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The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 May 2019

11 May: Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize shortlist | Wales Book of the Year shortlists | CWA Daggers longlists
12 May: Desmond Elliott Prize shortlist | New Poet Laureate
13 May: Translating from ... Portuguese into Arabic | Online literature in ... China | Castle Gripsholm review
14 May: Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture | RSL Ondaatje Prize
15 May: Sven Lindqvist (1932-2019) | Prix Littérature-Monde finalists | Ockham New Zealand Book Awards | Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse review
16 May: Prix mondial Cino Del Duca | BTBA finalists | Tbilisi International Festival of Literature
17 May: Dylan Thomas Prize | French Translation Prizes | Encore Award shortlist | Libri irodalmi díjak
18 May: Herman Wouk (1915-2019) | Aniara, the film | The Deer and the Cauldron review
19 May: Top 50 French books since 1900 ? | Bibliotopia
20 May: Russian Literature Week | The Coming of Joachim Stiller review

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       Russian Literature Week

       Read Russia is holding Russian Literature Week in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. today through the 24th, featuring The Man Who Couldn't Die-author Olga Slavnikova and Zuleika-author Guzel Yakhina.

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

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       The Coming of Joachim Stiller review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Hubert Lampo's 1960 novel, The Coming of Joachim Stiller, just out in a new translation, by Paul Vincent, from Valancourt Books.

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

       Top 50 French books since 1900 ?

       I missed this when it first appeared, a couple of weeks ago, but at Le Temps they came up with a list of Les 50 meilleurs livres de langue française de 1900 à aujourd’hui. (This is a Swiss publication, and those who selected the titles all seem to be Swiss (or Switzerland-based); no doubt a panel from France (or other French-speaking countries) would have chosen differently -- maybe not three books by Ramuz ?)
       Most of the top choices aren't that surprising -- well, maybe Alcools at nr.4 ... --, with the most intriguing in the top ten probably being Nicolas Bouvier's The Way of the World (nr. 8, just ahead of Waiting for Godot), a book that was apparently originally self-published.
       Eight of the titles are under review at the complete review:

• 11. Froth on the Daydream, by Boris Vian
• 17. Life A User's Manual, by Georges Perec
• 23. A Man's Place, by Annie Ernaux
• 24. The Years, by Annie Ernaux
• 27. Bonjour tristesse, by Françoise Sagan
• 37. The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes), by Alain-Fournier
• 43. The Heart (UK title: Mend the Living), by Maylis de Kerangal
• 49. My Friends, by Emmanuel Bove

       The list as a whole is an interesting mix, though certainly not quite the order (or titles, in many case ...) I'd go with.

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

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       Bibliotopia

       It's Bibliotopia: A literary week-end around the world at the Jan Michalski Foundation this weekend, with a neat programme.
       Even the disappointing -- "Unfortunately Dubravka Ugrešić had to cancel her visit" -- comes with a silver lining: "She will be replaced by the writer Mikhail Shishkin".

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

       Herman Wouk (1915-2019)

       Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Herman Wouk has passed away; see, for example, William Grimes' obituary in The New York Times.

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

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       Aniara, the film

       Nobel laureate Harry Martinson's science fiction poem Aniara has been turned into a movie -- see the official site -- which is now out, to mixed reviews, in the US.
       For some of the reviews, see:

• Marooned on the way to Mars in 'Aniara' by Ty Burr (Boston Globe)
• Swedish sci-fi flick 'Aniara' an existential drift through space by G. Allen Johnson (Datebook)
• 'Aniara' Is Masterful Example Of Smart, Relevant Sci-Fi Cinema by Mark Hughes (Forbes)
• A One-Way Ticket Into the Abyss by Teo Bugbee (The New York Times)
• Aniara Is a Resonant, Frustratingly Evasive Vision of Space Travel by Chuck Bowen (Slant)
• Film Review: 'Aniara' by Dennis Harvey (Variety)

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

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       The Deer and the Cauldron review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Louis Cha's (i.e. Jin Yong's) The Deer and the Cauldron.
       This is a (good-looking) three-volume set from Oxford University Press, translated by The Story of the Stone-translator-team of John Minford and (un(officially)-credited) David Hawkes, and Rachel May, and it's the longest book (over 1500 pages, over 600,000 words) I've reviewed in a while (as well as the longest review ...) -- though one of my complaints about it is that it's an abridged translation .....
       They recently announced that this would be filmed, by Pang Ho-cheung, in a three-film series, with a decent budget ($80 million per film), the first film to be released in 2021.

