opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 June 2024

11 June: New The Yale Review | Jinbōchō profile | Prix Jean Monnet finalists | César Aira reviews
12 June: Deutscher Sachbuchpreis
13 June: MIT Press profile | Ottaway Award acceptance speech | Chaos in Kinshasa review
14 June: EBRD Literature Prize | Women's Prizes | Walter Scott Prize | Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel shortlist
15 June: Jennifer Egan profile
16 June: Pushkin House Book Prize | Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists
17 June: Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize | Gretel and the Great War review
18 June: Hotlist 2024 entries | Håkan Nesser sentenced | Literature and fashion
19 June: Most beautiful German books | Jinbōchō guide
20 June: Shiraishi Kazuko (1931-2024) | Jan Cremer (1940-2024) | Warwick Prize submissions | 'DEI' and publishing

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       Shiraishi Kazuko (1931-2024)

       Japanese poet Shiraishi Kazuko has passed away; see, for example, Yuri Kageyama's AP report, Japan’s ‘beat poet’ Kazuko Shiraishi, pioneer of modern performance poetry, dies at 93.
       New Directions has published several collections by her.

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

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       Jan Cremer (1940-2024)

       Dutch author and painter Jan Cremer has passed away; see, for example, the brief De Bezige Bij note and the ANP report at NL Times.
       He remains best-known for his 'autobiographical novel' I Jan Cremer, but the English translation seems to be long out of print; see also the Cremer author page at De Bezige Bij; see also his official site.

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

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       Warwick Prize submissions

       The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation has published the List of eligible titles (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) entered for the 2024 prize. (As I repeat every year: every literary prize should do this.)
       There are 148 titles in the running, translated from 34 languages (in my book, Flemish and Dutch count as one language, not two).
       As always, this is a great resource for those interested in recent translations.

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

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       'DEI' and publishing

       At The Atlantic Big Fiction-author Dan Sinykin and Richard Jean So consider: Has the DEI Backlash Come for Publishing ? (presumably paywalled).
       Recent firings certainly suggest so .....

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

       Most beautiful German books

       The German Stiftung Buchkunst has selected the twenty-five most beautiful German books of 2024 -- five each in five categories.

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

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       Jinbōchō guide

       At nippon.com they offer an: "introduction to some of the many secondhand bookstores in Jinbōchō, Tokyo", in Exploring Jinbōchō’s Secondhand Bookstores.

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

       Hotlist 2024 entries

       The German 'Hotlist' prize invites all independent German-language publishing houses to each submit one title from their list for the competition; 30 finalists are then chosen by a jury; the public can then vote on these, with the three top vote-getters making the shortlist that is filled out by seven selections by the jury.
       Admirably, they reveal all 204 titles that were submitted this year -- even if they annoyingly don't simply have one single-page list of then all .....

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

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       Håkan Nesser sentenced

       Popular Swedish author Håkan Nesser (e.g. Borkmann's Point) was acquitted of tax evasion charges last year, but the prosecution appealed the judgment and it was recently reversed and Nesser sentenced to eighteen months in jail; see, for example, the AFP report (here at Barron's) Sweden Jails Best-selling Thriller Writer For Tax Evasion. (The reports are unclear as to whether or not he has actually been jailed; presumably he has only been sentenced -- and will now, in turn, also appeal the judgment.)

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

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       Literature and fashion

       At Vogue Business Madeleine Schulz reports on Book girl summer: Why brands are leaning into the literary world, as: "fashion is leaning on the written word to regain -- or, at least, embrace -- a sense of intellectualism" -- as: "in aligning with books themselves, brands are able to tap consumers' heightened interest in the act of reading".
       At least by some measures Miu Miu's Summer Reads, for example, has certainly been a success:

The activation generated $852,000 in media impact value (MIV) in the first two days post-launch, of which $712,000 came from social media and $140,000 from online articles, according to Launchmetrics.

       "Media impact value", sigh ..... (Unfamiliar/baffled as I am with/by the concept of 'media impact value', I suspect I've also never generated any .....)

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

       Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize, awarded: "for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language" -- not yet at the official site, last I checked, but see for example their tweet -- and it is Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga, in Mark Polizzotti's translation.
       See also the publicity pages from Archipelago and Daunt Books, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Gretel and the Great War review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Adam Ehrlich Sachs' new novel, Gretel and the Great War.

