opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       Frankétienne (1936-2025)

       Haitian author Frankétienne has passed away; see, for example the obituary in The Haitian Times and Dánica Coto's AP obituary (here at ABC).
       Several of his works have been translated into English, including Dézafi -- see the University of Virginia Press publicity page -- and the only one of his books under review at the complete review, Ready to Burst.

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

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       Walter Scott Prize longlist

       They've announced the twelve-title longlist for this year's Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
       Only one of the titles is under review at the complete review: Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits.
       The shortlist will be announced 15 April.

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       New World Literature Today

       The March-April issue of World Literature Today is now out.
       As always, a lot of good material -- including the extensive book review section.

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       Translating Dazai Osamu

       At Counter Craft Lincoln Michel has a Q & A with the translator, in 'On translating comedy, men as erratic and emotional creatures, and "the original bad boy of modern Japanese fiction"', in Processing: How Sam Bett Translated Osamu Dazai.
       Bett's translation of Dazai's The Beggar Student is just out -- see the New Directions publicity page --; the only Dazai under review at the complete review is A Shameful Life.

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       LLMs tracking societal bias

       In New Scientist Matthew Sparkes reports on how AI trained on novels tracks how racist and sexist biases have evolved (paywalled) -- reporting on the recent paper Fine-Tuned LLMs are “Time Capsules” for Tracking Societal Bias Through Books (warning ! dreaded pdf format ! there's also an version) by Sangmitra Madhusudan, Robert Morabito, Skye Reid, Nikta Gohari Sadr, and Ali Emami
       Hardly surprising, but interesting nevertheless.

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       IPAF shortlist

       They've announced the six-title shortlist for this year's International Prize for Arabic Fiction, the leading Arabic-language fiction prize.
       The winner will be announced 24 April.

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       PEN America Grant winners

       PEN America has announced the winners of its 2025 grants -- including the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants, awarded for ten projects, as well as the PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature.

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       L.A. Times Book Prize finalists

       They've announced the finalists for the L.A. Times Book Prizes, with: "61 nominees across more than a dozen categories".
       The only title under review at the complete review -- indeed, the only one of these I've seen -- is Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword.
       The winners will be announced 25 April.

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       Command Performance review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jean Echenoz's Command Performance -- just about out in English, from New York Review Books.

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       Fitzcarraldo Editions profile

       At 032c Shane Anderson profiles Fitzcarraldo Editions -- apparently: "the biggest sensation in publishing in decades" --, in: Fitzcarraldo Editions: The Biggest Little Press in the World.
       Interesting to hear that:

As of last year, the house has also sold more than one million print units, and every title, with but one exception, has sold at least 1,000 copies.

       (Which book is the hold-out ?)
       Publisher Jacques Testard is quoted as saying:

It’s important for us to remain small enough to never have to publish a book for commercial reasons and to be able to keep publishing books because we think they’re really good.

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       Jókai Mór profile

       At hlo The Finno-Ugrian Vampire-author Szécsi Noémi profiles the author, in “Jokay Maurus” or Mór Jókai Goes International.

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       Salome in Graz anniversary

       My novel Salome in Graz came out a year ago today !

       Nice to see that a few people have picked it up -- though it hasn't sold as many copies as my Arno Schmidt: a centennial colloquy (yet) -- and I hope they've enjoyed it. And, of course, it's never too late to get your own copy .....
       I know I should probably try to *publicize* it more, but for the most part I'm happy enough just to have it out there. I'm sure it'll find its readers (beyond those it's already found !) eventually .....

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       Geoff Nicholson (1953-2025)

       English author Geoff Nicholson has passed away; see, for example, Richard Lapper's obituary in The Guardian. (Apparently, he died 18 January, but this is the first I heard of it -- and the first obituary I've seen.)

       I've been a big and long-time fan, and twenty of his books are under review at the complete review -- making him one of the most-reviewed authors at the site --; his work still seems very underappreciated to me.

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       Simon Mawer (1948-2025)

       English author Simon Mawer has passed away; see, for example, Heloise Wood's report in The Bookseller.
       His The Fall was longlisted for the Man Booker, and The Glass Room was shortlisted.

