Amélie Nothomb conference
15 -16 May the University of Kent at Paris is holding an 'international conference', Identity, Memory, Place: Amélie Nothomb: Past, Present and Future. Lots of Nothomb-works under review...
View ArticleLiterary prize: Kleist-Preis
The €20,000 Kleist-Preis will go to Marcel Beyer this year -- no news at the official site yet (sigh ...), but see, for example, the boersenblatt.net report. This is one of those...
View ArticleLiterary prize: Sophie Kerr Prize
The Sophie Kerr Prize -- "the nation's largest undergraduate literary award" in the US, awarded by Washington College -- has been awarded to Alexander Stinton, his portfolio beating out those...
View ArticleLiterary prize: Libris Literatuur Prijs
They've announced that the €50,000 Libris Literatuur Prijs, one of the leading Dutch literary prizes, has gone to La Superba, by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer; see also the Dutch Foundation for...
View ArticleChris Andrews Q & A
In the Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka) Tina Edward Gunawardhana has a Q & A with Chris Andrews -- translator of several books by Roberto Bolaño, as well as books by authors such as César Aira...
View ArticleMiles Franklin Literary Award finalists
They've announced the shortlist for the 2014 Miles Franklin Literary Award, one of the leading Australian book prizes. Among the six finalists are books by Richard Flanagan, Tim Winton, Alexis...
View ArticleThomas Keneally profile
In The National James Kidd profiles Thomas Keneally, the wizard of Oz letters, on the consolations of creativity. The only Keneally title under review at the complete review is The...
View ArticleIan McEwan archive
They've announced that Acclaimed Writer Ian McEwan's Archive Acquired by Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin -- and: The archive includes scrapbooks kept by McEwan's mother,...
View ArticleVSV review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Leon de Winter's VSV (of Daden van onbaatzuchtigheid). A couple of years ago Adam Kirsch, in his review of God's Gym,...
View ArticleOxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize shortlist
They've announced the shortlist for this year's Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize -- eight titles, rather than the usual six, "in recognition of the high quality of this year's translations...
View ArticleReading in ... Ethiopia
In The Reporter Henok Reta reports ... yes, you guessed it: Book culture in decline. You know the story: Books look sidelined with many young people these days while electronic devices...
View ArticleNumismatic Literary Guild
Who knew ? There's a Numismatic Literary Guild. Well, sure. Why shouldn't there be one ? They give out awards, too -- 57, including 'The Ribbit' and 'The Clemy' ("the Guild's highest...
View ArticleSunday Times Literary Awards shortlists
They've announced the (South African) Sunday Times Literary Awards shortlists -- for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize (with Lauren Beukes' The Shining Girls one of the finalists, a book I have...
View ArticleGame review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Swedish author Anders de la Motte's Game, the first in his 'Game'-trilogy. Very much airport-thrillerish fluff, but a...
View Article'Religion and culture in African literature'
In The Herald Elliot Ziwira considers Religion and culture in African literature.
View ArticleMurty Classical Library of India
This was announced a while back, and I've been looking forward to it ever since -- and now, finally, in the new Harvard University Press catalogue the first volumes in the Murty Classical...
View ArticleMetaFilter and Google (and the complete review)
MetaFilter reported on the State of MetaFilter a couple of days ago, and Matt Haughey expanded on that at Medium, writing On the Future of MetaFilter; David Auerbach has now also written about...
View Article'World Cup of Literature' tournament
The FIFA World Cup™ starts in Brazil on 12 June and will keep a lot of folks very (pre)occupied for the following month; at Three Percent they're getting in the competitive spirit by launching...
View ArticleRSL Ondaatje Prize
They've announced the winner of the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize -- a £10,000 literary prize notable because it pits fiction, non, and poetry all against one another, the main...
View ArticleSacred River review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Syl Cheney-Coker's new and long-awaited novel, Sacred River, just out from Ohio University Press.
View Article