Prize: NOS Literary Prize
Mikhail Prokhorov is not only running for the Russian presidency (taking on that Putin fellow) and owner of the New Jersey Nets, he also runs a literary prize, and at Russia Beyond The...
View ArticleBooks of the year in ... France
I missed this when it originally came out, but Le Point offered their list of les 25 meilleurs livres de l'année at the beginning of the month. The click-through-gallery presentation is...
View ArticleMore 'best of the year' lists
In Twelve Months of Reading the Wall Street Journal 'asked 50 of our friends to tell us what they enjoyed reading in 2011', which at least offers some variety. Among individuals' 'best...
View ArticleThe New Yorker's 'Reviewers' favorites from 2011'
The New Yorker now offers A Year's Reading -- their 'Reviewers' favorites from 2011' (though it's just a list, with no attributions, much less explanations/justifications).
View ArticleQ and A: Raymond Stock
Arabic Literature (in English) has a Q & A with Naguib Mahfouz-translator and (forthcoming-)biographer Raymond Stock. Among much else, he sheds some light on the Mahfouz manuscripts...
View ArticleNot so poor poets: Montreal International Poetry Prize winner
In this week's issue of New York Rachel Friedman offers a look at Livelihoods of the Poets, showing that it's hard to rake in the big bucks penning verse; 'representative paychecks' even from...
View ArticleSeamus Heaney's archive
Seamus Heaney has now carted off his archive to the National Library of Ireland (yes, he apparently delivered it himself); see, for example, Carl O'Brien's report in the Irish Times, Poetic...
View ArticlePrix des prix littéraires
Not satisfied with all the literary prizes already on offer in France, they've created an über-prize, the Prix des prix littéraires (yes, essentially the 'literary prize prize'), which picks...
View ArticleWriting in ... Nigeria
In the Daily Sun Henry Akubuiro has a Q & A with Egya Sule -- who argues that, among other things: The institution of literature, just like any other institution in Nigeria, needs a total...
View ArticleBest French books 2011
In Pour Noël, lisez Français ! BibliObs offers a list of a dozen top French novels from 2011 -- led, unsurprisingly, by Limonov (by Emmanuel Carrère). Other titles/authors of interest include...
View ArticleGlorious Nemesis review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ladislav Klíma's Glorious Nemesis, first published (posthumously) in Czech in 1932, and now available in English from Twisted...
View ArticleInstitut d'Égypte
Too horribly depressing to comment on; see coverage in the Egypt Independent: Amid army crackdown, Egypt's richest library set on fire Protesters tell of saving books from Institut d'Egypte...
View ArticleTomas Riad at the Swedish Academy
Tomas Riad is the newest member of the Nobel-selecting Swedish Academy, installed in chair 6 on Tuesday. Born in 1959, he lowers the average age appreciably -- and, as ahramonline...
View ArticleProfessor Hanaa review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of popular Egyptian author Reem Bassiouney's Professor Hanaa.
View ArticleNordic Council Literature Prize nominations
They announced the nominations for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2012 a few weeks ago -- and they have a full field, including candidates from the Faroe Islands, Greenland, the Sami...
View ArticlePassage of Tears review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Abdourahman A. Waberi's Passage of Tears, just out from Seagull Books.
View ArticleUK editors' wishes and misses
Ther Guardian offers an annual favorite, as Kate Figes collects The publishing year: editors' wishes and misses, as: 'Publishers talk about the ones that got away in 2011'. Interesting...
View ArticleDumbarton Oaks Medieval Library profile
In the new Harvard Magazine Adam Kirsch profiles Harvard University Press' new Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library-series, in Mysteries and Masterpieces -- noting: Clearly, the Dumbarton Oaks...
View ArticleVáclav Havel (1936-2011)
Playwright (and president of Czechoslovakia and then of the Czech Republic) Václav Havel has passed away. There's lots of coverage of this; see, for example, obituaries in The Guardian,...
View ArticleUK 'Literary Year 2011'
In The Telegraph David Robson looks at The Literary Year 2011 (mainly in the UK). I assume the claim: "the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature went to the veteran Danish poet Tomas...
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