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       Perspective(s) review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Laurent Binet's epistolary novel, Perspective(s) -- out in English in the UK now (albeit as Perspectives, sigh) and coming to the US in April.

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       Sunday Times Young Writer Award shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award -- "given annually to the best work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by a British or Irish author of 35 or under" --; Johanna Thomas-Corr also introduces the authors in the Sunday Times.
       The winner will be announced 18 March.

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       Czechoslovak PEN Club turns 100

       The Czechoslovak PEN Club is celebrating its centenary; see, for example, the Radio Prague International report, From Čapek to the Present: 100 Years of the Czechoslovak PEN Club.

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       Profile: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

       In The Guardian Charlotte Edwardes profiles ‘Cancel culture? We should stop it. End of story’: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on backlash, writer’s block – and her new baby twins.
       Among the observations:

Writing fiction is when she is happiest. “You should talk to my husband: he would say, ‘She becomes a different person.’ It’s like a high. I don’t do drugs, but I imagine that it is that absolute high. I’m struck by how much time passes and I don’t realise. Then when I am done – whatever it is, a character that I’ve finally got – the rest of the day is joyful floating. I’m so much fun to be around. And that is not always the case.”

       Adichie has a new novel coming out in March, Dream Count; see also the publicity pages from Knopf and 4th Estate, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Profile: Anne Tyler

       In The Guardian Lisa Allardice has a profile of the author, in ‘It seemed wrong to write about normal life after that horrendous election’: US novelist Anne Tyler.
       Interesting to hear that:

When she downsized, she didn’t keep a copy of any of her own books. “What would I do with them ?” She has them all on a Kindle, but only so she can check if she’s repeating herself.

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       Jenny Erpenbeck Q & A

       In the Hindustan Times Chintan Girish Modi has a Q & A with Jenny Erpenbeck: “There is a place in the world for socialism”.
       Among her responses:

When I started writing seriously, and considering myself an author, I did not expect so much social interaction. I have learnt, over time, that half of the work is going to events, speaking at sessions, participating in discussions, and giving interviews like this one.

       Also: "Sometimes, people want to talk about your grandmother rather than your book" .....

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       The Magpie at Night review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Wendy Chen's new translation of The Complete Poems of Li Qingzhao (1084-1151), The Magpie at Night.

       This will be out from Farrar, Straus and Giroux shortly in the US; the UK edition, from Penguin Classics,, is only due in September.

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       Swiss national literature prizes

       They've announced that Sweet Days of Discipline-author Fleur Jaeggy has been awarded the Grand Prix for Swiss Literature award; they've also announced the seven winners of this year's Swiss Literature Prize.
       See also the swissinfo report.

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       Israel Prize for Literature

       The Ministry of Education has apparently announced that Devora Gilola will get this year's Israel Prize for Literature -- though not yet at the official site, last I checked; see, for example, the report in The Jerusalem Post.

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       Translation Prizes

       The Society of Authors has announced the winners of their eight translation prizes.
       The only winner under review at the complete review is of the Premio Valle Inclán, awarded to Chris Andrews, Edith Grossman, and Alastair Reid for their translation of Álvaro Mutis' Maqroll's Prayer and Other Poems

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       Women's Prize for Non-Fiction longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Women's Prize for Non-Fiction -- sixteen titles.
       I haven't seen any of these.
       The shortlist will be announced 26 March, and the winner on 12 June.

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       Amy Tan archive

       The Joy Luck Club author Amy Tan's archive has been acquired by The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley; see, for example, Dan Vaccaro's UC Berkeley News report, Amy Tan archive lands at UC Berkeley, offering a bird's-eye view of a singular literary life.
       No word on how much they paid (sigh), but it amounts to 62 boxes, which include:

Tan’s personal journals spanning several decades, correspondence with other writers and historical family photographs. There is also a substantive amount of unpublished and never-before-seen writing, including works she created during childhood.

       In The New York Times Jennifer Schuessler also reports on the purchase, in Why Amy Tan Decided Not to Shred Her Archive (presumably paywalled) -- noting that:

Until recently, she had left written instructions for everything except photographs to be shredded after her death, lest she be subjected to the posthumous ordeal of scholars “going through the equivalent of my underwear drawer.”

