opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       Banned in ... Kashmir

       As, for example, Aijaz Hussain's AP report has it, Indian authorities in Kashmir ban books by eminent writers and scholars, as an order issued on Tuesday by the region's Home Department "declared the 25 books 'forfeit' under India's new criminal code of 2023". (I haven't been able to access the Home Department site to see the order.)
       You can see the full list of banned books at the end of Bashaarat Masood's The Indian Express report.
       Among them is, for example, Law and Conflict Resolution in Kashmir -- see the Routledge publicity page -- one of those books: "found to excite secessionism and endangering sovereignty and integrity of India", with material such as: "a detailed survey of relevant legislation and international documents".
       Not good.

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       Tor Åge Bringsværd (1939-2025)

       Norwegian author Tor Åge Bringsværd has passed away; see, for example, the Cappelen Damm mention.
       Best-known -- certainly in English -- as a children's book author, he also wrote science fiction; see, for example, the entry at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. See also the Cappelen Damm Agency author page.

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       Bad F**king review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kurt Palm's Bad F**king -- which hasn't been translated nto English yet.

       This won the 2011 Glauser-Preis, one of the leading German-language mystery prizes; the title refers to a place -- and, though fictional, the name isn't unheard of for Austria, where there was a plain old F**king until 2021, when they changed the name to Fugging (see e.g.).

       I read and was very impressed by Palm's Vom Boykott zur Anerkennung: Brecht und Österreich -- a version of his doctoral dissertation -- when it came out some forty years ago. It chronicles the fascinating relationship between Bertolt Brecht and Austria in the post-war years -- with Brecht famously settling in East Berlin (i.e. the German Democratic Republic), but hedging his bets by doing so as an Austrian citizen (not that everyone in Austria was thrilled with him getting an Austrian passport ...).

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       Korean literature abroad

       As, for example, Park Han-sol reports in The Korea Times More Korean fiction finds its way to global shelves, as: "overseas sales of translated titles more than doubled", as:

Korean literary works published with the help of grants from the state-run agency sold more than 1.2 million copies abroad in 2024, a 130 percent leap from 520,000 the year before.

Both the volume of published books and total sales saw a dramatic rise. The average number of copies sold per title reached an all-time high of 1,271, with 24 books surpassing the 10,000 threshold -- a rare feat for translated literature.

       Nobel laureate Han Kang leads the way, as:

Her works, rendered into 28 languages and released in 77 editions with LTI Korea’s backing, sold over 310,000 copies in a single year.

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       Plagiarism in ... China

       Firstpost reports that: 'A plagiarism scandal is rocking China's literary world, exposing widespread copying and undermining trust in the state-backed publishing establishment', as China probes what China does: Plagiarism scandal shakes Beijing's state-backed literary scene.

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       Sophie Castille Awards finalists

       The Sophie Castille Awards for Comics in Translation is awarded 'for the best translation of graphic novels into a variety of languages around the world', and they've now announced the nine finalists for translations into English.
       The winner will be announced 27 September.

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       Bára Dočkalová Q & A

       At Radio Prague International Danny Bate has a Q & A with the Magnesia Litera prize winner (in the category for children and young people), in “We need to be willing to play, and to be curious”: Award-winning author Bára Dočkalová on writing Czech and teaching English.

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       Books under consideration for the Warwick Prize

       The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation admirably reveals all the titles in the running for the prize every year and has now released the List of eligible titles entered for the prize (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) for this year's prize -- 145 titles, translated from 34 languages.
       As I repeat ever year: every literary prize should do this. Readers deserve to know what's actually in the potential running for a prize !
       As you can see, it's also a great resource.

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       Blancpain-Imaginist longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize, a Chinese prize which: "aims to create a literary accolade that is impartial, authoritative, professional and enduring while honoring the outstanding writers under 45 years old each year"; see also Andrew Rule's reader's guide at Paper Republic.

