opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 February 2021

1 February: Writing in ... Pakistan | Suggestions to the Sahitya Akademi | Dyskolos review
2 February: Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | National Jewish Book Award winners | Books from ... Hungary
3 February: Libris Literatuur Prijs longlist | Yan Lianke Q & A | PEN/Faulkner Award longlist | Peach Blossom Paradise review
4 February: Victor Martinovich Q & A | Sapir Prize finalists | The Delivery review
5 February: Dublin Literary Award longlist | Republic of Consciousness Prize longlist | Maigret Hesitates review
6 February: PEN Nicaragua | Censorship in ... Iran | 'The Interaction between Art and Literature' exhibit
7 February: Clayton Eshleman (1935-2021) | Japanese translation partnership
8 February: Burma | The Passion according to Renée Vivien review
9 February: ACFNY Translation Prize | Cowboy Graves review
10 February: Premio Alfaguara | Naguib Mahfouz Medal shortlist | Taschen profile

go to weblog

return to main archive

       Premio Alfaguara

       I missed this a couple of weeks ago, but they've announced the winner of this year's Premio Alfaguara de Novela -- one of those ridiculously rich Spanish literary prizes, paying out US$175,000 -- and it is Los abismos by Pilar Quintana.
       Quintana recently attracted some notice in the English-speaking world as well, her The Bitch -- see the World Editions publicity page -- a finalist for the (American) National Book Award for Translated Literature last year.

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

---

       Naguib Mahfouz Medal shortlist

       The American University in Cairo Press has announced the shortlist for this year's Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature -- the first time they have announced a shortlist.
       Six titles, selected from 270 submissions, with the winner to be announced in March and the winning title to be translated into English and published under the AUC Press imprint Hoopoe.

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

---

       Taschen profile

       At Deutsche Welle Sabine Oelze profiles publisher Taschen, in How Benedikt Taschen conquered the global book market.

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

       ACFNY Translation Prize

       They've announced the winner of the 2020/21 Austrian Cultural Forum New York Translation Prize, and it is Georg Bauer for his translation of Walter Kappacher's Hugo von Hofmannsthal-novel, Der Fliegenpalast ('The Palace of Flies'), which will now be published by New Vessel Press in 2022.
       I was one of the jurors for this prize, and am very pleased with this selection: it's a very fine novel -- and an excellent translation --, and will introduce a significant contemporary Austrian author -- awarded the 2009 Georg-Büchner-Preis -- to English-speaking readers. (Indeed, hopefully it will also bring its subject, the wonderful and underappreciated (in the US/UK) Hugo von Hofmannsthal, closer to to English-speaking readers; until then, the collection The Lord Chandos Letter (NYRB) is a good entry-point.)
       See also the New Books in German information page, or the (German) Residenz Verlag publicity page for Der Fliegenpalast.
       The online event described on the ACFNY page at Trafika Europe Radio on 28 February, with Andrew Singer speaking with Georg Bauer, along with contributions by Michael Maar, New Vessel Press publisher Michael Wise, and ACFNY director Michael Haider, certainly also sounds like it will be worth a listen.

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

---

       Cowboy Graves review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the latest posthumous publication of Roberto Bolaño's work, the Three Novellas of Cowboy Graves, just about out in English, from Penguin Press in the US and Picador in the UK.

       Are the literary heirs and publishers capitalizing on the author's name in serving up this stuff, dug out from his archives ? Maybe -- but I have to say, in Bolaño's case, I don't have that much of a problem with this sort of thing: this book's publication seems to be justified on its quality alone. (I do take a bit more issue with it being presented as ostensibly being 'three novellas'; I don't really see that.)

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

       Burma

       Unlike in the United States, the sore but clear losers of recent national elections in Burma (also called Myanmar) were better-positioned to succeed with what amounts to a coup -- as they now, for the moment, have; see, for example, the BBC's explanation, by Alice Cuddy, of Myanmar coup: What is happening and why ?
       There's regrettably little Burmese literature available in English, but there are a few books from and about Burma under review at the complete review. No doubt, there will be more factual accounts and analyses written about this next sad chapter in the country's history, but I do hope we eventually get to see more fiction, too.

