opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       Prix Mémorable longlist

       They've announced the longlist for the 2025 prix Mémorable, a French prize awarded to a work by a forgotten author, or newly translated into French, or a new translation of a previously available work; see, for example, the ActuaLitté report.
       Among the eight titles are works by Rosa Luxemburg, Gabriele Tergit, and Molnár Ferenc, as well as Stefano D'Arrigo's Horcynus Orca.

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       Anne Applebaum picks up Peace Prize

       At the close of the Frankfurt Book Fair Anne Applebaum got to pick up the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, and at the official site you can find her acceptance speech as well as all the others,as well as other relevant information. (Unfortunately, the pages can't be linked too separately, but click on the links .....)
       Applebaum spoke 'Against pessimism'.

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       Hotlist

       They've announced the winner of this year's Hotlist, the German award where any independent publisher can submit one title -- as 204 did -- and it is Wallstein Verlag, for Nach den Fähren, by Thea Mengeler; see also the Wallstein

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       Joy Williams Q & A

       At The Guardian Alex Clark has a Q & A with American author Joy Williams: ‘The comfy story has got to change’.

       I haven't read any Williams -- I know, I know ... -- but this is a great bit:

I have a number of typewriters, all of which have something wrong with them. I sent my favourite one off for cleaning and UPS lost it. Now I don’t have a favourite. This is not ideal.

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       Prix du meilleur livre étranger longlists

       They've announced the longlists for this year's prix du meilleur livre étranger -- a storied French prize for best foreign work translated into French, in two categories: novel and non-fiction; see, for example the Livres Hebdo report.
       This prize has an impressive list of winners, including Miguel Ángel Asturias' El Señor Presidente in 1950 (long before he won the Nobel Prize), Robert Musil's The Man without Qualities (1958), Günter Grass' The Tin Drum (1962), Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude (1969), Salman Rushdie's best novel (1985), Fernando del Paso's Palinuro of Mexico (1986), Gonçalo M. Tavares' Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique, and many others .....
       This prize also proceeds more quickly than most: the shortlists will be announced on 23 October, the winners on 4 November.

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       Chinghiz Aitmatov profile

       At eureporter they profile Çıňğız Aytmatov, Kyrgyz pearl of world literature -- and, yes, I hope that's how publishers will print his name from now on.

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       Karl Ove Knausgård Q & A

       Karl Ove Knausgård's The Third Realm is just out in English, and at The Guardian he's featured in their 'The books of my life'-column, in Karl Ove Knausgård: ‘The book that changed me as a teenager ? The History of Bestiality’
       Not surprising that the Jens Bjørneboe-trilogy -- beginning with Moment of Freedom -- made an impression ("I was 16 when I read it, and it felt like the truth about humanity had been revealed to me"). Not a series that one will find in many American school libraries, I fear .....

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       Déry Tibor profile

       At hlo they profile Hungarian author Tibor Déry: Satire and Controversy -- and I really want to see: "one of the greater works of his later years, the Kafkaesque novel Mr. A.G. in X, published in 1964, and still unavailable in English".
       Quite a few of his works have been translated into English -- including ones from New York Review Books and New Directions.

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       Clemens Meyer -- sore, sore loser

       The Q & A at Der Spiegel is paywalled, so I haven't been able to access it, but various German publications have the highlights: Clemens Meyer was apparently ... disappointed that his 1000-page novel, Die Projektoren, shortlisted for the German Book Prize, did not win -- and he was eager to vent some more; see, for example, the report in the Frankfurter Rundschau. (Hey guten Morgen, wie geht es dir ? by Martina Hefter took the prize; see my recent mention.)
       Yes, Meyer apparently stormed out of the ceremony when he wasn't announced as the winner, cursing the jurors as: 'you damned wankers' ("ihr verdammten Wichser"). He was particularly upset that he won't enjoy the financial upside of taking the prize:

„Dann hätte ich 100.000 neue Leser und könnte meine Schulden bezahlen“, sagte er und ergänzte: „Ich muss eine Scheidung finanzieren und habe 35.000 Euro Steuerschulden angehäuft.“

["Then I would have 100,000 new readers and could pay off my debts," he said, and added: "I have to finance a divorce and have accumulated 35,000 euros in tax debts."]

