Frankfurt Book Fair Guest of Honour - 2017
'Guest of Honour'-status at the Frankfurt Book Fair is usually a pretty big deal and, at the least, means a flood of books in translation from the country at the center of things (think Turkey,...
View ArticleInternational IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
They've announced that Harvest, by Jim Crace, has won this year's International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (also worth €100,000). The only Crace title under review at the complete...
View ArticlePrémio Camões
The Prémio Camões is the biggest Portuguese-language author prize (like the Premio Cervantes for Spanish-writing authors), and they've announced that Hélia Correia has won this year's €100,000...
View ArticleThe Thought House of Philippa review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Suzanne Leblanc's The Thought House of Philippa, just out in English from BookThug. This novel is inspired/framed by the...
View ArticleTranslation in ... India
Not really a surprising conclusion, but always good to see some awareness and discussion, as IANS reports Translations boosts reach for regional literature. And I appreciate the...
View ArticleJean Vautrin (1933-2015)
Jean Vautrin (who also worked under his real name, Jean Herman) won the prix Goncourt (1989) and, aside from his fiction -- especially his thrillers -- was also a successful film director (hey,...
View ArticlePEN Translates award
English PEN have announced the latest set of 'PEN Translates award' winners; see the full list at PEN Translates spells more support for independent publishers (as they've now upped the...
View ArticleScience fiction (not) in ... Burma
Zon Pann Pwint reports in The Myanmar Times that 'critics agree that finding a good Myanmar writer of science fiction is pretty much a hunt for The Invisible Man', in Ray guns and robots a...
View ArticleOxford Professor of Poetry
Oxford cleverly has contenders compete for its Professor of Poetry position -- every five years, nowadays -- making for a lot of press coverage and public debate; it makes you wonder why...
View ArticleOksanen on European Finlandization
At Eurozine they publish Sofi Oksanen 'On the Finlandization of Europe', A lion in a cage, based on a speech she recently delivered at a conference in Latvia. Oksanen's Purge and the...
View ArticleScience fiction in ... Japan
In The Japan Times Iain Maloney profiles Japanese science fiction writer Fujii Taiyo, in The new face of Japanese sci-fi chases an augmented world. His Gene Mapper is just out from...
View ArticleThe World in my Hands review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Bangladeshi author K. Anis Ahmed's recent novel, The World in my Hands. English-writing Ahmed, who studied at Brown,...
View ArticleShin Kyung-sook plagiarism questions
Somewhat late in the day, Please Look After Mom and I'll Be Right There-author Shin Kyung-sook finds herself embroiled in a growing plagiarism scandal. As Lee Sun-young reports in the K Pop...
View Article101 Detectives review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ivan Vladislavić's new collection of stories, 101 Detectives, out from Umuzi in South Africa and from And Other Stories in the UK...
View ArticleVolokhonsky and Pevear Q & A
At the Literary Hub they print (an excerpt from ?) Susannah Hunnewell's Q & A with translators-from-the-Russian Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear from the current The Paris Review, as...
View ArticleThe Travels of Daniel Ascher review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Déborah Lévy-Bertherat's The Travels of Daniel Ascher, just out in English from Other Press.
View ArticleBook fairs in ... Zimbabwe
In The Herald Beaven Tapureta offers A tale of three book festivals, as Zimbabwe not only hosts the storied (if somewhat discombobulated -- see official sites here and here) Zimbabwe...
View ArticleMiles Franklin Literary Award
They've announced that The Eye of the Sheep, by Sofie Laguna, has won this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award, one of the leading Australian literary prizes. It does not appear to be...
View ArticleReading in ... Russia
At Russia Beyond the Headlines Marina Obrazkova looks at Trends in Russia's reading culture. The figure of 37 per cent not reading at all is kind of shocking. Interesting also to hear...
View ArticleEU Prize for Literature ceremony
They announced the winners of this year's EU Prizes for Literature a couple of months ago but they just had the ceremony. This award -- or rather, these awards (they handed out twelve of...
View Article