       Jin Yong has been getting more attention recently, with the Legends of the Condor Heroes-series coming out in English -- from MacLehose in the UK (see their publicity page) and now finally, this fall, from St.Martin's in the US (see their publicity page); I hope to get to those too.

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

       Dylan Thomas Prize

       They've announced that In Our Mad and Furious City, by Guy Gunaratne, has won this year's Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize, a £30,000 prize "for the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under".
       See also the Farrar, Straus and Giroux publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       French Translation Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's French-American Foundation Translation Prizes.
       The fiction prize was shared by Linda Coverdale (for her translation of Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau) and Chris Clarke (for his translation of Imaginary Lives by Marcel Schwob), while the non-fiction prize went to Malcolm Debevoise (for his translation of Good Government by Pierre Rosanvallon).

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

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       Encore Award shortlist

       The Royal Society of Literature has announced the shortlist for the Encore Award -- a second novel prize.
       The winner will be announced 13 June.

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

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       Libri irodalmi díjak

       They've announced that the short story collection Verseim, by Szvoren Edina, is the winner of this year's Libri Literary Prize, a relatively new but significant Hungarian book prize; see also the hlo report.

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

       Prix mondial Cino Del Duca

       The prix mondial Cino Del Duca isn't strictly an author-prize -- it's for a 'grand humaniste', and scientists are eligible too, for their life-work, with the first award going to Konrad Lorenz (in 1969) -- but it has a pretty impressive literary record too: winners include Ignazio Silone, Alejo Carpentier, Jorge Luis Borges, Ernst Jünger, Ismail Kadare, Milan Kundera, Patrick Modiano, and Sylvie Germain, among others. At €200,000 it is also has one of the biggest payouts of any author-prize (though public recognition, or even awareness, is certainly lagging ...).
       They've now announced this year's laureate -- though not yet at the official site, last I checked -- and it's The Meursault Investigation-author Kamel Daoud, who will receive the prize on 5 June; see, for example, the report at Livres Hebdo.

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

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       BTBA finalists

       They've announced the finalists for (American) Best Translated Books Awards.
       The ten fiction finalists are:

• Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer, tr. Katy Derbyshire
• Congo Inc. by In Koli Jean Bofane, tr. Marjolijn de Jager
• Convenience Store Woman by Murata Sayaka, tr. Ginny Tapley Takemori
• Fox by Dubravka Ugrešić, tr. Ellen Elias-Bursać and David Williams
• The Governesses by Anne Serre, tr. Mark Hutchinson
• The Hospital by Ahmed Bouanani, tr. Lara Vergnaud
• Moon Brow by Shahriar Mandanipour, tr. Khalili Sara
• Öræfï by Ófeigur Sigurðsson, tr. Lytton Smith
• Pretty Things by Virginie Despentes, tr. Emma Ramadan
• Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau, tr. Linda Coverdale (Martinique, New Press)

       It's an ... interesting variety .....
       The winners will be announced 29 May.

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

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       Tbilisi International Festival of Literature

       The Tbilisi International Festival of Literature runs tomorrow through the 21st, with an interesting-looking programme.
       See also Ketevan Kvaratskheliya's report in Georgia Today.

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

       Sven Lindqvist (1932-2019)

       Swedish author -- mainly of non-fiction --Sven Lindqvist has passed away.
       Quite a few of his works have been translated into English; among his best-known is "Exterminate All the Brutes"; see the publicity pages from The New Press and Granta, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
       See also his official site.

