opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       Queen Mary Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for the Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize -- as the Republic of Consciousness Prize (UK/Ireland) is now called.
       Ten books -- one of which is under review at the complete review: Mistress Koharu by Tsujihara Noboru, from Honford Star.
       The winner will be announced 25 March.

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       Highland Book Prize longlist

       The Highland Society of London has announced the longlist for the Highland Book Prize/Duais Leabhair na Gàidhealtachd, celebrating: "the finest published work that recognises the rich talent, landscape, and cultural diversity of the Scottish Highlands".

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       Cees Nooteboom (1933-2026)

       Sad to hear that the great Cees Nooteboom has passed away; see, for example, The Guardian's report or the reaction from the Dutch royal family.
       Several of his books are under review at the complete review:

• All Souls Day
• The Captain of the Butterflies
• 533 Days
• The Following Story
• In the Dutch Mountains
• Lost Paradise
• Mokusei
• Rituals
• Roads to Santiago

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       Women's Prize for Non-Fiction longlist

       The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction has announced the longlist for this year's prize -- sixteen titles.
       The shortlist will be announced 25 March, and the winner on 11 June.

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       Prix Naissance d'une œuvre finalists

       They've announced the 'première sélection' of six authors for this year's prix Naissance d'une œuvre -- a French literary prize awarded to a French-writing author for their fourth, fifth, or sixth work. It's notable because it pays out €20,000 -- not many French literary prizes pay out much money, so this is unusual -- and also because it's awarded for: "une œuvre romanesque, à l’exception d’ouvrages d’auto-fiction", i.e. a novel, as long as it's not a work of autofiction .....
       The winner will be announced 20 May.

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       Translation prizes

       The Society of Authors has announced the winners of its translation prizes -- nine this year (some are biennial).

       The only winning title under review is the winner of the Bernard Shaw Prize, for a translation of a: "full-length Swedish language works of literary merit and general interest" -- Agnes Broomé's translation of Lydia Sandgren's Collected Works.

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       Литературная премия "Новые Горизонты"

       As Ekaterina Petrova reports in Fantastic horizons at Realnoe Vremya: "Winners of “Novye Gorizonty” (New Horizons) were awarded at the House of Writers' Creativity in Peredelkino, and they discussed how Russian science fiction has begun to turn its face towards the reader".
       As is the case with much contemporary Russian fiction, not much is seen in translation nowadays .....
       The official prize site doesn't seem to be active any longer.

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       Literary festivals in ... India

       In The Guardian Amrit Dhillon wonders Most Indians don't read for pleasure -- so why does the country have 100 literature festivals ?
       This ... doesn't sound great:

“India hasn’t made the transition to a literate, book-reading class. A literature festival provides a lively atmosphere, crowds and the chance to be ‘cool’ by being seen at a prestigious cultural event. There isn’t much real engagement with books,” says Chiki Sarkar, co-founder of Juggernaut Books.

       And apparently:

The average book in English sells only around 3-4,000 copies. If it tops 10,000, it’s counted a bestseller.

       Interesting however to hear that:

Some believe that reading in Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil or Bengali, or any of the 24 regional languages, is probably higher. But since English occupies an exalted status, until a book has been translated into English (and so accessible to the elite), it remains confined to its state boundary.

“There are no statistics for book sales in the regional languages. It’s an opaque area. We do know anecdotally that at the local level, the literary scene is very vibrant with much discussion of authors and ideas. Moreover, authors are influential, their views on social and political affairs in their state matter,” says [Parsa Venkateshwar] Rao.

       Disappointing that sales are not tracked -- or maybe it's a good thing !

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       Mick Herron profile

       At El Mundo Andrés Seoane profiles Slow Horses-author Mick Herron: 'Literature, like all art, begins with entertainment'.

