opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 March 2020

11 March: Prix Voltaire shortlist | Lammy finalists | Jesus' Cat review
12 March: London Book Fair awards | Translating from ... the Malayalam | Reading in ... South Korea
13 March: Preise der Leipziger Buchmesse | NBCC Awards | American Academy of Arts and Letters awards | First Novel review
14 March: Giwi Margwelaschwili (1927-2020) | Big Other Book Award for Translation finalists | Like Flies from Afar review
15 March: Publishing in ... India | Literature and ... locusts | Prague novels
16 March: Gotham Book Mart | 琥珀のまたたき review
17 March: Europese Literatuurprijs longlist | Wingate Prize | A Long Way Off review
18 March: OCM Bocas Prize finalists | Eduard Limonov (1943-2020) | Prix Anaïs Nin
19 March: Reading ... 100 years ago | Dostoyevsky | Egyptian cult classics
20 March: Possible Dalkey Archive/Open Letter merger ? | Windham-Campbell Prizes | NSW Premier's Literary Awards shortlists

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       Possible Dalkey Archive/Open Letter merger ?

       At the Los Angeles Review of Books' BLARB weblog Dashiel Carrera has a Q & A: Against the Grain: John O'Brien on the Possible Dalkey Archive/Open Letter Merger.
       Dalkey Archive Press publisher John O'Brien says:

What might be possible between the two presses is a work-in-progress. Both I and Chad Post, the publisher of Open Letter Press, have always been very interested in doing things in publishing that haven't been done before. [...] Chad and I have been talking about what happens with Dalkey when I'm gone, and right now we are focused on how we can be of help to each other. Dalkey has this very substantial backlist of over 850 books, and Open Letter has who I think is the smartest person there is in terms of marketing. Right now we are speculating on everything from a close alliance to an eventual merging of the two presses.

       Whoa !
       Chad Post of course started out at Dalkey Archive -- and indeed Open Letter came about as a result of discussions considering moving Dalkey Archive to the University of Rochester in 2006 (that didn't work out, and Dalkey Archive moved first to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and then, in 2015, to the University of Houston-Victoria (for a while)). When Dalkey didn't go to Rochester, Chad did, starting Open Letter there.
       Given that history, and with their similar literary sensibilities -- and especially great enthusiasm for fiction in translation --, the two are, unsurprisingly, a good fit; it'll be interesting to see what develops .....

       I am, of course, a huge fan of both -- and Dalkey Archive Press is probably the one English-language publisher whose backlist I could live off, at least for a couple of years; as is, quite a few of their titles are under review at the complete review -- as is also the case for Open Letter, although since they only publish ten titles a year, and don't have such a deep backlist, not quite as many .....

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

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       Windham-Campbell Prizes

       They've announced the eight winners of this year's Windham-Campbell Prizes, two in each of the four categories: fiction, non, poetry, and drama; they each get: " an unrestricted grant of $165,000 to support their writing".
       The fiction winners are Yiyun Lee and Namwali Serpell.

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       NSW Premier's Literary Awards shortlists

       They've announced the shortlists in the ten categories of this year's NSW Premier's Literary Awards, "the richest state-funded literary awards" in Australia; see either the press release (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) or the drop-down menu (seriously ??!?) main awards page.

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       Reading ... 100 years ago

       In the TLS Nicholson Baker wonders: 'What were people reading and talking about a hundred years ago ?' in Bernice bobs her hair.
       Always a fun exercise ..... (Also interesting to note how much was serialized at the time -- quite a few notable works.)