       But:

So why the change of heart ? In a recent telephone conversation, Tan listed acceptance of “posterity,” coaxing by her longtime editor, and, well, the need to clear out space in her garage.

       The dollar-signs maybe also helped ?

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       Usedomer Literaturpreis

       The Usedomer Literaturpreis only pays out €5,000 but has an impressive list of winners, including Olga Tokarczuk (2012), Ilija Trojanow (2018), Jenny Erpenbeck (2019), Georgi Gospodinow (2021), Tanja Maljartschuk (2022), and Sofi Oksanen (2023) -- and they've now announced this year's winner -- though not at the official site, where they seem to be years behind the times -- and it is Szczepan Twardoch; see, for example, the NDR report.

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       Saara review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Mbarek Ould Beyrouk's Saara, the latest in the Dedalus Africa-series, which is coming along very nicely.

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       Prix Jean Monnet

       They've announced the longlist for this year's prix Jean Monnet de littérature européenne -- though unfortunately not in very easily accessible form at the official site, so see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       Among the eight finalists are works by Alessandro Baricco, Mircea Cărtărescu, Andreï Makine, Pascal Quignard, and Josef Winkler.

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       Salomé first editions

       At Christie's in London they are auctioning Barry Humphries: The Personal Collection tomorrow -- and among the items are two first editions of Oscar Wilde's Salomé -- the French original (1893) -- Lot 148, previously owned by Lord Alfred Douglas and Gertrud Eysoldt, among others (estimate: GBP 40,000-60,000), and Lot 149, inscribed by Wilde to Léon Daudet (estimate: GBP 20,000-30,000).
       Looks pretty good:



       My Salome in Graz of course deals extensively with the play, in this and many of its later editions and translations ..... (If you buy direct from Lulu -- here -- the promotional code VALENTINE15 at checkout gets you 15% off through 14 February.)

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       Amitav Ghosh Q & A

       In The Indian Express Cherry Gupta has a Q & A with the The Glass Palace-author, in Amitav Ghosh on the Salman Rushdie attack: ‘Horrified yet awed by his resilience; we’ve forgotten our shared humanity’.
       Among his responses:

The lines between fiction, non-fiction, and poetry are becoming increasingly blurred, and I believe this is a healthy development. In my work, I often find myself blending different genres, drawing on elements of history, memoirs, and even travel writing. These hybrid forms allow for greater flexibility, greater freedom to explore different modes of expression, and engagement with the world in more nuanced and multifaceted ways.

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       Tom Robbins (1932-2025)

       Popular American author Tom Robbins has passed away; see, for example, the obituaries in The Los Angeles Times and at npr.
       Somewhat surprisingly, I haven't read any of his books.

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       First Love review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Shimamoto Rio's Naoki Prize-winning novel, First Love, now in English, from Honford Star.

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       'Chinese contemporary literature in the Portuguese-speaking world'

       In Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Xin Huang and Xiang Zhang report on Translating culture: the rise and resonance of Chinese contemporary literature in the Portuguese-speaking world, based on a total of 274 Chinese literary works translated into Portuguese between 1979 and 2024 -- of which: "nearly half consists of translations of classical Chinese antiquity".
       Also:

84 contemporary Chinese novels have found their way into Portuguese translation including 43 by Chinese mainland authors such as Liu Cixin, Su Tong, Yan Lianke, Mai Jia, Yu Hua, and Chen Zhongshi. Some works have multiple versions, showing the evolving landscape of Chinese literature in the Portuguese-speaking world.

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       Michael Dirda Q & A

       At The Washington Post John Williams has a Q & A as Post critic Michael Dirda turns a page, as Dirda: "has decided to step away from his weekly cadence of reviewing".
       Among his observations:

W.H. Auden convinced me that writing snarky negative reviews -- which, by the way, is dead easy -- was bad for one’s character, so I’ve tried to avoid doing so as much as possible.

