Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is almost as old as the biggest of the French literary prizes, the Goncourt -- it was first awarded in 1904, just a year after the first Goncourt -- and it's the first of the...
View Article'Reaching the World' festival
Reaching the World -- "Bangkok's first international writers' showcase" -- runs through 9 November. It begins with a two-day summit that explores 'the value of literary prizes, and the...
View ArticleTales of a Severed Head review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Rachida Madani's Tales of a Severed Head, another volume in the wonderful Margellos World Republic of Letters-series from Yale...
View ArticleChinese literature abroad
Yet another article about spreading Chinese literature abroad: Lu Qianwen writes about Conveying a culture in the Global Times. All the usual stuff, but worth a mention for the mention...
View ArticlePrix Médicis
Big French literary prize number two was announced yesterday (though of course all attention will be on the Goncourt today ...): the not-quite-so-storied prix Médicis -- which also suffers...
View ArticleThe Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Edward N. Luttwak's The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy.
View ArticlePrize: Noma Award
As reported at Junbungaku, ジェントルマン ('Gentleman') by Yamada Amy (山田詠美) has been awarded this year's Noma Award, one of the bigger Japanese literary prizes. Will E notes that she is: "A...
View ArticlePrizes: Goncourt and Renaudot
Yesterday was the highpoint of the French literary award season, as there was a one-two punch of prize-announcements with the biggest of them all, the prix Goncourt and the Renaudot, revealed....
View ArticleHer Not All Her review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek's Her Not All Her: on/with Robert Walser, now available in The Cahiers Series.
View ArticleOrhan Pamuk Q & A
In The New York Times Book Review this weekend they have Orhan Pamuk: By the Book. He plays it a bit safe (why does no one ever blurt out the titles of those terrible books they've read...
View Article'Towards a Global Literature'
They held a conference as part of IULM's Towards a Global Literature project, and at the New York Review blog Tim Parks reports on it, in A Game Without Rules. Among the observations...
View ArticleJeanette Winterson on money
In The Telegraph: 'Writer Jeanette Winterson ponders the role of money -- and its absence -- in her life and career', in Jeanette Winterson: money and me. See also many of the Jeanette...
View ArticleAmos Oz profile
In The Independent Boyd Tonkin has a profile of Amos Oz. See also the Amos Oz titles under review at the complete review -- with one to follow for Jews and Words soon (for now, see the...
View ArticleMarginalia on Casanova review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Szentkuthy Miklós' 1939 Marginalia on Casanova, the first volume in his St. Orpheus Breviary, finally available in English, from...
View ArticlePrize: Dylan Thomas Prize
The winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize -- "awarded to the best eligible published or produced literary work in the English language, written by an author under 30" -- has been announced (though...
View ArticlePrize: "Welt"-Literaturpreis
They've announced that Zeruya Shalev has received the "Welt"-Literaturpreis -- an international literary prize handed out by Die Welt ('The World') for the fourteenth time; previous winners...
View ArticleThe Perfect Landscape review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ragna Sigurðardóttir's The Perfect Landscape -- another Icelandic novel from AmazonCrossing. Interesting to see, too:...
View Article(American) National Book Awards (p)review
This Wednesday they're handing out the (American) National Book Awards, and in The New York Times Leslie Kaufman looks ahead to this and future awards, in Book Awards Seek a Bigger Splash, Red...
View ArticleSingapore Writers Festival report
The Singapore Writers Festival just wrapped up, and in The Nation Manote Tripathi reports that Singapore books its place -- and that: This year's Singapore Writers Festivals was intellectually...
View ArticleChika Unigwe Q & A
As I mentioned last week, On Black Sisters' Street, by Chika Unigwe, was awarded this year's Nigeria Prize for Literature (get your copy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk) -- and now Vanguard has...
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