The Investigation review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Philippe Claudel's The Investigation, just out in the US. MacLehose Press is bringing this out in the UK next year -- and,...
View ArticleRetiring from the scene
This is the kind of story I only mention because of its sheer ridiculousness: in the Egypt Independent Amir Zaky reports that A young Egyptian writer retires, as: Kareem al-Sayyad, a 31-year...
View ArticleAkutagawa, Naoki prizes
In The Japan Daily Press Adam Westlake reports that 2 female authors win prestigious Akutagawa, Naoki literature awards, as: Two female authors in Japan have each won one of Japan's honored...
View ArticleBritish Library digitisation project
The British Library has announced a major project: Its plans will digitise more than 500,000 pages from the archives of the East India Company and India Office, in addition to 25,000 pages of...
View ArticleMilan Kundera contractually forbids e-versions
At his La république des livres weblog Pierre Assouline reports on L'angoisse de Milan Kundera -- the anguish of Milan Kundera -- quoting at length from a recent speech Kundera gave when he...
View ArticleChetan Bhagat Q and A
At the Wall Street Journal's Scene Asia weblog Jason Chow has a Q & A with Chetan Bhagat on Salman Rushdie, His Next Novel, 'Snobbish' Literary Culture. Bhagat argues: Some people do...
View ArticleThe 'literary fiction' debate
I was amused by Brian Platzer's piece at Salon, where he acknowledges: English teacher: I was wrong about Hunger Games, describing how he recommended -- sight unseen, but reputation very much...
View ArticleM.John Harrison profile
In The Guardian Richard Lea profiles M.John Harrison: a life in writing. Two of his books are under review at the complete review -- Light and Signs of Life -- and I'd cover a lot more...
View ArticleNew Asymptote
The July issue of Asymptote is up, and there's enough here to keep you busy and satisfied all weekend: Zambra and Smilevski excerpts, essays on Natalia Ginzburg and Qian Zhongshu, poetry by...
View ArticleDetective Fiction and the African Scene review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Linus Asong's Detective Fiction and the African Scene: From the 'Whodunit ?' to the 'Whydunit ?'
View ArticleMilitary authors in China
In the Global Times Liao Danlin writes about the wrong kind of Army of authors, as, apparently: 'China's military writers continue to rise in popularity'. Somehow, I do not find this...
View ArticleThe Story of the Stone revisited
In the Cleveland Plain Dealer Karen R. Long reports that Pauline Chen builds 'The Red Chamber' around memorable characters from a Chinese classic, as Chen's novel takes characters from the...
View ArticleAustralian Prime Minister's Literary Awards
They've announced the six winners of the Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards. The fiction-category winner was Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears; see the Allen & Unwin publicity...
View ArticleMartin Amis Q & A
In New York David Wallace-Wells has a lengthy Q & A as New New Yorker Martin Amis Talks Terrorism, Pornography, Idyllic Brooklyn and American Decline. [Note that they seem to have...
View ArticleCensorship in ... Turkey
On the one hand the situation in Turkey seems worrisome -- see, for example Sal Robinson on Obscenity trials in Turkey get Snuff'd at the Melville House weblog -- on the other ... well,...
View ArticleIns and outs of literary translation
At Arabic Literature (in English) Hala Salah Eldin Hussein and Hilary Plum offer answers to 20* Questions: How Do I Become a Literary Translator ? That picture of Vaucanson's duck sort...
View ArticleGive us the names !
So tomorrow they're going to announce the twelve or thirteen title-strong longlist for the Man Booker Prize, selected from, apparently (it's what 'Booker Prize Foundation Literary Director' Ion...
View ArticleChildren in Reindeer Woods review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kristín Ómarsdóttir's Children in Reindeer Woods, which Open Letter brought out earlier this year (and even got a review in The...
View ArticleHindi/Urdu literature divide
In Frontline Sanjay Kumar considers the Faultlines of Hindi and Urdu -- "once a shared common language of people of India stretching from Peshawar to the borders of Bengal split into two...
View ArticleNEA translation grants
The American National Endowment for the Arts Announces Literature Translation Fellowships -- 16 fellowships, each worth $12,500. They describe (vaguely) the Translation Projects, which...
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