       And while I'm intrigued by the project that he describes as:

I’m trying to rework a long manuscript — currently 200,000 words — that is tentatively titled “The Great Age of Storytelling.” It focuses on popular fiction in Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries

       what I'm really looking forward to is: "a memoir about working at The Post".

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       Sunderland Lit and Phil Society

       As reported at, for example, the BBC Literary society relaunches after 150 years.
       Apparently:

The original Lit and Phil Society closed its doors in 1873 after investing in the Athenaeum on Fawcett Street.

"Unfortunately, they bankrupted themselves," Ms Langley said.

"But the ideas lived on."

       Ah, yes.

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       John Dos Passos Prize

       Longwood University has announced the winner of the John Dos Passos Prize -- awarded to: "a writer whose work offers incisive, original commentary on American themes, experiments with form and encompasses a range of human experiences" -- and it is Angie Cruz.
       None of her work is under review at the complete review.

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       Uketsu profile

       Thu-Huong Ha profiles the Strange Pictures-author in the The Japan Times , in 'Uketsu': The internet phantom haunting Japan's bestseller lists (possibly paywalled ?) .
       Among the observations:

Uketsu believes that a key to his success is that his readers skew young, as young as children and teenagers, and he prides himself on hearing that for many readers, his novels are the first they’ve ever read.

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       Taiwan literature abroad

       In New Lines Magazine James Baron finds Taiwan's Literature is Having a Moment in Central and Eastern Europe -- suggesting that the: 'Publication of contemporary fiction in Slavic languages is a sign of growing political support for Taipei'.
       See also the sites of publishers Mi:Lu -- 'a publisher of translated literature from Taiwan' -- and Safran -- 'an oriental publishing house, the first of its kind in Ukraine'.

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       Geetanjali Shree Q & A

       At CNBC TV18 Sneha Bengani has a Q & A with Geetanjali Shree: 'Not just my writing, all literature is about protest'.
       Among her responses:

How can we revive Hindi, especially among the urban youth ?

You can't force a language down people's throats. If it comes as a state policy or just as a compulsory subject to be taught in schools, it is not going to work. It has to become a very natural, spontaneous part of our daily life

[...]

For the common people, we need to find ways to start enjoying the language more and make it a part of our daily life. But unfortunately, in our everyday lives, people like you and me use Hindi only when we talk to the shopkeepers, vegetable sellers, and gardeners. We speak it only in utilitarian conversations. That is not going to do great things for the language.

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       Com Lit 2BW

       In LAist Julia Barajas wites about how Instead of banning AI, this UCLA literature class embraces it -- writing about COM LIT 2BW: Survey of Literature: Middle Ages to 17th Century.
       Elizabeth Landers notes that it's not all AI: "Everything has been guided by humans, checked by humans, imagined by humans".
       Meanwhile one student apparently: "appreciates an AI feature that turns sections of the Comp Lit 2BW textbook into podcasts".

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       Kate Atkinson profile

       At El País Rafa de Miguel profiles Kate Atkinson, the unclassifiable bestseller: From crime fiction to the magical world of Yorkshire.

       The only Atkinson title under review at the complete review is Case Histories.

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       PEN Translates grants

       English PEN has announced the latest batch of winners of its PEN Translates grants -- 19 titles, translated from 13 languages.
       Among the projects is a new translation of Yasutaka Tsutsui's Paprika.

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       Near Distance review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Hanna Stoltenberg's Near Distance, now also out in a North American edition, from Biblioasis; it came out in the UK in 2023.

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       Oskar Pastior Preis

       The Oskar Pastior Prize is a big-money (€40,000) but perhaps not so well-endowed literary prize, by the o du roher iasmin-author, awarded to an author whose work is 'in the tradition of the Wiener Gruppe, the Bielefelder Colloquium Neue Poesie, and the Oulipo'.
       Pastior had hoped for it to be awarded every two years, but the cash hasn't been there so so far they've only managed to award it in 2010 (to Oswald Egger), 2024 (Marcel Beyer), 2016 (Anselm Glück), and now, finally, again -- to Dagmara Kraus; see, for example, the Börsenblatt report.