       Not a great look. And, hey, maybe Hefter has back taxes or student loans to pay off too, right ?

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       Warwick Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.
       Two of the fifteen titles -- selected from 147 eligible entries from 35 languages (admirably revealed here (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) ) -- are under review at the complete review:

• Saskia Vogel's translation of Linnea Axelsson's Ædnan
• David Boyd's translation of Oyamada Hiroko's The Factory

       The winner will be announced 21 November.

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       Roger Allen Q & A

       At the World Literature Today blog Jonas Elbousty has a Q & A with Roger Allen: Translating Arabic and the Art of Translation.

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       The Failure review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Giovanni Papini's The Failure, in a 1924 translation (one of two that appeared that year !) recently re-issued by Sublunary Editions in their Empyrean Series.

       I particularly like this reaction to it, from back in the day.

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       Shortlists: HWA Crown Awards

       The Historical Writers Association has announced the shortlists for its various awards, including for the HWA Gold Crown Award for historical fiction, which includes two works in translation.
       The winners will be announced 20 November.

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       Shortlist: Queen Sofía Translation Prize

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize -- and two of the titles are under review at the complete review:

• Adrian Nathan West's translation of Alejo Carpentier's The Lost Steps
• Margaret Jull Costa's translation of Javier Marías' Tomás Nevinson

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       South Korean translation support

       Some very positive post-Nobel fallout in South Korea, as Lee Jian reports at Korea JoongAng Daily that the South Korean Culture Ministry secures 48.5 billion won to support translated Korean literature, as:

The budget for books and translations had consistently been on a downward spiral for the past two years, but the ministry has recovered those numbers for next year, anticipating that Han's Nobel Prize for Literature will increase the demand for translations from domestic and foreign publishers.

       Ah, yes, success breeds ... well, at least investment in a good cause.
       So:

In particular, the Culture Ministry allocated 7.66 billion won to the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, a public institution supporting Korean literature and culture overseas. Of this amount, 3.12 billion won will support the publication of translated books and 4.54 billion won will go toward promoting them. The publication budget increased by 800 million won while the promotion budget increased by 450 million won.

       See also the Culture Ministry announcement.

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       Siri Hustvedt writing Auster-memoir

       At Die Zeit Volker Weidermann has a lengthy Q & A with Paul Auster's widow, Siri Hustvedt, "Die Würde, mit der Paul starb, war ein Geschenk"
       In it she reveals that:

Wenige Tage nach Pauls Tod habe ich angefangen, über ihn zu schreiben, ein Memoir. Ich schreibe immer noch daran. Es heißt Ghost Stories. Ich habe jetzt 120 Seiten. Das war mein erster Impuls.

[A few days after Paul's death, I started writing about him, a memoir. I'm still writing it. It's called Ghost Stories. I've got 120 pages now. That was my first impulse.]

       She also mentions that she will include twelve letters she wrote to friends, as well as Auster's last work -- a small book he was working on, of letters to their grandchild, of which there are some thirty-five pages.

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       Antonio Skármeta (1940-2024)

       Antonio Skármeta -- best known for his novel The Postman, the basis of a popular movie -- has passed away; see, for example, the University of Chile announcement.

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       Eclipse review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Hirano Keiichiro's Akutagawa Prize-winning novel Eclipse, coming out from Columbia University Press.

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       Deutscher Buchpreis

       They've announced the winner of this year's German Book Prize -- the biggest German novel prize, essentially: the German Booker Prize -- and it is Hey guten Morgen, wie geht es dir ? by Martina Hefter; see also the Klett-Cotta publicity page.

       Quite a few German Book Prize-winning titles are under review at the complete review, but I don't think I'll get to this one anytime soon.

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       Publishing in ... Africa

       The British Council has released: 'A study of the publishing landscapes in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe' -- Publishing Futures (warning ! dreaded pdf format !); if you don't want to read the whole thing they sum up the 'key findings' here; they include that: "Innovative publishing models and self-publishing are thriving".