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       جایزه کتاب سال جمهوری اسلامی ایران

       They've announced the winners of the Iranian Book of the Year Awards; see, for example the (Persian) IBNA report or the Tehran Times report, Iran's Book of the Year Awards honors outstanding literary works.
       A month after they announced the other big Iranian literary prize, the Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Awards -- see my previous mention -- لمس by Mohammad Reza Kateb doubles up by winning the prize for best novel here as well; see also the publisher's publicity page. Sadly, I suspect we won't see it in English translation any time soon.

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       AI writing

       In The New York Times Alexandra Alter writes how: 'The romance industry, always at the vanguard of technological change, is rapidly adapting to A.I. Not everyone is on board', in The New Fabio Is Claude (presumably paywalled).
       Among those profiled: Coral Hart -- as:

Last year, she produced more than 200 romance novels in a range of subgenres, from dark mafia romances to sweet teen stories, and self-published them on Amazon. None were huge blockbusters, but collectively, they sold around 50,000 copies, earning Ms. Hart six figures.

       But 'Coral Hart' is an ("early, now retired") pseudonym -- and: "when it comes to her current pen names, Ms. Hart doesn’t disclose her use of A.I., because there’s still a strong stigma around the technology, she said". Hmmmm.
       But:

The way Ms. Hart sees it, romance writers must either embrace artificial intelligence, or get left behind.

“If I can generate a book in a day, and you need six months to write a book, who’s going to win the race ?” she said.

       Ah, yes -- the wonderful future of 'generated books'.
       It's going to be interesting to see how this goes, because there is no doubt that the market -- well, some market -- will soon be flooded by AI-generated books -- which, in some genres, will qualitatively not be all too easily differtiable from in-person-authored books. Interesting times indeed.

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       The School of Night review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Karl Ove Knausgaard's The School of Night, the fourth in his The Morning Star-series.

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       Jean-Patrick Manchette

       New York Review Books has brought out quite a few of Jean-Patrick Manchette's novels in recent years, and now Vintage Classics is bringing out four of them this year in UK editions -- good to see.
       All four are under review at the complete review:

• Fatale
• Nada
• No Room at the Morgue
• Skeletons in the Closet

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       Yagisawa Satoshi Q & A

       At the Deccan Herald Asra Mavad has a Q & A with the Days at the Morisaki Bookshop-author, in 'I don’t believe in chasing trends': Japanese novelist Satoshi Yagisawa.
       Among his responses:

What major literary trends do you see in contemporary Japanese literature today ?

Japan doesn’t stick to one particular genre of books for long. There are different genres that become popular randomly from time to time, but they have a short life span and end up falling in popularity just as quickly. This is why I tend to stay away from trends.

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       Anke Gowda profile

       At the BBC Imran Qureshi profiles Anke Gowda -- The retired Indian factory worker who built a library of two million books.
       A fun story -- and what a great-looking library.

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       Wuthering Heights sales

       Apparently there's a new film version of Emily Brontë's classic, Wuthering Heights -- and, as Emma Loffhagen reports at The Guardian, as a result: Sales of Brontë’s Wuthering Heights skyrocket ahead of film adaptation.
       Always good to see actual sales numbers:

In January of this year, 10,670 copies were sold, compared with 1,875 in January 2025, in what Penguin has described as an unusually large boost.

Sales of the book increased by 132% after the release of the first teaser trailer for the film last September. Between the trailer’s release and the end of the year, Penguin sold 28,257 copies in the UK, compared with 12,134 over the same period in 2024.

       And, of course, Penguin is far from the only publisher with editions of the long out of copyright novel out -- though they do have quite a few editions, including a horrific-looking movie tie-in one.

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       PEN Translates grants

       English PEN has announced the latest batch of PEN Translates grants -- eighteen titles originally written in twelve languages.
       Good to see translations from the Maltese and Filipino among them.

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       Walter Scott Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction -- twelve titles.
       I haven't seen any of these.

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       Broken Truths review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Alessandro Robecchi's Broken Truths, coming in English in May, from Other Press.

