opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 31 January 2024

21 January: Bangla literature's female detectives | Philosophical Orations review
22 January: Translation from ... Malayalam
23 January: Afternoon Men review
24 January: Elke Erb (1938-2024) | ALA Youth Media Awards
25 January: NEA fellowships | National Jewish Book Awards | The Hebrew Teacher review
26 January: NBCC Award finalists | Gordon Burn Prize shortlist | Dylan Thomas Prize longlist
27 January: Japanese success in the UK | Cover stickers | Pankaj Mishra Q & A
28 January: Georgi Gospodinov Q & A | Wortmeldungen Literaturpreis shortlist
29 January: Publishing in ... India
30 January: N. Scott Momaday (1934-2024) | Prix Jean Monnet longlist | Aurora review
31 January: Nero Book Awards category winners | Republic of Consciousness Prize (US/Canada) longlist

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       Nero Book Awards category winners

       The Costa-replacement Nero Book Awards have announced their four category winners.
       From these one 'Gold Prize, Book of the Year' will be selected; the winner to be announced 14 March.

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

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       Republic of Consciousness Prize (US/Canada) longlist

       They've announced the ten-title-strong longlist for this year's Republic of Consciousness Prize (US/Canada).
       The prize is: "designed to celebrate the commitment of small presses to exceptional literary merit".
       Only one of the longlisted titles is under review at the complete review: The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier.
       The shortlist will be announced 5 March, and the winner on 19 March.

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

       N. Scott Momaday (1934-2024)

       American author N. Scott Momaday has passed away; see for example the AP and The New York Times obituaries.

       His House Made of Dawn won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize; get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Prix Jean Monnet longlist

       They've announced the eight-title longlist for this year's prix Jean Monnet de littérature européenne; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       One work written in English made the list: Ian McEwan's Lessons.
       The winner will be announced 16 November.

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

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       Aurora review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kim Stanley Robinson's 2015 novel, Aurora.

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

       Publishing in ... India

       In the South China Morning Post Asma Hafiz reports on how India’s publishing world has ‘hardly any diversity’. Dalit writers are changing that.

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

       Georgi Gospodinov Q & A

       At Scroll.in Sayari Debnath has a Q & A, ‘I’d like to write only my best novels’: 2023 International Booker Prize winner Georgi Gospodinov.

       All of Gospodinov's work available in English translation is under review at the complete review:

• And Other Stories
• Natural Novel
• The Physics of Sorrow
• The Story Smuggler
• Time Shelter

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

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       Wortmeldungen Literaturpreis shortlist

       The Wortmeldungen Literaturpreis is a German prize for a social-critical text between eight and twenty-five-thousand words in length and they've now announced the five texts in the running for this year's prize; you can read all the texts via the links on the announcement page.
       Paying €35,000 to the winner, this is one of the richest literary prizes going, measured by the per-word-payout.
       The winner will be announced mid-March.

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

       Japanese success in the UK

       In The Japan Times Rosi Byard-Jones and Honoka Ito report that TikTok and YouTube fuel a Japanese literature boom in Britain.
       Hey, whatever works, right ?
       Apparently:

While Japanese fiction has "always enjoyed a certain amount of popularity," the success of Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman (published in English in 2018) marked the start of the current popularity boom

       Also: interesting to hear that:

Originally published in 1947, Pushkin released the first installment of Yokomizo's mystery series featuring Detective Kosuke Kindaichi, The Honjin Murders, in 2019, and has since sold around 200,000 copies of his books.

       Still, depressing to hear that: "We're living in an Instagram world".

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

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       Cover stickers

       At Publishers Weekly Nathalie op de Beeck looks at Where Should the Caldecott Sticker Go ? as publishers try to figure out where to put the sticker celebrating their awards-wins on the covers of the award-winning books.
       Still, they seem to do better than the National Book Award finalists did a few years ago.

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

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       Pankaj Mishra Q & A

       The latest in The Guardian's 'The books of my life'-series features Pankaj Mishra: ‘VS Naipaul taught me you can write about your country with honesty’.

