Don Segundo Sombra review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ricardo Güiraldes' 1926 Argentine classic, Don Segundo Sombra: Shadows on the Pampas. This is one reason I love going to...
View ArticleWriting in ... Egypt
In Haaretz Zvi Bar'el reports (a bit melodramatically ?) that Egypt's songs of revolution have given way to a literature of despair. A lot of the article focuses on the to-do around...
View ArticleSayed Kashua profile
Via I'm pointed to Debra Kamin's report in The Tower, which claims that The Greatest Living Hebrew Writer Is Arab. No, it's not an exposé revealing that, say, Amos Oz is actually Arabic...
View ArticleEdinburgh World Writers' Conference speeches
The Guardian prints an edited version of Atiq Rahimi's keynote speech to the Edinburgh World Writers' Conference which I mean(t) to point you to -- but they note that 'the full transcripts of...
View ArticleMan Booker International Prize to Lydia Davis
Yesterday they announced that Lydia Davis wins the Man Booker International Prize 2013, as she becomes the fifth winner of this biennial would-be Nobel alternative, awarded: "to a living author...
View ArticleDiplomat, Actor, Translator, Spy review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Bernard Turle's Diplomat, Actor, Translator, Spy, yet another beautiful little volume in the Cahiers Series.
View ArticlePublishing books from abroad - new approaches
A few days ago E.J. Van Lanen, of the newly founded Frisch & Co., posted a piece explaining Why I Publish Ebooks, or the Future of Literary Translation, suggesting that the e-format might...
View ArticleMartin Amis profile
Brooklyn, he finds, is: "rather embarrassingly civilised", and he's "too old for Manhattan" -- "It's just too noisy, too quick". So says Martin Amis, in a nice long Financial Times profile by...
View ArticleHamid Ismailov Q & A
At Russia beyond the Headlines Phoebe Taplin reports that Uzbek writer popularizes Russian literature in London in her Q & A with Hamid Ismailov. His most recently translated book is...
View ArticleLinguistic absolutism
Aside from the occasional complaints about online writing habits debasing the language, most folk seem to feel comfortable enough with English language usage going with whatever flow takes it...
View ArticleFemrite profile
I've mentioned the Uganda Women Writers' Association, FEMRITE numerous times over the years, and it's good to see another high-profile profile of this very successful institution, as Elizabeth...
View ArticleMan Booker International Prize follow-up
The announcement that Lydia Davis was awarded the 2013 Man Booker International Prize has attracted a good amount of attention (see also my previous mention). Among the most enthusiastic...
View ArticleHoward Goldblatt Q & A
At the Los Angeles Review of Books Stephen Sparks offers Translating Mo Yan: An Interview with Howard Goldblatt, with some interesting discussion of the role of the translator (a more...
View ArticleSarah Kirsch (1935-2013)
Aside from Hans Magnus Enzensberger, the great German-language post-war poets were largely East German (or Austrian), and the generation born in the mid to late 1930s which included towering...
View ArticleFrom the Fatherland, with Love review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Murakami Ryu's From the Fatherland, with Love, just out (in the UK) from an increasingly ambitious Pushkin Press that isn't just...
View ArticlePeter Englund Q & A
As I mentioned last week, five names have been submitted to the Swedish Academy as the likely finalists for this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, and the shortlist will be finalized in a few...
View ArticleInternational literary prize: Prêmio Camões
The biggest Portuguese-language author prize -- the equivalent of the Spanish-language Premio Cervantes or the German-language Georg-Büchner-Preis -- is the Prêmio Camões, and they've just...
View ArticleInternational literary prize: Ceny Franze Kafky
The Franz Kafka Prize, which hasn't been around all that long, got a lot of attention a few years back when they awarded the prize in back-to-back years to the authors that went on to take the...
View ArticleMarilyn Booth Q & A
At Arabic Literature (in English) Sarah Irving has an interesting, thorough Q & A with translator Marilyn Booth on What Should Be Obvious (But Isn't) About Translating Arabic Literature --...
View Article40,716-line Chinese epic
In China Daily Mei Jia reports that Epic poem a milestone in Chinese literature, as the newly-released: The Chinese Epic, written by Hua Wenfeng [华文峰] and published by Writers Publishing House,...
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