       This features, among other things, the making of a movie about Augusto De Angelis, "the father of the Italian detective story", and I'm a bit surprised Pushkin Press, which published three De Angelis titles (all under review at the complete review) not too long ago, didn't nab it -- surely great and obvious tie-in potential.

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       The Washington Post layoffs

       As widely reported, ownership has gutted the once-storied American newspaper, The Washington Post; see, for example, the Poynter report, The Washington Post lays off a third of its staff.
       Among the many, many cuts is, apparently, all the book-coverage (despite the newspaper's owner being ... the founder of Amazon.com ...); see for example Ron Charles' Substack-post, I've Been Laid Off. I'm Not Done.
       Not good. Not good at all.

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       IPAF shortlist

       The International Prize for Arabic Fiction has announced the shortlist for this year's prize.
       The winner will be announced 9 April.

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       Westminster Book Awards

       They've announced the winners of the Westminster Book Awards, with The Football Battalions, by Chris Evans winning for 'Best Fiction or Non-Fiction Book by a Parliamentarian'; see also the Bloomsbury publicity page.

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       Sapir Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Sapir Prize, a leading Israeli book prize, and it is שכול וכשלון וזומבים ('Breakdown and Bereavement and Zombies'), by Amir Harash; see, for example, the report at The Jerusalem Post.
       See also the עם עובד publicity page. Apparently, it's a book in the vein (or rather: knockoff of) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- taking not Austen's novel but rather Yosef Haim Brenner's Breakdown and Bereavement (see the Toby Press publicity page) as its take-off point.
       Not sure we'll see this in English translation any time soon .....

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       The Girl with the Teddy Bear review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Viktor Domontovych's 1928 novel, The Girl with the Teddy Bear, now out in English, from Dedalus.

       I admittedly have a very soft spot for Soviet fiction of the 1920s and early 1930s, but this was a nice surprise -- originally written in Ukrainian, for one.
       The previously unknown to me Domontovych's biography is also pretty wild, and I will definitely have to seek out his On Shaky Ground, recently published by Central European University Press -- but what I'm really hoping for is a translation of his Doctor Seraficus, which they published together with The Girl with the Teddy Bear in the recent Ukrainian edition.

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       Modern Sanskrit literature ?

       There's a fair amount of Sanskrit literature under review at the complete review, but it's alll classical -- but Sanskrit isn't a 'dead' language, and at moneycontrol Chanpreet Khurana has a Q & A on 'how modern Sanskrit literature is open and evolving', Ever read Sanskrit ghazals and Sanskrit haiku ? Prof Radhavallabh Tripathi explains how modern Sanskrit literature is both vibrant and inclusive.
       Tripathi suggests that nowadays young Sanskrit authors are: "even more open than the Hindi poets and Hindi writers, experimenting within the genres or in adopting new genres".
       He also addresses the problematic 'present politics around' Sanskrit -- a bit.
       And he does acknowledge: "Scientific writing in the modern sense of the term is not there; like books on modern physics or chemistry, that we don't hear (of). But a lot of Shastric writings are being done in Sanskrit" ......

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       Library borrowings in 2025 in ... South Korea

       In The Korea Times they report that in South Korea Han Kang's 'Human Acts' most-borrowed book at public libraries in 2025 -- "borrowed 60,504 times at 1,583 public libraries across the country"; see also the National Library of Korea press release.
       Three more Han titles made the top ten, including The Vegetarian (number two; 58,272 loans), We Do Not Part (number three; 46,387 loans), and The White Book (number seven; 31,829 loans), and a total of seventeen of her books were in the top thousand.
       Also: Korean literature accounted for about 34 million loans, some 25% of the total -- a record high since they've been collecting data, in 2014.

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       AI and translation

       It was only one poem but, as Park Jin-seong reports at The Chosun Daily: AI Triumphs Over Human Translators in Korean Literature Translation Test, as, out of: "16 domestic English literature professors [...] 12 professors chose the ChatGPT translation, two selected the human translation, and two declared “undecidable.”"
       Impressively (?):

Professors who favored the AI translation praised ChatGPT for its deep understanding of Korean history and culture, as well as its effective preservation of the original’s rhythm and style.

