International literature-prize day
A big day for international literary prizes in the English-speaking world, as they'll be announcing: The (American) Best Translated Book Awards, poetry and fiction - check in at Three Percent...
View ArticleTranslation from ... Kazakh
In The Astana Times Daniel Massow writes: Kazakh Literature Needs English Translations, Says Kazakhstan PEN Club President, reporting on a recent Kazakh Literature Evening Reception at the...
View ArticleTranslation from/to ... Burmese
In The Myanmar Times Nandar Aung reports on A bridge between Myanmar and international literature translation. Writer Ma Thida is quoted, finding: "it very upsetting that fewer and fewer...
View ArticlePEN/Heim Translation Fund winners
They've announced the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Winners, and winning projects include: "the first novel from Madagascar ever to be translated into English" and Mongolian poetry, as well as...
View ArticleNeustadt International Prize for Literature finalists
They've announced the finalists for the 2016 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and they are: Can Xue (nominated by Porochista Khakpour) Caryl Churchill (nominated by Jordan...
View ArticleIndependent Foreign Fiction Prize
Almost at the same time the (American) Best Translated Book Award was announced, they announced the winner of the big UK translated-fiction prize, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, which...
View ArticleBest Translated Book Awards
They announced the winners of this year's Best Translated Book Awards, and they were: Fiction: The Last Lover, by Can Xue, in Annelise Finegan Wasmoen's translation, published by Yale...
View ArticleThe Islanders review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of yet another dark, dark tale by Pascal Garnier, The Islanders, UK-available, and due out shortly in the US.
View ArticleDany Laferrière enters the Academy
Dany Laferrière (Why Must a Black Writer Write About Sex ? etc.) has now taken his place (fauteuil 2) among the immortels of the French Academy -- "le premier Haïtien et le premier Québécois"...
View ArticleBooks from Finland to cease publication
I'm a big fan of national literary organizations' various efforts to try to spread the word about local literature for foreign markets -- and Books from Finland has long been among the most...
View ArticleLiterary culture in ... Indonesia
At Qantara.de Monika Griebeler reports that Indonesia -- this year's 'Guest of Honour' at the Frankfurt Book Fair -- is ... A land without readers. So, for example: "Literature as it's...
View ArticleLiterary culture in ... Malaysia
In The Malaysian Insider Ooi Kok Hin finds the local Lack of appreciation towards Malaysian literature a worrying phenomenon. Sadly, he reports: Usually I'm reluctant to generalis [sic]...
View ArticleRead Russia Prize
One more translation prize to close out the week: they announced that Oliver Ready's translation of Before and During, by Vladimir Sharov, has won this year's Read Russia Prize (and what a...
View ArticleCamille review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Pierre Lemaitre's Camille, the third in his Verhœven-series.
View ArticleBookExpo America 2015
Yes, I too enjoyed/experienced/endured BookExpo America. With highlights like this year's Best Translated Book Award announcement it was certainly worth the visit. Also hard to ... miss:...
View ArticleLiterary prize sponsorship
Just a few weeks ago I mentioned how the Folio Prize had lost its sponsor. Last week, another UK prize -- the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction -- put out a call for a new sponsor -- and now...
View ArticleMalaysian pulp
In The New York Times Chen May Yeemay reports that Malaysians Seek Escape in Pulp Fiction as Government's Grip Tightens. An interesting-sounding phenomenon: The books can be riddled with...
View ArticleBTBA ... 2016 ?
The 2015 Best Translated Book Award was just announced a few days ago but we are, after all, already five full months into the new year, so maybe it's time to start considering what might be in...
View Article(Dutch) reaction to Janet Maslin's role-shift
The news that Janet Maslin, one of the daily The New York Times staff book reviewers (along with Michiko Kakutani and Dwight Garner -- and completely separate from The New York Times Book...
View ArticleHKW Internationaler Literaturpreis 2015 shortlist
The Haus der Kulturen der Welt ('house of the cultures of the world') has a prize for the best translated-into-German "work of current international narrative prose", paying out €25,000 to the...
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