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

       NBCC Award finalists

       The (American) National Book Critics Circle has announced the finalists for its awards for the publishing year 2023, thirty finalists in six categories, including the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize.
       Interestingly, Marie NDiaye's Vengeance is Mine was nominated in the fiction category, but not the translation category.
       None of these titles are under review at the complete review (and I've only seen ... two).
       The winners will be announced 21 March.

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

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       Gordon Burn Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for the Gordon Burn Prize, "which recognises and celebrates fiction and non-fiction books that are fearless in their ambition and execution" -- seven titles this year.
       The winner will be announced 7 March.

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

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       Dylan Thomas Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for 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".
       There are seven novels, three short story collections, and two poetry collections on this year's longlist.
       Only one longlisted title is under review at the complete review: Catherine Lacey's Biography of X.
       The winner will be announced 16 May.

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

       NEA fellowships

       The American National Endowment for the Arts has announced its latest round of funding, which includes 18 fellowships paying out a total of $325,000 for Translation Projects, and 35 paying out $875,000 for Creative Writing.
       You can find all the grant-winners here (warning ! dreaded pdf format !); unfortunately the projects are not described here. You can find out what all the fellows' projects are by clicking through, for example, on each of the Translation Fellows pictures, but who the fuck has the patience for that.

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

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       National Jewish Book Awards

       The Jewish Book Council has announced the winners of this year's National Jewish Book Awards (and all the finalists).
       Lots of categories -- including Hebrew Fiction in Translation (winner:, Dalit Shmueli's translation of Yariv Inbar's Operation Bethlehem).

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

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       The Hebrew Teacher review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Three Novellas by Maya Arad, The Hebrew Teacher, due out soon from New Vessel Press.

       This is of interest not least because Israeli-born Arad has been a longtime US resident, but continues to write fiction in Hebrew -- leading to profiles such as Ravit Hecht's in Haaretz, The Finest Living Author Writing in Hebrew Is in Exile in the U.S. -- and this is apparently her first book to be translated into English.
       In that 2022 profile she considers some of the possible reasons why her books aren't regularly translated into English:

Books about relationships, cheating, marriage -- there are quite enough of them in English. In Hebrew, people are looking for Army, Mossad, Holocaust -- and women don’t write about these topics as much, so women are translated less.”

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

       Elke Erb (1938-2024)

       German poet -- and 2020 Georg-Büchner-Preis-winner -- Elke Erb, who was also married to Adolf Endler, has passed away; see, for example, Andreas Platthaus on Die west-östliche Dichterin in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

       Some of her poetry is available in translation -- including the collection The Up and Down of Feet; get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

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

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       ALA Youth Media Awards

       The American Library Association has announced this year's Youth Media Award winners, which includes the Caldecott and Newbery awards.
       Lots of prize-winners .....

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

       Afternoon Men review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Anthony Powell's first novel, the 1931 Afternoon Men.

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

       Translation from ... Malayalam

       At Scroll.in Diya Isha has a Q & A with the translator of the recent Feeling Kerala: An Anthology of Contemporary Malayalam Stories -- see the India Viking publicity page --, in ‘A new imagination of social justice is emerging in modern Malayali fiction’: Translator J Devika.

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

       Bangla literature's female detectives

       In The Daily Star Anika Zaman explores Where are Bangla literature's female detectives ? an interesting little dive into the genre.

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

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       Philosophical Orations review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of a new translation of Maximus of Tyre's Philosophical Orations, recently out in Harvard University Press' Loeb Classical Library series.

       I wasn't familiar with the story of Psaphon:

There was also a native of Libya whose name was Psaphon, who did not long for happiness that was vulgar or of the commonplace kind, by Zeus ! No, he wished to be considered a god. So he gathered a great many songbirds and taught them to sing, “Psaphon is a great god.” He then released them back into the mountains, where they sang and were joined by the other birds that had grown accustomed to their song. The Libyans, believing that this was the voice of the gods, began sacrificing to Psaphon, and he became their god by the vote of birds

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

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