       (Of course, also, the small print at the bottom of this article notes: "This article has been translated by Upstage Solar AI".)

       Meanwhile, also in The Chosun Daily, Hwang Ji-yoon reports that The Guest-author Hwang Sok-yong Uses AI Despite Literary Contest Bans

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       Гліняны Вялес shortlist

       They've announced the: "finalists for one of Belarus's oldest independent literary awards" and, as they report at Naša Niva: Shortlist for the "Hliniany Viales" Literary Award Announced: Not a Single Book from Belarus.
       Maybe not a great sign for the state of a country's literary culture when all nine finalists for a leading book prize were published outside the country .....

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       Picture of Nobody review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Philip Owens' 1936 novel of a modern-day 'Will Shakespere', Picture of Nobody, a neat little rediscovery coming from McNally Editions in April. (It doesn't appear to have ever been reïssued since it first came out.)

       Now we just need a new edition of his Hobohemians .....

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       Society of Authors AI report

       The Society of Authors has released a new report, 'Brave New World ? Justice for creators in the age of GenAI'; see the press release, and download the report here.
       The report extends beyond just authors -- "Survey data from the AOP reveals an average loss of £14,000 per professional photographer, while illustrators report average reductions of £9,262. Musicians describe income cuts of up to 50% as GenAI replaces paid work" -- but certainly includes some eye-opening numbers as far as writing and publishing goes: "86% authors say GenAI has already reduced their earnings" and: "57% of authors say their career is no longer sustainable due to the impact of GenAI"
       Interestingly, only: "Over 90% of authors say publishers and clients should clearly label any content where GenAI has been used" (vs. 99% of illustrators, 95.9% of photographers and 98% of musicians).
       Certainly lots of interesting statistics and opinions, but given the cost- and speed-advantages GenAI has -- yes, yes, despite: the 'hidden costs' of AI -- a lot of this feels and sounds like tilting at windmills. (Same goes for book 'reviewing', by the way, which GenAI will, of course, soon completely dominate.)

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       Vénus Khoury-Ghata (1937-2026)

       French-writing author Vénus Khoury-Ghata has passed away; see, for example, the report at L'Orient Today.
       Quite a bit of her work has been translated into English, including four titles by Seagull Books.

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       Geetanjali Shree Q & A

       Geetanjali Shree's The Roof Beneath Their Feet is now out from And Other Stories -- see their publicity page -- and at The Observer Ellen Peirson-Hagger has a Q & A with the Tomb of Sand-author, in Geetanjali Shree: ‘I’m absolutely against the purity of language’.
       Among her responses:

How is your writing received in India ?

I have serious critics saying that my language is not Hindi because it is so eclectic and doesn’t always fulfil the expectations of correct grammar usage. I coin a lot of words, and I’ve often quite happily changed the gender of certain words – somewhere I turned “moon”, which is male, female, because I like the moon. I’m proud of that eclecticism. I think there’s something limited in [the critics’] way of seeing, their notion of purity. I’m absolutely against purity. My language is completely impure.

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       PEN America Literary Awards finalists

       PEN America has announced the finalists for its Literary Awards.

       The only three titles under review at the complete review are all finalists for the PEN Translation Prize:

• On the Calculation of Volume (Book III) by Solvej Balle, tr. Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell
• The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, tr. David McKay
• Sons and Daughters by Chaim Grade, tr. Rose Waldman

       The winners will be announced 31 March.

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       James Sallis (1944-2026)

       Americn author James Sallis has passed away; see, for example, the Kirkus obituary.

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       New Asymptote

       The January issue of Asymptote is now available -- a load of material for your weekend reading.