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       Sympathy Tower Tokyo review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Qudan Rie's Akutagawa Prize-winning novel, Sympathy Tower Tokyo, due out shortly in English (from Summit Books in the US and Penguin in the UK).

       This got some attention/coverage when it won the Akutagawa Prize, because of Qudan's mention that she had used AI for parts of it, but that's more a distraction than anything else. More interesting are the discussions of language in the novel, including how foreign languages and usage are creeping into Japanese; in her Exophony Tawada Yoko similarly complains about the katakanaization of Japanese -- and, of course, there's Mizumura Minae's The Fall of Language in the Age of English.

       Yet another Akutagawa Prize-winner under review; these are really piling up.

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       Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists

       They've announced the longlists for this year's (South African) Sunday Times Literary Awards in its two categories, fiction and non.

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       Junot Díaz Q & A

       Junot Díaz is apparently still ... around, and at Frontline Majid Maqbool has a Q & A with him, in Eagerness to be near books still drives my love of reading: Junot Díaz.

       (Gotta love the appearances page at Díaz's official site .....)

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       Jan Michalski Prize semi-finalists

       They actually announced this a couple of weeks ago, but apparently not very loudly -- I haven't seen mention of it anywhere, but the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature has announced its second selection -- five titles left in the running,
       Titles still up for the prize include On the Calculation of Volume (I) by Solvej Balle and books by Pierre Bayard, Lydia Davis, and Guadalupe Nettel.
       They'll presumably announce three finalists before they get around to declaring a winner.

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       Death and the Gardener review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Georgi Gospodinov's latest novel, Death and the Gardener -- already out in the UK, and coming to the US in early October.

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       Jantar Publishing Q & A

       At Radio Prague International Ian Willoughby has a Q & A with Michael Tate on Czech roots, Prague -- and the serendipitous birth of Jantar Publishing.

       Several Jantar titles are under review at the complete review -- e.g. Jan Křesadlo's GraveLarks -- and I certainly expect to get to more.

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       Nicholas Clapp (1936-2025)

       As Mike Barnes reports in The Hollywood Reporter, Nicholas Clapp, Documentarian and Author Known as a “Modern-Day Indiana Jones,” Dies at 89.

       One of his works is under review at the complete review -- Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen.

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       Butter review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Novel of Food and Murder by Yuzuki Asako, Butter.

       I finally got my hands on a (library) copy of this, and, as I mention in the review, it's a welcome change from the usual contemporary Japanese fare found in translation (mysteries; fiction with quirky/fantastical elements; slim Akutagawa Prize-winners).
       (Among the rare other recent offerings in this category is Matsuie Masashi's The Summer House (published in the UK as Summer at Mount Asama, because ... *sigh*), but, if not quite as polished, Yuzuki's novels offers considerably more to chew on, as it were.)

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       PRH UK Library and Archive

       At the BBC Mousumi Bakshi reports on the Penguin Random House UK Library and Archive, in 'Books are for everyone': Inside Penguin's hidden archive -- with pictures, too.

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       Lambda Literary Awards finalists

       They've announced the finalists for this year's Lambda Literary Awards in its 26 categories, selected from 1,339 submitted titles.
       The winners will be announced 4 October.

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       Booker Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Booker Prize -- thirteen books, selected from 153 submissions, including one by an author who has won the prize before (Kiran Desai).
       Several of these have not yet been published, or been published in the US, yet, but I haven't seen any of them.
       The shortlist will be announced on 23 September, and the winner on 10 November.

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       Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels

       They've (finally) announced who will be getting this year's Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, and it is Karl Schlögel.
       Several of his works have been translated into English, including The Scent of Empires (publicity page), Moscow, 1937 (publicity page), and most recently, The Soviet Century (publicity page); his American Matrix is apparently forthcoming (also from Polity) in English; meanwhile, see the Hanser foreign rights page.
       He gets to pick up the prize on 19 October.

