opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 May 2023

11 May: Jan Michalski Prize finalists | Ian Hacking (1936-2023) | Seduced by Story review
12 May: RSL Ondaatje Prize | Goncourt de printemps | Orwell Prizes finalists
13 May: Dylan Thomas Prize | CWA Daggers shortlists| Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards
14 May: Tehran International Book Fair | Ardinghello review
15 May: Films based on Amélie Nothomb works | Reading in ... Russia
16 May: Sibylle Lewitscharoff (1954-2023) | Prix Orange du livre en Afrique | Sin review
17 May: Publishing ... outside Russia | AI translation symposium
18 May: Luis Chitarroni (1958-2023) | Ockham New Zealand Book Awards | Miles Franklin longlist | Coffee House Press
19 May: ChatGPT: in China - in India
20 May: Dževad Karahasan (1953-2023)

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       Dževad Karahasan (1953-2023)

       Bosnian author Dževad Karahasan has passed away; see, for example, the Sarajevo Times piece, BiH Famous Writer Dzevad Karahasan has passed away.

       Very little of his work has been translated into English, but see the Suhrkamp foreign rights author page for an overview of many of them.
       I have the German translation of his Omar Khayyam-novel, Što pepeo priča -- see the Suhrkamp foreign rights page -- and hope to finally get to it.

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

       ChatGPT: in China

       In the South China Morning Post Stephen Chen reports that ‘Somebody may call the police’: Chinese Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan turns to ChatGPT to beat writer’s block.
       He used it in writing a commendation for fellow author Yu Hua --:

But he stressed that he had written all of his novels himself and said he was likely to continue doing so because he enjoyed the power of writing.

       Interestingly, quite a bit of discussion in the article is about the fact that ChatGPT isn't freely accessible in China:

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has not yet made the service available in China. Some commenters said it was possible Mo had violated OpenAI’s terms of service by using the platform in China, and they warned this could result in legal action being taken against him by OpenAI. The Post has reached out to OpenAI for comment.

The Chinese government has also banned the use of VPN software, which is needed to access ChatGPT from China, as a means of controlling access to information deemed inappropriate or sensitive. If Mo Yan or his student were caught using a VPN to access ChatGPT, they could face penalties such as fines or imprisonment.

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

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       ChatGPT: in India

       At The Hindu Sahana Venugopal takes a stab at Writing award-winning Indian fiction with ChatGPT.
       HarperCollins India CEO Ananth Padmanabhan was open to the AI-generated query letters (or at least the first: "if you saw the two emails that you sent, they have the same structure" ...), while literary agent Kanishka Gupta was more dismissive:

He declared the two storylines were “absolute rubbish,” and said they were full of cliched phrases, while regurgitating the plot lines of other published novels.

“I’m not going to read these books,” Mr. Gupta said simply.

       (I suspect that many human-written queries are also: "full of cliched phrases, while regurgitating the plot lines of other published novels".)
       Gupta did say: "if I get some AI-generated query letter which reads like a query letter written by an actual author and it’s creative enough, then I might invite the full manuscript".

       The future isn't quite here, but, damn, it's coming fast and hard.

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

       Luis Chitarroni (1958-2023)

       Argentine author Luis Chitarroni has passed away; see, for example, Walter Lezcano's piece, Murió Luis Chitarroni, el genial escritor que encontró en la erudición una forma de generosidad in Clarín.

       The only one of his works under review at the complete review is The No Variations.

(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, the leading New Zealand book awards.
       The fiction prize went to The Axeman's Carnival, by Catherine Chidgey; see also the Te Herenga Waka University Press publicity page.

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

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       Miles Franklin longlist

       They've announced the eleven-title longlist for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award, a leading Australian novel prize.
       The shortlist will be announced on 20 June, and the winner on 25 July.

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

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       Coffee House Press

       At Publishers Weekly Claire Kirch reports that a Wave of Resignations Rocks Coffee House Press.

       Nothing from Coffee House Press has been reviewed at the complete review in a couple of years, but they do have a very solid list -- and some good-looking forthcoming titles.

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

       Publishing ... outside Russia

       The Moscow Times looks Forward Into the Past: Forbidden Books In Russia, noting that:

Today the situation is reminiscent of the Soviet period. Russian literary journals and publishing houses are appearing outside Russia.

       They point, in particular, to publisher Freedom Letters.