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       Wingate Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Wingate Prize, which is: "awarded to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to convey the idea of Jewishness to the general reader", and it is The Gates of Gaza, by Amir Tibon; see also the publicity pages from Little, Brown and Scribe.

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       Filipino literature

       In the Philippine Star Carina Gaskell argues ‘There’s no market for Filipino literature’ is a lie. Here’s why..
       Gaskell notes:

Western publishing is one of the longest-standing bastions of imperialism. We need not look further than our own bookstores to see its dominance. While local literature is relegated to the back shelves of the Filipiniana section, white authors are front and center.

       I'd certainly like to see more Filipino fiction .....

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       On the Road scroll for sale

       Indianapolis Colts-owner Jim Irsay purchased the typescript scroll of Jack Kerouac's On the Road at auction from Christie's in 2001 (for US$2,426,000), and now, 3 to 17 March, Christie's will be auctioning The Jim Irsay Collection, with the roll going up for auction again -- now with an: "estimate: $2.5M-$4M".
       If one typescript roll isn't enough for you, you can also bid on the: "Original and only typescript scroll of Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums (estimate: $300,000 - $500,000)".

       Lots of other pop culture stuff, too, -- esecially guitars -- including the: "Golden ticket from the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (estimate: $60,000 - $120,000)", as well as ...: "Secretariat's saddle from the famed horse's United States Triple Crown win in 1973 [...] (estimate: $1.5M - $2M)"

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       Ockham NZ Book Awards longlists

       They've announced the longlists for this year's Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, the leading New Zealand literary prizes.
       Forty-four titles were selected from 178 entries, in the four categories (fiction, poetry, illustrated non-fiction, and general non-fiction).
       The shortlists will be announced 4 March, and the winners on 13 May.

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       Florian Zeller profile

       At El País Rodrigo Naredo profiles: Florian Zeller, playwright, filmmaker and magnet for acting greats: ‘I don’t write what people like, but what they could like’.
       None of his dramas -- "There are two very clear influences in his work: David Lynch and Harold Pinter" -- are under review at the complete review, but several of his works of fiction are; see e.g. The Fascination of Evil.

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       Richard Stursberg Q & A

       At Canadian Affairs Sam Forster has a Q & A with the former CBC executive, who: 'talks book reviews, DEI, and the disappearance of Canadians' shared understanding of ourselves', in Lament for Canadian literature: In conversation with author Richard Stursberg.
       See also the publicity page for Stursberg's book, Lament for a Literature.
       And in response to the question: What's the best Canadian book you've read lately ? he says: "The best fiction book is Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis".

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       Sherborne Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for the new Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing, a new, £10,000 prize.
       They'll announce the winner on 12 April.

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       Ice review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jacek Dukaj's colossal slab of a novel -- 1183 pages --, Ice, now also out in the US (though it's gotten very little coverage here so far).

       This is the third work titled Ice under review at the site -- see also Anna Kavan's and Vladimir Sorokin's. Two books with the same title doesn't surprise me that much, but three .....

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       Libris Literatuur Prijs longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Libris Literatuur Prijs, a leading Dutch novel prize that pays out €50,000 to the winner, -- eighteen titles, selected from 188 submitted titles.
       Among the authors with longlisted titles, the best-known in the US/UK are presumably Peter Buwalda and Peter Terrin.
       The shortlist will be announced on 9 March, and the winner on 11 May.

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       Kolkata Literary Meet reports

       The Kolkata Literary Meet runs through today, and there have been numerous reports about the panels and readings -- see, for example, Debraj Mitra on Amitav Ghosh on writing the living Earth; author discusses return to fiction, climate crisis & more and Agnivo Niyogi on Almost by accident’: Arunava Sinha recounts how his career in translation began with ‘Chowringhee’.
       (See also my review of Chowringhee.)

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       Mark Tully (1935-2026)

       As, for example, Andrew Whitehead reports at the BBC, Sir Mark Tully, the BBC's 'voice of India', dies aged 90; see also obituaries at The Guardian and Dawn.
       He also wrote numerous books on India.