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       Héctor Abad Q & A

       At Worldcrunch Edu Galán has a Q & A with the The Joy of Being Awake-author Héctor Abad, in “I Thought I Had Died, Too”: A Colombian Author Reckons With Survivor’s Guilt.

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       Cundill History Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Cundill History Prize, a US$75,000 prize awarded: "to a book that demonstrates excellence across the prize's guiding criteria: craft, communication, and consequence".
       Fifteen titles, with the shortlist to be announced in September.

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       Nobel Prize in Literature betting

       This year's Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced 9 October -- and while there's not much betting on it (yet ?), there are odds up at Betus: twenty-four possibilities, including ... Taylor Swift.
       More interesting, however, is that Kalshi, one of the (relatively) new prediction markets, also offers ... position-taking opportunities on the prize. Not so much interesting for only having ten possible choices but because, unlike the betting shops, this market allows you to take a position on an author not winning the prize -- and there's money here for the taking, since one of the options they offer (as I write this, and surely not for much longer ...) is Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, who -- being deceased -- can't win the prize. But a 'No' option on him only costs $0.93 -- a $100 stake paying out $108 (before fees). Not a great return, but, hey, it's free money -- there's no way Ngũgĩ can be awarded the prize.
       (I hope whoever takes advantage of this opportunity -- and someone surely will -- takes them for as much as possible.)
       Meanwhile, Kalshi admirably also reveals how much money has been bet -- staked -- so far on the potential winner (and non-winners) of the prize, and it's .... $5116.00.

       Post-Dylan, I've had trouble working up much interest in the run-up to the prize, but if you want to follow or engage in discussion, the Nobel Prize in Literature 2025 Speculation thread at the World Literature Forum is presumably the place you want to go; they're up to 957 engagements, last I checked.

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       Censorship in ... Russia

       In The Guardian Anna Aslanyan reports how Russia has also declared war on literature. Look at what's happening and be warned -- noting that: "The result of Russia's latest assault on free speech is a book industry in turmoil".

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       Writing in ... Saudi Arabia

       At Arab News Hajjar Al-Qusayer reports on how Young Saudi authors reshape Kingdom's literary landscape.
       Author Linah Alshaalan is quoted as saying:

Now, to write anything, if you just have a concept or an idea, you can just feed it into the AI and see it more fleshed out. It helps people. But a good author that cares about their own integrity would probably not rely on it too much

       Not too much ......

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       JHUP AI-licensing

       As, for example, Ellie Wolfe reports at The Baltimore Banner, Johns Hopkins University Press will license its authors' books to train AI models.
       Authors do: "have until the end of August to opt out of the licensing agreement" -- and: "Hopkins Press did not share which large language model company it will sign the contract with, and did not detail how much money it will receive from the deal"
       And:

Though there won't be a large financial gain for individual books -- authors are expected to earn "modest" returns of less than $100 per title per license -- the cumulative revenue would be "meaningful" for the university press and its mission, Pope wrote in the message.

       Given the ... modesty of the *gain*, I'm curious why any author would sign away these rights; I hope we learn what percentage of the press' authors (and then those at other presses considering similar arrangements) go along with this sort of thing.

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       საბა awards shortlists

       They've announced the shortlists for this year's Saba literary awards, the leading Georgian literary awards -- not yet at the official site, alas, but the Georgia Today report has .. the names of the authors, if not the works .....
       However, the longlists (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) are online, from which we can figure out that, for example, the finalists for the novel-prize are:

• ბედნიერება by Shota Iatashvili
• ელი! ელი! by Nodar Ladaria (publicity page)
• ნებადართული ჯადოქრობა by Irakli Metreveli (publicity page)
• ლეთარგია by Nino Ortega Chincharauli (publicity page)
• ტანჟერული სიზმარი by Mikheil Tsikhelashvili (publicity page)

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       New Asymptote

       The July issue of Asymptote is now up -- including a section on: 'What AI Can't Do'.
       Enough reading material to keep you covered for the weekend.