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

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       Prix Littérature-Monde finalists

       The festival Etonnants Voyageurs (coming 8 to 10 June) has a variety of prizes, including the prix Littérature-Monde -- a world literature prize, awarded in two categories: French and translated -- and they've now announced the five finalists in each category; not yet at the official site, last I checked, but see the report at Livres Hebdo.
       The winner will be announced 20 May.

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

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       Ockham New Zealand Book Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, with This Mortal Boy, by Fiona Kidman, winning the NZ$53,000 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize; see also the Penguin Books New Zealand publicity page.
       The Māori Language Award went to He Kupu Tuku Iho, by Tīmoti Kāretu and Wharehuia Milroy; see also the Auckland University Press publicity page.

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

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       Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Georges Simenon's Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse, a new translation in Penguin Classics' ongoing overhaul of the whole series.

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

       Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture

       The recent PEN World Voices Festival concluded with Arundhati Roy giving the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture, and at The Guardian you can now read an abridged version of it, Literature provides shelter. That's why we need it.

       Democracy Now ! also has an interview -- video and transcript --, Arundhati Roy on the Power of Fiction: Literature is “The Simplest Way of Saying a Complicated Thing”.

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

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       RSL Ondaatje Prize

       The Royal Society of Literature has announced that The Wife's Tale, by Aida Edemariam, has won this year's RSL Ondaatje Prize, "awarded for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place".
       See also the publicity pages from Harper Perennial and 4th Estate, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

       Translating from ... Portuguese into Arabic

       In The Arabic Weekly Mohamed Hemamsi reports on how Translating books from Portuguese into Arabic builds bridges with Brazil, as a recent publication introduced and discussed at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair: "contains selections from 12 books written by Brazilian authors of Arab origin or influenced by Arabic culture".

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

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       Online literature in ... China

       Xinhua reports that China has 14 mln authors of online literature: report, as:

China's registered authors of online literary works totaled more than 14 million as of 2018, according to the latest report issued by the China Writers Association

       No clear definition of what makes an author 'registered', but that is a lot of writers .....

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

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       Castle Gripsholm review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kurt Tucholsky's 1931 novel, Castle Gripsholm.
       This was apparently Michael Hofmann's first translation, published in 1985; New York Review Books has just reïssued it.

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

       Desmond Elliott Prize shortlist

       They've announced the three-title shortlist for this year's Desmond Elliott Prize, "an annual award for a first novel written in English and published in the UK".
       The winning title will be announced 19 June.

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

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       New Poet Laureate

       The British queen has approved: "the appointment of Simon Armitage as the next Poet Laureate for a fixed-term of ten years".
       The position ? honor ? of 'Poet Laureate' is: "awarded to a poet whose work is of national significance"; Armitage is the twenty-first of these, and succeeds Carol Ann Duffy; "The position is honorary and it is up to the individual poet to decide whether or not to produce poetry for national occasions or Royal events"

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

       Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize shortlist

       They've announced the eight title shortlist for this year's Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, for which literary translations into English from European languages are eligible; no word yet at the official site, but see The Bookseller report.
       The only one of the shortlisted titles under review at the complete review is The Desert and the Drum, by Mbarek Ould Beyrouk.
       The shortlisted titles were apparently selected from over 100 titles in 22 languages.

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

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       Wales Book of the Year shortlists

       Literature Wales has announced the shortlists for this year's Wales Book of the Year, in three categories each in English and Welsh.
       Impressively, all three of the Welsh fiction finalists were published by Y Lolfa.
       The winners will be announced 20 June.

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

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       CWA Daggers longlists

       They've announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the longlists for this year's Crime Writers Association Daggers, "regarded by the publishing world as the foremost British awards for crime-writing".
       Two Three of the titles longlisted for the CWA International Dagger are under review at the complete review: Newcomer, by Higashino Keigo, The Cold Summer, by Gianrico Carofiglio, and Weeping Waters, by Karin Brynard.
       The winners will be announced 24 October.

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

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