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       Dostoyevsky

       At Realnoe Vremya Natalia Antropova has a Q & A with: 'Slavist Maria Candida Ghidini on how Dostoyevsky is read in Europe, why the pope cites him and the difficulties of translation of the writer into Italian', ‘Of course, we don’t usually kill old ladies like Raskolnikov, but this charm of evil exists in each of us’.
       Among her observations:

It was considered until recently that Dostoyevsky wrote in a confusing and chaotic way, and that translators of his book tied up any loose ends. However, the confusion is his style, sometimes conscious enough. For this reason, for instance, I decided to leave repetitions of words. However, editors thought I didn’t know Italian synonyms, couldn’t find other words, and they simply deleted all repetitions without even letting me know. It was very hard to edit my translation, we debated. Now translators treat Dostoyevsky’s style more consciously and with great respect.

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       Egyptian cult classics

       At Middle East Eye M Lynx Qualey (of the invaluable Arablit) suggests Egyptian cult classics: 11 books that are worth reading.
       Several of these are under review at the complete review -- Beer in the Snooker Club, Utopia, The Jokers, and A Splendid Conspiracy -- and I should be getting to The Magnificent Conman of Cairo soon; great to see that finally coming out in English.

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

       OCM Bocas Prize finalists

       They've announced the nine titles longlisted for this year's OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature -- three each in the three categories: poetry, fiction, and non.
       The winner will be announced in May.

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

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       Eduard Limonov (1943-2020)

       Russian author and political activist Eduard Limonov has passed away; see, for example, the obituaries from AFP (here at The Moscow Times) and The New York Times.
       Several of his works were published in English, but in recent years it's Emmanuel Carrère's Limonov that's gotten the most attention.

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

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       Prix Anaïs Nin

       They've announced that Otages, by Nina Bouraoui, has won this year's prix Anaïs Nin; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       This prize is specifically for a book which they think would be appropriate for the English-speaking market; it's only been around since 2015, but their record isn't bad, with 2015 winner Vernon Subutex by Virginie Despentes, 2017 winner The Collection by Nina Leger, and 2018 winner Life of David Hockney by Catherine Cusset all out in English already.
       See also the JC Lattès publicity page for Otages.

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

       Europese Literatuurprijs longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Europese Literatuurprijs, awarded for the best European novel translated into Dutch.
       Three of the longlisted novels are under review at the complete review: Jonathan Coe's Middle England, Michel Houellebecq's Serotonin, and Fleur Jaeggy's S.S. Proleterka, and I should be getting to several more -- the Jon Fosse, the David Diop, the Tokarczuk (when it appears ...).
       The shortlist will be announced at the end of June, and the winner on 7 November.

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

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       Wingate Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Wingate Prize, and it is A Stranger City, by Linda Grant.
       There doesn't seem to be a US edition yet, but see the Virago publicity page or get your copy at Amazon.co.uk.

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       A Long Way Off review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Pascal Garnier's A Long Way Off -- the twelfth of Garnier's novels from Gallic Books (and they're all under review at the complete review).

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

       Gotham Book Mart

       As The New York Times reports, Andreas Brown, Longtime Owner of Gotham Book Mart, Dies at 86 -- with a good overview over the much-missed New York City bookstore.
       See also the Penn Libraries Gotham Book Mart Collection page and the inventory of its records at the Harry Ransom Center, both of which also cover a lot of the store's history.
       (Surprisingly, Charles Dantzig was apparently not a fan, as he mentions in his Why Read ?)

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

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       琥珀のまたたき review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ogawa Yoko's 琥珀のまたたき -- yes, yet another of her works not yet translated into English .....

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

       Publishing in ... India

       Via I was pointed to Aarushi Agrawal's piece at First Post, describing: The problem with Indian publishing: State apathy, sales-driven editorial strategy, lack of accurate data.
       Quite a few interesting details -- including that:

“The bestseller category is something that has come in [India] really from outside,” says Butalia, adding that with no centralised parameter to quantify the success of a book in the country, “these categories are just made up out of nothing really.”

       Still, I don't know if it's the worst thing in the world that:

This lack of data also means industry professionals are in the dark about prevalent reading habits and publishing trends. Most decisions and conclusions drawn on said aspects are based on observational, anecdotal evidence, rather than definite numbers.