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       Hilary Mantel estate

       Apparently they're settling Hilary Mantel's estate, and so the numbers are out: she left it all to her husband, "having amassed a fortune of £4,677,327, which later reduced to a net sum of £4,182,353."; see, for example, the Daily Mail report.
       Not bad for an author.

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       Mahmoud Saeed (1939?-2025)

       Iraqi author Mahmoud Saeed has passed away; see, for example, the Iraqi News Agency report or Thomas Frisbie's obituary in the Chicago Sun-Times.
       Several of his works have been translated into English, including Saddam City (see the Saqi publicity page) and The World Through the Eyes of Angels (see the Syracuse University Press publicity page).

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       Bhashavaad

       Ashoka University has announced the launch of "India’s first non-profit, open-access, and crowd-sourced database of Indian translations", Bhashavaad -- already with more than 14,000 entries.
       Certainly, a useful resource.

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       Salome in Brooklyn

       Having written the novel Salome in Graz I'm always curious about new Salome-variations, especially of the Wilde play and the Strauss opera, and tomorrow through 16 February Heartbeat Opera is putting on a new production, in a: "10-instrument orchestration by Dan Schlosberg" -- a lot smaller orchestra than Strauss had.
       Apparently theirs is a: "radical take on an iconic work" -- where: " it's not just about the severed heads but about the desires and cages that define us all". Not sure what the protagonists of my novel would make of that .....

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       Han Kang profile

       Nobel laureate Han Kang has a new novel out -- We Do Not Part; I haven't seen it yet -- and at The Guardian Lisa Allardice has a profile of her, ‘I want to be hopeful’: Nobel prize-winning novelist Han Kang on the crisis in South Korea.

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       The Lily in the Valley review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Honoré de Balzac's The Lily in the Valley, recently out in a new translation from New York Review Books.

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       Jenny Erpenbeck Q & A

       In The Indian Express Aishwarya Khosla has a Q & A with the author at the Jaipur Literature Festival, in ‘All already in the Mahabharata’: Booker Prize winner Jenny Erpenbeck on war and human struggles.

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       Book market 2024: UK

       The Bookseller has a couple of (presumably paywalled ?) 'Reviews of the Year' (2024), including for fiction sales and non-fiction sales in the UK in 2024.
       Non-fiction sales (as counted by BookScan) were down 6.3% by volume and 4.9% by value. Meanwhile, fiction sales were up 6.2% by volume and 9.8% by value.
       Of the top fourteen fiction categories twelve saw increases, with declines only in the categories: 'Graphic Novels: General' and 'War Fiction'. Meanwhile, 'Science Fiction and Fantasy' was up 41.35 -- a "TikTok/romantasy-aided" leap, apparently.
       I was surprised to see that the top non-fiction category was 'Food and Drink: General' -- generating almost twice as much cash as the also surprising runner-up, 'Travel and Holiday Guides: General'.

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       Book market 2024: Austria

       The Hauptverband des Österreichischen Buchhandels has issued an overview (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) of the Austrian book market in 2024 -- albeit avoiding revealing a lot of the actual numbers.
       They do reveal that sales were up 3.1%, with turnover up 4.75.
       'Belletristik' -- basically, trade fiction -- turnover was up 9.7%.
       The Austrian market did better than the Swiss (1.3% more books sold) and German (1.7% fewer sales -- though turnover was up .8%, thanks to higher prices).
       The average price for a book was €16.27 -- up 1.5%, which was considerably less than the rate of inflation.

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       Sapir Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Sapir Prize, a leading Israeli book prize paying out NIS 150,000, and it is שלושה ימים בקיץ by Yossi Avni-Levy; see, for example, Neria Barr's report in The Jerusalem Post, Yossi Avni-Levy wins Sapir Prize for Literature.
       See also the Kinneret Zmora Dvir publicity page for the book.

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       Republic of Consciousness longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses (the original UK/Ireland prize; there's also a US/Canada version now).
       Certainly an interesting selection -- though I haven't seen any of these.

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       Susan Barker Q & As

       Susan Barker's Old Soul is now out -- and there are now Q & As with the author at CrimeReads and Writer's Digest.

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

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