opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 May 2023

1 May: Xi Jinping reading | Coded poetry
2 May: EU Prize for Literature | OCM Bocas Prize
3 May: French finance minister's 'erotic' writing | Europese Literatuurprijs longlist | Sami Rohr Prize
4 May: Literary translation manifesto | Sons of the People review
5 May: Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize longlist | The Age Books of the Year | French-American Foundation Translation Prizes
6 May: Carol Shields Prize | Leo Robson Q & A | Dalkey Days review
7 May: Philippe Sollers (1936-2023) | Zakhar Prilepin
8 May: Wendy Doniger Q & A
9 May: Pulitzer Prizes | Libris Literatuur Prijs | Good Men review
10 May: Kim Chi-Young Q & A | Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas profile

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       Kim Chi-Young Q & A

       At Korea JoongAng Daily Lee Jian has a Q & A with the translator of Cheon Myeong-kwan's International Booker Prize-shortlisted Whale, Kim Chi-Young, in Meet the translator who got lost in a 'Whale' of a literary world.

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       Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas profile

       At El País Carlos S. Maldonado reports on how A literary incubator in Mexico celebrates its 20th anniversary -- the Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas.

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       Pulitzer Prizes

       They've announced this year's Pulitzer Prizes.
       The Criticism prize went to a book reviewer -- Andrea Long Chu, who writes for New York.
       The Fiction prize was shared -- the first time that has ever happened -- by Trust by Hernan Diaz and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver; the third finalist was The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara.

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       Libris Literatuur Prijs

       They've announced the winner of this year's Libris Literatuur Prijs, a leading Dutch literary prize, and it is Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris, by Anjet Daanje; see also the Dutch Foundation for Literature information page and the Uitgeverij Passage publicity page.

       English-language rights don't seem to have sold for this one yet, but we should see a translation of her De herinnerde soldaat from New Vessel Press in the next year or two.

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       Good Men review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Arnon Grunberg's Good Men, just about out from Open Letter.

       It's been a while since we've seen a Grunberg translation in English -- and there's quite a backlog, so hopefully we'll see more soon.

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       Wendy Doniger Q & A

       At Scroll. in Avik Chanda has the latest in their 'Meet the Translator'-series, with ‘The quest for the ultimate ‘Mahabharata’ is madness. It is not there’: Translator Wendy Doniger.
       "You can’t have too much of the Mahabharata", she notes.
       I have the University of Chicago Press volumes of their still incomplete translation -- see, for example, the publicity page for volume one -- and tackling that is certainly one of my grand reading-ambitions.

       Among the more interesting books I've occupied myself with recently is the fascinating SUNY Press volume of Many Mahābhāratas; I hope to get a review up sooner or later; meanwhile, see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

       (The only Doniger title under review at the complete review is Redeeming the Kamasutra.)

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       Philippe Sollers (1936-2023)

       Prolific author and important French literary figure Philippe Sollers has passed away; see, for example, the report in Le Figaro.
       Quite a few of his works have been translated into English, but far from all of them. He was also married to Julia Kristeva.

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       Zakhar Prilepin

       As reported by, for example, Matt Murphy at the BBC, Zakhar Prilepin: Russian pro-war blogger injured in car bomb.
       Prilepin is also a successful and, in many circles, highly regarded author, and several of his works have been translated into English; he's also a nasty piece of work, a militant Russian nationalist who is very much on the wrong side of history and current events.
       I have several of his works but have not felt comfortable reviewing them; I can't see myself getting to them anytime soon.

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

       Carol Shields Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, celebrating: "creativity and excellence in fiction by women and non-binary writers in the United States and Canada", and it is When We Were Sisters, by Fatimah Asghar.

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       Leo Robson Q & A

       At The Oxonian Review, in their: "series of interviews with contemporary critics about criticism", they have An Interview with Leo Robson

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       Dalkey Days review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Memoir by Steven Moore, Dalkey Days, about his time at Dalkey Archive Press.

       Given how many Dalkey Archive Press titles are under review at the complete review I was obviously eager to get to this one -- and I'm hoping many more Dalkey alumni -- it's an illustrious bunch -- publish their tell-alls.