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

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       Literature and ... locusts

       "Over time, literature has benefited a largely from the marauding insects", John Kibet writes in the Daily Nation, in Literature flourishes as locusts invade our lands with mixed fortunes.
       Well, that's one perspective .....

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

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       Prague novels

       At expats_cz Raymond Johnston lists 20 great novels set in Prague: a reading list that spans 130 years of literature.
       I'd be more encouraged if it wasn't described as: "A round up of some of the greatest novels about Prague written in the English language, by non-Czech authors, over the course of 130 years" if it didn't also include books not written in English -- though of course it's good to see some of those included, too .....

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

       Giwi Margwelaschwili (1927-2020)

       Sad to hear that Georgian-German author Giwi Margwelaschwili has passed away; see the Verbrecher Verlag notice as well as their impressive list of his books.
       Only one of his books is under review at the complete review -- Officer Pembry -- but I'd love to see more; none appear to be available in English yet .....

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

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       Big Other Book Award for Translation finalists

       Another translation award -- new to me: the Big Other Book Award for Translation -- has announced its finalists.
       I haven't seen many of these -- and only one is under review at the complete review: Thomas Bunstead and Daniel Hahn's translation of Juan José Millás' From the Shadows.
       The winner will be announced 16 May.

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

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       Like Flies from Afar review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kike Ferrari's Like Flies from Afar, due out shortly in English (from Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the US and Canongate in the UK).

       You may remember Ferrari from the profiles of him from a couple of year's ago -- Argentine cleaner's double life as prize-winning writer and the like -- and though it seems to have taken a while, they presumably helped revive this one (new Spanish and French editions came out) and also finally get him translated into English.

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

       Preise der Leipziger Buchmesse

       They've announced the winners of this year's Prizes of the Leipzig Book Fair, with Kruso-author Lutz Seiler winning the fiction category, for Stern 111; see the Suhrkamp foreign rights page. I haven't seen this one yet; I do expect some English-language publisher will pick it up.
       The translation prize went to the German translation, by Pieke Biermann, of Fran Ross' Oreo; see also the publicity pages for the English original, from New Directions and Picador.

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

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       NBCC Awards

       The (American) National Book Critics Circle has announced the winners of its 2019 awards, with Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat winning the Fiction prize.
       I haven't seen any of these.

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

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       American Academy of Arts and Letters awards

       The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced its 2020 literature awards, with nineteen writers being honored.
       Linda Asher won the Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation, awarded: "for a significant contribution to the art of literary translation".

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

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       First Novel review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Mystery by Nicholas Royle, First Novel.

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

       London Book Fair awards

       They cancelled the London Book Fair this year, but they still announced their various awards, including the London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards, with the Yiddish Book Center taking the Literary Translation Initiative Award.

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

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       Translating from ... the Malayalam

       In the Times of India Binu Karunakaran explains Why Malayalam fiction is being translated into Arabic.
       Always good to see translation to and between languages other than English (and French and German).

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

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       Reading in ... South Korea

       A new survey by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in South Korea finds that, as Park Si-soo reports in The Korea Times, 40% of adults don't read a book a year: survey.
       Among the most shocking declines:

The average number of books an adult reads a year is six, down from eight found in the previous survey two years ago.

       That is a big drop, in a very short time.
       At least the kids are reading more books.

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

       Prix Voltaire shortlist

       The International Publishers Association has announced the shortlist for this year's Prix Voltaire, awarded for: "exemplary courage in upholding the freedom to publish and in enabling others to exercise their right to freedom of expression"
       Publishing houses from Turkey, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Pakistan are in the running for the prize, which will be announced at the end of May.

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

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       Lammy finalists

       They've announced the finalists for this year's Lambda Literary Awards, nicknamed the Lammys, -- in no less than 24 categories.
       The winners will be announced 8 June.

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

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       Jesus' Cat review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Armenian author Grig's collection of stories, Jesus' Cat, recently out from Glagoslav.

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

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