       (His dad Jeffrey's The Price of Civilization is also under review at the complete review -- not the first instance of books by both father and son under review at the site, but there are only a handful.)

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

       Pushkin House Book Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Pushkin House Book Prize, rewarding: "books that are well-written, well-researched and accessible to the non-specialist reader" that examine: "Russian culture, history and politics" -- not yet at the official site, last I checked, but see, for example, Michele A. Berdy's report in The Moscow Times; the winner is: I Love Russia by Elena Kostyuchenko, translated by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse and Bela Shayevich.

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

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       Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists

       They've announced the longlists for this year's (South African) Sunday Times Literary Awards in its two categories, fiction and non.
       Lots of books in the running .....

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

       Jennifer Egan profile

       At Penn Today Louisa Shepard profiles The English major's cheerleader and champion, as: 'Author and alum Jennifer Egan returns to campus to teach an undergraduate literature course as a booster for the humanities' -- ENGL 0900.001: Jennifer Egan and the Art of Fiction.

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

       EBRD Literature Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's EBRD Literature Prize -- awarded: "to authors from countries where the [European Bank for Reconstruction and Development] invests and their English-language translators" -- and it is The End, by Bartis Attila, in Judith Sollosy's translation; see also the Archipelago publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

       I haven't seen this yet; the only work by Bartis under review at the complete review is Tranquility.

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

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       Women's Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's Women's Prizes, with the Women's Prize for Fiction going to Brotherless Night, by V.V.Ganeshananthan, and the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction going to Doppelganger, by Naomi Klein.

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

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       Walter Scott Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and it is Hungry Ghosts, by Kevin Jared Hosein.

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

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       Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.
       One of the six finalists is under review at the complete review: The Secret Hours by Mick Herron.
       The winner will be announced 18 July.

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

       MIT Press profile

       At MIT News Rachel Aldrich profiles Bob Prior: A deep legacy of cultivating books at the MIT Press, as Prior is set to retire from MIT Press at the end of this month.

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

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       Ottaway Award acceptance speech

       ArabLit's M. Lynx Qualey was recently awarded the Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature by Words without Borders, and they now have “The Landscape around Us”: Marcia Lynx Qualey’s Ottaway Award Acceptance Speech.

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

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       Chaos in Kinshasa review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Barly Baruti and Thierry Bellefroid's graphic novel, Chaos in Kinshasa.

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

       Deutscher Sachbuchpreis

       They've announced the winner of this year's German Non-Fiction Prize, the leading ... German non-fiction prize, and it is Tausend Aufbrüche, by Christina Morina; see also the Siedler foreign rights page.

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

       New The Yale Review

       The summer issue of The Yale Review is now out -- with a focus: "on the past, present, and future of criticism".
       Among the pieces are Christine Smallwood on 'The material constraints of writing criticism today', in A Reviewer’s Life, Merve Emre on 'The challenge of reading generously', in The Critic as Friend, and Namwali Serpell on Critical Navel-Gazing.

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

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       Jinbōchō profile

       At nippon.com they look at Jinbōchō Through the Years: The Story of Tokyo’s Secondhand Book District.
       Among the observations:

The major used goods chain BookOff was founded in 1990 and expanded across the whole of Japan, but Sakota dismisses it as lacking substance. “As well as secondhand books, it deals in other goods, and there’s no specialist book knowledge anyway. We carefully appraise individual works and decide their price. There are association members who find undervalued books at BookOff outlets and sell them for a high price in their own stores.”

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

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       Prix Jean Monnet finalists

       They've announced the three finalists for this year's prix Jean Monnet de littérature européenne -- not yet at the official site, last I checked, but see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The three finalists are Ian McEwan's Lessons, Pascal Quignard's Les heures heureuses -- see the Albin Michel publicity page -- and Jeroen Olyslaegers' Wildevrouw -- see the Flanders Literature information page.
       The winner will be announced 18 November.

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

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       César Aira reviews

       The most recent additions to the complete review are my reviews of two short César Aira novels -- published together in one volume by New Directions: Festival and Game of the Worlds: A Science Fiction Book.

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

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