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       Miles Franklin Literary Award

       They've announced the winner of this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award, the leading Australian novel prize, and it is Ghost Cities, by Siang Lu; see also the University of Queensland Press publicity page.

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       PEN Translates grants

       English PEN has announced its latest batch of PEN Translates grants -- 14 titles translated from 13 languages -- as well as two PEN Translates x SALT grants.
       A good-looking though European-language-heavy list -- there are two translations from Arabic and an anthology that includes texts translated from Mapuche and Quechua, but still ..... (The two PEN Translates x SALT works -- awarded for South Asian Literature in Translation -- are at least from Urdu and Hindi.)

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       cake & prostheses review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of a collection of mini dramas and short prose by Gerhard Rühm, cake & prostheses, out from Twisted Spoon Press.

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       Nigeria Prize for Literature longlist

       The Nigeria Prize for Literature rotates through four categories, and this year it's the turn of novels again and they've now announced the longlist for this year's prize -- not yet at the official site, because god forbid that would be up-to-date, but see, for example, the report in The Guardian (Nigeria).
       Eleven titles are in the running, including novels by Uwem Akpan and Chika Unigwe, selected from a record 252 entries.

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       'African literature ecosystem'

       At okayafrica Nelson C.J. finds: 'The late 2000s to late 2010s were an era of vibrant publications, literary prizes, and the emergence of incredible literary talents. All that has been replaced with a loss of community and dwindling literary spaces' in considering: The African Literature Ecosystem Used to Be Unstoppable. What Went Wrong ?

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       First Novel Prize longlist

       The Center for Fiction has announced the longlist for their First Novel Prize, awarded for a debut work of fiction by a US author -- 29 titles selected from 185 submitted titles.

       Granted, many of these titles apparently haven't been released yet, but I haven't seen, much less read a one of these .....

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       'Books by the metre'

       In The Guardian Lucy Knight reports on how: ‘Look how well-read I am!’ How ‘books by the metre’ add the final touch to your home – or your image.
       Yes:

In an age of constant scrolling, there is social capital to be gained by simply looking as if you are a cultured person who listens to music on vinyl and reads lots of books. And creating an aesthetically pleasing bookshelf is now easier than ever, thanks to an increase in booksellers who trade in “books by the metre”.

       Not a new story/subject, but ... *sigh*.

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       The Pearlsong review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of The Pearlsong -- a short hymn found in (very few of the manuscripts of) the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, presented in a trilingual edition (Syriac, ancient Greek, and English) with a great deal of supporting material.

       This is the first volume in the new Texts and Translations of Transcendence and Transformation-series from the Center for the Study of World Religions / Harvard University Press (forthcoming volume four will cover: Cannabis in Arabic Verse and Prose). Admirably, too, the book is freely available (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) in an open-access digital format.

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       Vladimir Sorokin Q & A

       At The Paris Review blog The Netanyahus-author Joshua Cohen talks with Blue Lard-author Vladimir Sorokin, in The Guts of the Russian Brontosaurus-Cow: A Conversation with Vladimir Sorokin -- specifically about his The Sugar Kremlin, forthcoming in English from Dalkey Archive Press; see their publicity page.

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       Ten years of 'Literary Activism'

       At Scroll.in they have: 'Writers Charles Bernstein, Jonathan Cook, Laetitia Zecchini, and Saikat Majumdar on what ‘Literary Activism’ means to them', in ‘A new route for thinking’: Four writers on ten years of Amit Chaudhuri’s ‘Literary Activism’.

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       Ingvar Ambjørnsen (1956-2025)

       Norwegian author Ingvar Ambjørnsen, best known for his novel Elling (or, in Norwegian, his series of four novels around the character Elling; only the first volume appears to have been translated into English), has passed away; see, for example, the AP report and publisher Cappelen Damm's note.
       See also the Cappelen Damm Agency author page for English-language information about him and his many works.