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

---

       The Passion according to Renée Vivien review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Catalan poet Maria-Mercè Marçal's novel, The Passion according to Renée Vivien.
       This was published by the remarkable Francis Boutle, who really do a remarkable job bringing the literature of the 'lesser used languages of Europe' to English-speaking audiences.

       I was also amused to see that Salomon Reinach figures prominently in this story -- just a few months after reviewing Adrien Goetz's Villa of Delirium, in which his brother Théodore plays a major role.

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

       Clayton Eshleman (1935-2021)

       Noted translator Clayton Eshleman recently passed away; no newspaper coverage I can find yet, but see, for example, the PennSound post In Memoriam: Clayton Eshleman (1935-2021) or Ron Silliman's reminiscences at his Silliman's Blog.

       Among Eshleman's most notable translations was the impressive volume of The Complete Poetry by César Vallejo.

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

---

       Japanese translation partnership

       The (UK) National Centre for Writing: 'announces new three-year partnership with the Tadashi Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities at UCLA', in Bringing fresh Japanese voices to the English-language readership. That sounds promising.

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

       PEN Nicaragua

       As Beatriz García reports at Al Día, Nicaraguan literature loses footing amid Ortega regime conspiracy, as Nicaragua is one of the many countries that has recently enacted a toughened 'foreign agents law', adding immense bureaucratic hurdles to running an organization like the local chapter of PEN -- and now leading them to suspend their operations.
       See also the statement by PEN Nicaragua president Gioconda Belli, Why PEN Nicaragua Suspends Operations, here in the Havana Times.
       While practically every country has forms of such laws -- the US has long had a Foreign Agents Registration Act -- in recent years (too) many countries have expanded the reach of these laws and the obligations posed under them into areas far beyond the necessary, to the detriment of their citizens, who benefit from the services of many of these organizations; this is a prime -- though far from the only -- example.

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

---

       Censorship in ... Iran

       I missed that this came out a month ago, but Censorship of Literature in Post-Revolutionary Iran by Alireza Abiz certainly sounds of interest; see the Bloomsbury publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
       At Qantara.de Gerrit Wustmann writes about it, in Iranian literature -- the censor's mindset. He notes, for example:

An analysis of the ministry's work in the years 1996 and 1997 shows that at least 10 percent of all fiction titles were banned. Most of the published books had sometimes undergone drastic revisions and deletions. This drives some writers to self-censorship; others are continually finding new ways to dodge the censor by concealing their content, finding new metaphors or working with old-fashioned terms that some censors may not be familiar with.

       Several of the tiles he mentions are under review at the complete review -- Mahmoud Doulatabadi's The Colonel and Shahriar Mandanipour's Moon Brow -- and see all the Iranian titles under review.

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

---

       'The Interaction between Art and Literature' exhibit

       An exhibit on The Interaction between Art and Literature has just opened at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in South Korea; it runs through 30 May.
       See also the fuller description of the exhibit at e-flux.

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

       Dublin Literary Award longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Dublin Literary Award, nominated by libraries around the world (well, from 30 countries this year) for this, "the world's most valuable annual prize for a single work of fiction published in English, worth €100,000".
       This prize always has a notoriously long longlist, but at 49 titles it's almost manageable this year; last year there were 50 titles in translation alone on the longlist (18 this year), and a total of 156 books -- closer to the historic average.
       Only three of the longlisted titles are under review at the complete review -- oddly enough, three translation from German:

• The Eighth Life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili
• The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann
• Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann

       The shortlist will be announced 25 March, and the winner on 20 May.

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

---

       Republic of Consciousness Prize longlist

       They've announced the ten-title strong longlist for this year's Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses -- rewarding: "the best fiction published by publishers with fewer than 5 full-time employees" (in the UK and Ireland).
       Always an interesting list -- though I haven't seen any of these.
       The shortlist will be announced late next month, and the winner in May.

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

---

       Maigret Hesitates review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Georges Simenon's Maigret Hesitates, in the new (2019) translation by Howard Curtis, as part of the Penguin series.

       Late Maigret -- this is number 67 in the series, from 1968 -- is fairly dependable, but even so this was a very pleasant surprise.

