see my previous mention) we can look ahead to this year's crop and the 2015 prize ! My early...
View ArticleThe Gray Notebook review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Josep Pla's The Gray Notebook, just out in a translation by Peter Bush from New York Review Books. Choice quotes include:...
View ArticleBTBA celebrations in New York
Tomorrow night, from 18:00 to 21:00, the Best Translated Book Award will celebrate at The Brooklyneer, on 220 West Houston Street. No doubt there will be a big New Directions contingent,...
View ArticleTaiwanese cinematic literary promotion
Focus Taiwan reports that 10 Taiwanese literary works to be made into short films, as: Ten Taiwanese works of contemporary literature are being made into short films as part of a Ministry of...
View ArticleRussian literary revival ?
In the Financial Times Viv Groskop wonders: 'Can the new generation of writers revive a great tradition ?', in Reasserting Russia's literary status. Opinions are mixed: "Russian...
View ArticleThe Time Regulation Institute enthusiasm
At the PEN Atlas site Kaya Genç wonders whether Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar's The Time Regulation Institute is, in fact, The Greatest Turkish Novel ?
View ArticleUS university literary prizes
Like the French, American literary book- (as opposed to author-)prizes tend to be about prestige rather than cash: the biggest pay out relatively/very little by international standards (the...
View ArticleMay online issues
Among the May issues of online publications now available is Words without Borders', focussed on Writing on Taboos from the Netherlands and Flanders. Meanwhile, Dalkey Archive Press...
View ArticleTriangle review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Matsuura Hisaki's Triangle, coming out from Dalkey Archive Press.
View ArticleRe-Kivi ! Seven Brothers competition
Aleksis Kivi's Seven Brothers is basically the classic Finnish novel -- but its impact abroad has been ... not so impressive. My review is of the very creaky 1929 translation, and there's been...
View ArticleTranslation in ... Malta
In Malta Today Teodor Reljic considers The necessary perils of literary translation, as tiny -- and linguistically isolated -- Malta looks to spreading Maltese literature abroad....
View ArticleOCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature
Last month I mentioned they'd announced the category-winners/finalists for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature -- and it seems they've now announced the overall winner (very quietly --...
View ArticleO.V.Vijayan, overshadowed by García Márquez ?
In The Hindu K.K.Gopalakrishnan argues that: 'O.V. Vijayan did not become as well known as Gabriel García Márquez due to a lack of timely translation into English', in (sigh) Lost in...
View ArticleGod's Dog review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Diego Marani's God's Dog.
View ArticleHelen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize
They've announced that Shelley Frisch will receive this year's Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize -- and the $10,000 that goes with it -- for her translation of Reiner Stach's Kafka: The...
View ArticleChinese book exhibit
Not too many details about the actual -- and very brief (only over the weekend ?) - exhibit at Peking University's library (aside: they still call Beijing U 'Peking U' ? better that 'Peiping',...
View ArticleHelga Königsdorf (1938-2014)
(East) German author (and physicist) Helga Königsdorf has passed away; see, for example, the (German) obituary in Die Zeit. One of that generation of leading authors that were also...
View ArticleThe Newton Papers review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Sarah Dry on The Strange and True Odyssey of Isaac Newton's Manuscripts, in The Newton Papers.
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