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

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       AI translation symposium

       In The Korea Herald Hwang Dong-hee reports that LTI Korea to host symposium on current, future landscape of AI literature translation.
       The symposium will take place 26 May; certainly an interesting topic.

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

       Sibylle Lewitscharoff (1954-2023)

       German author Sibylle Lewitscharoff has passed away; see, for example, Tilman Krause's piece in Die Welt.

       Two of her novels are under review at the complete review -- Apostoloff and Blumenberg; see also the Suhrkamp foreign rights author page.

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

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       Prix Orange du livre en Afrique

       They've announced the winner of this year's prix Orange du livre en Afrique, a prize for a novel written in French by an African author and published by an African publisher, and it is Ambatomanga, la douleur et le silence, by Michèle Rakotoson; see also the Livres Hebdo report.

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

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       Sin review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of F. Sionil José's novel Sin -- published in the United States as Sins.

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

       Films based on Amélie Nothomb works

       At Frenchly Andrea Meyer offers a quick look at The Uncanny & Interesting Films of Belgian writer, Amélie Nothomb, the films based on her books.
       The books behind these films -- and almost all her others -- are, of course, under review at the complete review,

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

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       Reading in ... Russia

       At Foreign Policy Andrei Kolesnikov suggests that For Russians, Reading Is the New Resistance, as:

One crucial resemblance to Soviet times is the newly political role of reading. Unable to protest openly, people are expressing a different kind of resistance by reading literature that is banned, discouraged, or casts an unfavorable light on the regime -- if only by comparison.

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

       Tehran International Book Fair

       The Tehran International Book Fair is now on; as they report at the Tehran Times: Tehran Intl. Book Fair opens with Tajikistan as guest of honor.
       Regrettably little literature from either Iran or Tajikistan is available in English translation -- and I'm afraid the book fair won't make much of a difference in that regard.

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

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       Ardinghello review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Eine Italiänische Geschichte aus dem sechzehnten Jahrhundert by Wilhelm Heinse, his 1787 novel, Ardinghello und die glückseligen Inseln.

       I would think that anyone making a list of the top ten works of classical German literature -- say, pre-1900 -- that haven't been translated into English is very likely to include this work -- maybe mainly for its literary-historical interest and influence, but still.

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

       Dylan Thomas Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, "awarded for the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under", and it is God's Children Are Little Broken Things, by Arinze Ifeakandu.
       See also the publicity pages from W & N and A Public Space, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       CWA Daggers shortlists

       The British Crime Writers' Association has announced the shortlists for this year's CWA Daggers, including for the Gold Dagger and the Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation.
       The only shortlisted title under review at the complete review is from the latter category, The Anomaly, by Hervé Le Tellier.
       The winners will be announced on 6 July.

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

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       Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards

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

       RSL Ondaatje Prize

       The Royal Society of Literature has announced the winner of this year's RSL Ondaatje Prize, awarded to: "a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place", and it is Heritage Aesthetics, by Anthony Anaxagorou; see also the Granta publicity page.

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

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       Goncourt de printemps

       The Academie Goncourt has announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the winners of its spring prizes.
       They include Claude Burgelin's Georges Perec-biography -- see also the Gallimard publicity page -- winning the Goncourt de la biographie Edmonde Charles-Rouxm and The Lady in White-author Christian Bobin being posthunously awarded the Goncourt de la poésie.

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

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       Orwell Prizes finalists

       They've announced the finalists for this year's Orwell Prizes, forty-five works in five categories.
       Among the prizes is the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction; one of the finalists is under review at the complete review, After Sappho, by Selby Wynn Schwartz.
       The winners will be announced on 22 June.

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

       Jan Michalski Prize finalists

       They've announced the 'first selection' for this year's Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, the CHF50,000 prize open to works in any literary genre, written in any language; books don't have to be translated into French or English or German (though almost all books in the running have been, over the years).
       There are fourteen titles, selected by the judges; they include Michel Houellebecq's Anéantir, Eva Baltasar's Boulder, and Hamid Ismaïlov's Manaschi.
       None of the titles are under review at the complete review yet.

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

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       Ian Hacking (1936-2023)

       Canadian philosopher Ian Hacking has passed away; see, for example, the notice at the University of Toronto.
       The only one of his books under review at the complete review is The Social Construction of What ?

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

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       Seduced by Story review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Peter Brooks on The Use and Abuse of Narrative, in Seduced by Story, recently out from New York Review Books.

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

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