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       A River Runs Through It - the opera

       Opera Montana has announced the world premiere of the opera A River Runs Through It, based on the novel Norman Maclean and with music by Zach Redler and a libretto by Matt Foss and Kelley Rourke; the premiere will be 18 September, in Bozeman.
       This is Opera Montana's first commissioned opera; sounds like a good fit.

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       Philippines regional literatures

       In the Manila Standard Honor Blanco Cabie makes the case for the Importance of translating PH regional literatures.
       The focus on translation into English (rather than any other language(s)) is understandable --:

By translating vernacular texts into English, these distinctive expressions of culture can move beyond regional, and often colonial, boundaries to become part of the global intellectual and artistic landscape.

       But still .....

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       Ali Smith's 'books of my life'

       This week's 'The books of my life'-column features Ali Smith: ‘Henry James had me running down the garden path shouting out loud’.
       Among her responses:

The author I reread

A lot of Simone de Beauvoir’s writing came into affordable paperback translation when I was in my very early 20s. Back then I read everything I could get. Recently I’ve loved re-encountering her fiction. I think her novels are outstanding, especially Les Belles Images (1966), a coruscating postwar satire on the performance of happiness.

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       Prix Robert de Sorbon finalists

       The prix littéraire Robert de Sorbon is a new €10,000 book prize. They apparently see it as something of a counterpart to all the late-season French book prizes -- most, from the Goncourt on down, are announced in November or so --, 'opening the literary season and year', and also as a European prize, as both books written in and translated into French are eligible. Nevertheless, the first list of five finalists, which they have just announced, is rather French-heavy .....
       Bizarrely, they haven't announced the finalists at the official site/page; French literary prizes continue to do a horrible job with their online presence. But, hey, they have announced the finalists at, for example, their ... Instagram page.
       The winner will be announced 29 January.

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       Q & A: Jeanette Winterson

       At Electric Literature they have twenty-three questions with the author, in Jeanette Winterson Thinks Writer's Block Is a Con Job.

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       Q & A: Bogdan-Alexandru Stănescu

       At Agerprss they have a Q & A with the Romanian author and publisher, Bogdan-Alexandru Stanescu: Few authors today are willing to take the risk of being less likeable.
       Among his comments, re. what Romanian literature currently lacks:

We have no grants, no residencies, no concern whatsoever from a state preoccupied with its own corruption. The only grants and residencies come from the private sector, just as education in recent decades has been left on the shoulders of publishing houses, while successive governments have been busy changing ministers of Culture and Education year after year and carrying out reforms for the sake of reform. The Romanian writer seems to be, plainly put, nobody's responsibility.

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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" -- twelve titles: seven novels, three poetry collections, and two short story collections.
       The shortlist will be announced on 19 March, and the winner on 14 May.

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       The Dutch book market, 2025

       KVB Boekwerk has published the basic figures covering the book market in the Netherlands in 2025.
       Only 44 million books were sold in 2025, in all formats, down two million from 2024. Total revenue was down slightly, to 697 million euros (2024: 699 million).
       Impressively -- but also somewhat worryingly -- books writtten in foreign languages (mainly English) accounted for 22 per cent of sales; sales of foreign-language books are up 27 per cent since 2021.

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

       Gordon Burn Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Gordon Burn Prize, recognizing: "literature that is forward-thinking and fearless in its ambition and execution, often playing with style, pushing boundaries, crossing genres or challenging readers' expectations"; see, for example, the Cultured. North East report.
       The winner will be announced 5 March.

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

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       'Chinese Literature'

       China Daily has announced a 'Special Section on the China Daily website', Chinese Literature, which: "will showcase contributions from Chinese and international writers, critics, renowned scholars, and representatives of literary organizations from various countries, presenting the long-standing tradition and latest achievements of Chinese literature in vivid and multidimensional ways."
       We'll see. But maybe of interest.

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

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