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       One Shot review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Lee Child's One Shot -- the ninth Jack Reacher novel (and the thirteenth under review here).

       And, yes, this was the basis for the 2012 film, Jack Reacher -- featuring the ludicrously miscast Tom Cruise in the title role, but also ... Werner Herzog.

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       Tractatus shortlist

       The Philosophicum Lech awards an annual €25,000 prize for a philosophical essay, the Tractatus, and they've now announced this year's shortlist; not at the official site, last I checked, but see, for example, the Börsenblatt report.
       The winner will be announced in September.

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       Hotlist finalists

       They've announced the thirty finalists for this year's Hotlist, a German prize where all independent publishers are invited to subit a single title -- 184 did this year.
       It makes for an interesting selection, and overview of recent German publishing.

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       Theakston awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Theakston awards, with Hunted, by Abir Mukherjee, winning the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.

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       Boris Akunin sentenced in absentia

       Popular Russian author Boris Akunin has been sentenced, in absentia, to fourteen years in jail; see, for example, the report in The Moscow Times.
       Hey, the prosecution had apparently asked for an eighteen year sentence .....
       Aside from the jailtime: "A judge ruled to ban him from operating websites for four years after his release".
       Akunin presumably wasn't going to head back to Russia anytime soon anyway, but this certainly makes any return even less likely.

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       The Girl with the Golden Eyes review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Honoré de Balzac's The Girl with the Golden Eyes -- this translation recently re-issued by New York Review Books.

       (The translation was originally published in 1998; several more have appeared since then; one can see the appeal of it for translators.)

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       HKW Internationaler Literaturpreis

       HKW Haus der Kulturen have announced the winner of this year's International Prize for Literature, a leading German prize for a translation of a contemporary work, and it is the German translation of Autobiography of Death by Kim Hyesoon; see also the publicity pages from And Other Press and New Directions, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Cynthia Ozick Q & A

       In the Jewish Review of Books Abraham Socher has a Q & A with the author, in Story Evades Cogitation: An Interview with Cynthia Ozick.
       Among Ozick's responses:

I can't and won't reread: What's done is done. Print is writing's final fate; but it's also true that nothing written counts as done -- fully consummated -- until it lands in print.

       As longtime readers know, I'm a huge fan -- and almost all of Ozick's work is under review at the complete review.

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       Wales Books of the Year

       They've announced the winners of this year's Wales Books of the Year, with Carys Davies' Clear winning both the English-language fiction prize as well as being named Wales Book of the Year.
       Gwenno Gwilym's V + Fo took the Welsh-language fiction award.

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       New RSL Fellows

       The Royal Society of Literature has announced the induction of twenty-eight new Fellows and eight new Honorary Fellows.

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       Akutagawa prize(less)

       They award the two most prestigious Japanese book prizes, the Akutagawa and the Naoki, twice a year -- but apparently this summer-session's finalists were all duds: it's happened before -- most recently apparently in 1998 -- and, as The Mainichi reports, this year again there were No wins in 2 prestigious Japanese literary awards, 1st in 27 yrs.

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       Taiwan Literature Awards

       The National Museum of Taiwan Literature announced the winners of this year's Taiwan Literature Awards, awarded in nine categories; see also the article in the Taipei Times, Winners of Taiwan Literature Awards announced.
       Chen Long-ting won the Taiwanese-language novel prize with Kéⁿ-kui.

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       Genjipoems.org

       This looks like a great new resource: as Alene Bouranova writes at The Brink, The World’s First Novel Has Romance, Tragedy, Adventure. Now, After 1,000 Years, The Tale of Genji’s Poems Have Joined the Digital Age, reporting on the launch of an: "interactive digital database of all 795 poems featured in The Tale of Genji" -- genjipoems.org.
       Each of the poems is presented in the original Japanese as well as five translations.

