Peter Weiss at 99
The great Peter Weiss would have turned ninety-nine today. Playwright (Marat/Sade, etc.), novelist (The Aesthetics of Resistance, etc.), painter, he's faded quite a bit from view. Sure, his...
View ArticleThe Mark and the Void review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Paul Murray's new novel, The Mark and the Void.
View ArticleArno Schmidt, a year on
I published my Arno Schmidt: a centennial colloquy a year ago, and at the time expressed the ambition (and hope and expectation) that I would sell fifty copies in the first year; amazingly, the...
View ArticleLibrary of Korean Literature roundtable
At Public Books they have a Virtual Roundtable on the Library of Korean Literature, as 'Koreanists and scholars of world literature reflect on five writers recently published in the Library of...
View ArticleSchweizer Buchpreis
The Swiss Book Prize -- which should be the Swiss German Book Prize, since it is for a German-language Swiss book -- has announced its 2015 winner, and it is Eins im Andern, by Monique...
View ArticleSo You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano's recent (2014) novel, So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood.
View ArticleInternational Dublin Literary Award nominations
The -- now IMPAC-less (they pulled their sponsorship) -- International Dublin Literary Award, the €100,000 prize which has "libraries in capital and major cities throughout the world" ("in 118...
View ArticlePrize: Warwick Prize for Writing
The biennial £25,000 Warwick Prize for Writing, awarded: "for an excellent and substantial piece of writing in the English language" -- this year on the theme of "'instinct', the unspoken and...
View ArticlePrize: Giller Prize
They've announced that the C$100,000 (Canadian) Giller Prize goes to Fifteen Dogs, by André Alexis; see the Coach House Books publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk....
View ArticlePrize: Jan Michalski finalists
The Jan Michalski Prize for Literature honors (with CHF 50,000) a work: "of fiction or non fiction, irrespective of the language in which it is written" annually; Mahmoud Dowlatabadi's The...
View ArticlePrize: Oceanos finalists
The Oceanos - Prêmio de Literatura em Língua Portuguesa is Brazil-based but open to any Portuguese-language literature. Really open: admirably, and like every literary prize should (but far too...
View ArticlePrize: Goldsmiths Prize
The Goldsmiths Prize -- £10,000 awarded to: "a book that is deemed genuinely novel and which embodies the spirit of invention that characterises the genre at its best" -- has announced that the...
View ArticleDeath by Water review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Ōe Kenzaburō's just-translated Death by Water. Good to see this in English, though it's a bit disappointing...
View ArticleThe book market in ... the Arab world
At Qantara.de Amira Elmasry reports on: 'the current limitations of the Arab book market and possible means of promoting its expansion', in (Not) an unlimited book market ?
View ArticleEtisalat Prize longlist
They've announced the nine-title longlist for the Etisalat Prize for Literature -- which is: the first pan-African prize that is open solely to debut fiction writers of African citizenship and...
View ArticlePrize: Taiwan Literature Awards
They've announced the winners of the 2015 Taiwan Literature Awards (台灣文學金典獎), with The Man with the Compound Eyes-author Wu Ming-yi taking the fiction prize; see also the Taiwan Today report,...
View ArticlePrize: ECI Literatuurprijs
What used to be the AKO Literatuurprijs is now the ECI Literatuurprijs; regardless, the €50,000 prize remains one of the biggest Dutch fiction prizes -- and they've announced that Het hout, by...
View ArticlePrize: Premio Cervantes
The Premio Cervantes is the leading Spanish-language author prize, and they've announced that Fernando del Paso has won the 2015 prize. As you can see from that list of previous winners,...
View ArticleRochester Knockings review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Novel of the Fox Sisters, Hubert Haddad's Rochester Knockings -- a French novel, much of which takes place in Rochester NY, now...
View ArticleBest and most overrated of 2015
As the end of the year approaches (but, hey, it's still like almost seven weeks away ...) the 'best of the year'-lists begin to proliferate. More fun than the institutional ones...
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