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

       Victor Martinovich Q & A

       At Eurozine Serge Sakharau has a Q & A with Belarusian author Victor Martinovich, ‘Nowadays I often cry’.
       One of his novels has been translated into English -- Paranoia -- and another, Мова, is also under review at the complete review.

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

---

       Sapir Prize finalists

       In The Jerusalem Post they report that Five writers shortlisted for Sapir Prize for Literature, the leading Israeli fiction prize.

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

---

       The Delivery review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Peter Mendelsund's The Delivery, just about out from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

       I thought his fiction debut, Same Same, definitely deserved more attention, and while I wasn't quite as impressed by this one, he's definitely doing interesting things and I am curious about what comes next.

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

       Libris Literatuur Prijs longlist

       They've announced the eighteen-title strong longlist for this year's Libris Literatuur Prijs, the leading Dutch-language novel prize, with several authors familiar to English-speaking readers -- notably Arnon Grunberg, Stefan Hertmans, Herman Koch, Erwin Mortier, and Marieke Lucas Rijneveld -- placing books on the list.
       Impressively, too, this prize reveals all the 214 titles submitted for the prize -- something every literary prize should do.
       The shortlist is due out 1 March, the announcement of the winner 10 May.

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

---

       Yan Lianke Q & A

       At The Believer Donald Berger has An Interview with Yan Lianke.
       Lots of interesting stuff here, beginning with:

Before I reached twenty years old, I had never left the countryside. The books I read were all the red classics in China. I thought that world fiction was just like that. But after I reached twenty, I joined the army, and I read Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I realized that this is how foreigners write their stories, and that it is much better than our fiction. The fiction that I read before was meaningless.

       Several of his works are under review at the complete review, see, e.g. Serve the People !

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

---

       PEN/Faulkner Award longlist

       They've announced the ten-title strong longlist for this year's PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, selected from 419 eligible novels and short story collections.
       The finalists will be announced in early March.

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

---

       Peach Blossom Paradise review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ge Fei's Peach Blossom Paradise, the first in a trilogy, now out in English from New York Review Books

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

       Victorian Premier's Literary Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, whose centerpiece is the A$100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature, apparently Australia's richest literary prize; it went to the Prize for Fiction-winner, The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay.
       See also the Scribe publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

---

       National Jewish Book Award winners

       The Jewish Book Council has announced the winners of the 2020 (American) National Jewish Book Awards -- in a whole lot of categories.
       There are several fiction categories, with Apeirogon by Colum McCann winning the JJ Greenberg Memorial Award.

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

---

       Books from ... Hungary

       At hlo they have their list of: "remarkable books published in Hungarian in the second half of 2020", in Best Books of 2020 -- Round 2.
       Maybe we'll see some of these in English at some point .....

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

       Writing in ... Pakistan

       In Dawn Harris Khalique considers Pakistan's English Writers.
       He thinks: "the best literary talent in Pakistan is still manifested through our native languages -- Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto and others", even as he accepts that: "we must acknowledge the fact that English is fast catching up as one of our own languages of literary expression".

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

---

       Suggestions to the Sahitya Akademi

       The Sahitya Akademi is India's National Academy of Letters, and with their awards approaching -- among the most prestigious in Indian literature, and notable for being awarded in all 24 official Indian languages -- Medha Singh thinks it might be time to shake things up a little, as at Scroll.in: As the awards season approaches, a poet and editor offers some suggestions to the Sahitya Akademi.

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

---

       Dyskolos review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Menander's Dyskolos ('The Peevish Fellow'), in W.G.Arnott's translation in the Loeb Classical Library-collection.

       This is the one (essentially) complete play by Menander that has survived -- though remarkably the full text was only (re)discovered in 1952.
       I have the whole set of Loeb Plautus plays and have started in on those -- see e.g. Amphitryon -- and given how strongly influenced he was by Menander I figured I should go back to the source, too. Not sure how much of the more fragmentary material (i.e. all the rest) I'll make it through, however.

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

previous entries (21 - 31 January 2021)

archive index

- search the site -

- return to top of the page -

© 2021 the complete review


Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links