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       Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize, awarded: "for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language".
       One-quarter of the sixteen longlisted titles are under review at the complete review:

• Awake by Harald Voetmann, translated by Johanne Sorgenfri Ottosen
• The Censor's Notebook by Liliana Corobca, translated by Monica Cure
• Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell
• The Last One by Fatima Daas, translated by Lara Vergnaud

       The shortlist will be announced later this month.

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       The Age Books of the Year

       As Jason Steger reports in The Age: ‘He has produced a gem’: An ode to humble Australians wins The Age Book of the Year.
       The fiction award went to Limberlost, by Robbie Arnott.

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       French-American Foundation Translation Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's French-American Foundation Translation Prizes.
       The fiction prize went to Juliet Sutcliffe's translation of Stéfanie Clermont's The Music Game; the non-fiction prize went to Kieran Aarons and Cédrine Michel for their translation of Elsa Dorlin's Self Defense.

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

       Literary translation manifesto

       The PEN America Translation Committee has published The 2023 Manifesto on Literary Translation.

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

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       Sons of the People review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of The Mamluk Trilogy by Reem Bassiouney, Sons of the People, recently out from Syracuse University Press.

       This hasn't gotten much attention, but with a second big novel by Bassiouney, the 524-page Al-Qata'i, also translated by Roger Allen, just out from Georgetown University Press -- see their publicity page -- maybe she'll get a bit more now. (I have Al-Qata'i, and should be getting to it soon; two earlier novels by her are also already under review.)

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       French finance minister's 'erotic' writing

       Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister (well, ministre de l’Économie, des Finances et de la Souveraineté industrielle et numérique), published a Harlequin-romance in his younger days (under the pseudonym 'Duc William') but it's his latest literary endeavor, the novel Fugue américaine -- see the Gallimard publicity page --, that has attracted a lot of attention and bad press -- so bad that, as Angelique Chrisafis reports in The Guardian, only hours after its publication, "the credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded the country’s debt worthiness last week".
       Okay, they probably didn't downgrade it because of the novel .....
       See also David Mouriquand's Euronews report on how Senior French politician Bruno Le Maire's latest novel mocked for its erotic content. The piece helpfully quotes the passages in question -- in the original French as well as translation .....

       Meanwhile, at The Local.fr they provide an overview of 7 French politicians who have written erotic literature because of course Le Maire isn't the only one to do this sort of thing .....

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       Europese Literatuurprijs longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Europese Literatuurprijs, awarded to the best European novel translated into Dutch.
       There are fourteen titles in the running, translated from ten languages; two of the books are translations from the English.
       The shortlist will be announced on 14 June.

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       Sami Rohr Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's US$100,000 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and it is Jerusalem Beach, by Iddo Gefen, in Daniella Zamir's translation; see also the JTA report by Gabe Friedman, In a first, Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature goes to Hebrew-language author and translator.

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

       EU Prize for Literature

       They've announced the winner of this year's European Union Prize for Literature, a prize that now is awarded to a single title from 13 national nominees (this year) from selected EU countries, rotating through all the EU countries in a three-year cycle.
       This year's winner is Stjenice, by Martina Vidaić; see also the Ljevak publicity page.

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

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       OCM Bocas Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, selected from the three category-winners, and it is the fiction winner, When We Were Birds, by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo; see, for example, the loop report.

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

       Xi Jinping reading

       At China Daily they "take a look at part of President Xi's reading list and his book review", in President Xi's book review.
       An annoying slideshow-presentation, but interesting to see what books they select. It's predictably bookended, with The Communist Manifesto and Confucius, but at least there's some fiction, too -- Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time and The Old Man and the Sea -- and ... Marcuse (One-Dimensional Man) and Piketty ("the conclusions drawn from his analysis are worth our careful consideration").

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

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       Coded poetry

       At ANI they profile Zarifa Jan who, as: "the 'Coded Poet of Kashmir', has written over three hundred poems in a language that is incomprehensible to anyone else in the world", in Kashmir's 'Coded Poet': 60-year-old Sufi creates unique language to preserve inspiring poetry.
       What's not to like about a poet who writes in a language incomprehensible to anyone else ? And it's all written in a "unique script", as well !
       Maybe more poets should do this .....

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

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