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       Japanese fiction in translation

       At Prospect Susie Mesure reports on how: 'Translated Japanese fiction is suddenly booming in the west. We spoke to publishers, editors and translators to discover why', in Rising sun.
       A solid overview -- though noting also that:

The twin pillars of comfort and crime are driving the boom, with an emphasis on the former: books about cats, cafés and bookshops dominate the bestseller lists for novels in translation from Japanese

       The closing observation by Morgan Giles seems, alas, all too likely:

“I hope that a combination of translators pursuing their own aesthetic tastes and publishers taking more note of what the buzz is in Japan will lead to a new golden era of weird, wonderful Japanese fiction in translation showcasing the many underexamined sides of its society,” says Giles. “But it will probably just be more cats.”

       Many of the Japanese works mentioned here are under review at the complete review.

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       Claus Peymann (1937-2025)

       Theater director Claus Peymann -- most notably at the Viennese Burgtheater and at the Berliner Ensemble -- has passed away; see, for example, the obituary at ORF.
       He staged many of the premieres of Thomas Bernhard's play; see also Bernhard's Claus Peymann Buys Himself a Pair of Pants and Joins Me for Lunch (mostly paywalled) at n+1.

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       Freudenheim Translation Prize

       The Jewish Literary Foundation has announced the new Freudenheim Translation Prize, recognizing: "outstanding books that explore Jewish themes, history, identity or culture -- or are of significant interest to Jewish and wider audience", with the (£3,000) prize going to the translator of the work.

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       Georg-Büchner-Preis

       The German Academy for Language and Literature has announced the winner of this year's Georg Büchner Prize, the leading German-language author prize, and it is Ursula Krechel.
       Not much of her work has been translated into English, but there's a bilingual edition of her Voices from the Bitter Core from Host Publications; see also their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
       She gets to pick up the prize on 1 November.

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       Banned in DoDEA schools

       At Military.com Rebecca Kheel reports Here Are the 596 Books Being Banned by Defense Department Schools -- though in fact the books are not listed there, but there is a link to the Memorandum Order (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) where they are listed.
       For some reason the DoDEA was reluctant to release this list -- it took this court order.
       The list is fairly predictable: anything LGBTQ- or gender-related -- right up to Virginia Woolf's Orlando, sigh --, anything race-related, and ... some AP psychology guides.
       Dear god .....

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       The Highest Exam review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li, with Claire Cousineau, on How the Gaokao Shapes China, in The Highest Exam, coming from Harvard University Press.

       (I have and have long been meaning to review Ichisada Miyazaki's China's Examination Hell: The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China -- see the Yale University Press publicity page -- which looks like it would make a nice complementary volume to this.)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalists

       The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation has announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the finalists for its awards, honoring: "writers whose work demonstrates the power of the written word to foster peace", in its two categories, fiction and non -- six titles each
       Percival Everett's James is among the fiction finalists .....
       I haven't seen any of these.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Martin Cruz Smith (1942-2025)

       Gorky Park-author Martin Cruz Smith has passed away; see, for example, the obituary in The Independent.
       I enjoyed Gorky Park when it came out, but haven't read any of the later Arkady Renko-novels; the last, Hotel Ukraine, apparently only came out recently.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Ocean Vuong Q & A

       At The Times of India Sneha Bhura has a Q & A with Ocean Vuong: Indian students are struggling with visas but the most exciting literature will come from them.
       Vuong says of his latest novel, The Emperor of Gladness: "The book is an epic of interiority. An epic that doesn't go anywhere".
       Among the questions also: the now surely inevitable one about AI .....

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Goffredo Fofi (1937-2025)

       Italian intellectual Goffredo Fofi has passed away; see, for example, the ANSA obituary and The Legacy of Goffredo Fofi at il Messaggero.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       The Laboratory review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's 'last novel', The Laboratory.

       Translated by the indefatigable Arunava Sinha, this is the first book published under his new imprint, Chowringhee Press, offering 'Translations from India' -- a promising-looking venture.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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