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       Ellis Peters, translator

       I often complain about how few Anglophone authors translate, but I was not aware that Edith Pargeter -- who wrote mysteries as 'Ellis Peters' -- translated from the Czech; at Radio Prague International Danny Bate now has a Q & A with Suzanne Bray 'about the Czechoslovak side to this remarkable writer', in The life of Edith Pargeter (alias Ellis Peters): Murder-mystery novelist and self-taught Czech translator.

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       Han Kang sales bump

       I haven't seen articles about the sales bump Han Kang's Nobel win has led to outside South Korea -- though there surely will be some reports -- but there have been several about how in-demand her books are back home.
       In The Guardian Ella Creamer reported that Han Kang's books sell out as South Korea celebrates her Nobel prize in literature, while in The Korea Times they have some of the impressive numbers, in Nobel laureate Han Kang's books fly off shelves with over 500,000 copies sold -- as: "About 530,000 copies of Han's books had been sold as of 2 p.m. Sunday", and that's apparently only at the two major online South Korean booksellers.
       Meanwhile, Kim Yu-tae's (machine-translated) article at Maeil Business Newspaper notes that: "As Han Kang's book is in short supply, the online secondhand market is infested with the enthusiasm for purchasing a book by a writer"

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       Biyi Bándélé profile

       Biyi Bándélé's Yorùbá Boy Running was recently published, and at The Guardian Alex Clark profiles the author, in ‘He knew this was going to be the last story he wrote’: the epic legacy of literary maverick Biyi Bándélé.

       Three of his earlier novels are under review at the complete review:

• Burma Boy (published in the US as: The King's Rifle)
• The Man Who Came in from the Back of Beyond
• The Sympathetic Undertaker

       I haven't seen Yorùbá Boy Running, but see the publicity pages from Hamish Hamilton and Harper, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Documentary Poetry review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of a collection by Heimrad Bäcker on his Documentary Poetry, recently out in a nice volume from Winter Editions.

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       Yasnaya Polyana Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Yasnaya Polyana Awards, a Russian literary prize "established by the Leo Tolstoy Museum-Estate and Samsung Electronics", with Leonid Yuzefovich's Поход на Бар-Хото taking the 'Modern Russian Prose' category and the Russian translation of Juhea Kim's Beasts of a Little Land taking the 'Foreign Literature' category.

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       Childish Literature review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Alejandro Zambra's Childish Literature.

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       Translators as literary tastemakers ?

       In The Japan Times Mike Fu suggests that Han Kang's Nobel win underscores essential role of translators as literary tastemakers -- noting:

Her meteoric rise since attests to the outsize influence that individual translators can exert on the literary world and a burgeoning global interest in East Asian storytelling.

       I'm never thrilled by individuals having "outsize influence" on what gets published, but that is (and will continue to be) one of the huge problems in publishing, as long as only a tiny percentage of books from any language is even considered for translation into English (or other languages).

       (Han's international breakout success also contrasts interestingly with her father's lack thereof. Han Seung-won is apparently a quite highly regarded author in his own right, and has picked up any number of (local) prizes -- and was published in English before she was: his novel Father and Son was translated by Yu Young-nan and Julie Pickering in 2002, by Homa & Sekey Books -- see their publicity page -- but seems to have attracted ... well, basically no notice.
       Han Kang's writings may be more attractive to an international audience, but a lot -- not least: chance, timing, and circumstances -- goes into publishing success, especially in translation, and I suspect that, for example, Han Seung-won's work is worthy of at least more attention (and translation) than it's gotten. (Meanwhile, you can read an excerpt of Father and Son here.))

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       Erich Fried Preis

       They've announced the winner of this year's Erich Fried Prize, and it is Babyf**ker-author Urs Allemann.

       This author prize is one of those where a single juror -- a different one each year -- decides who gets the prize; this year's decider was Ulf Stolterfoht; among others who have had the honor are Elfriede Jelinek, Christoph Ransmayr, Lutz Seiler, and Ingo Schulze; the list of winners isn't bad either, and includes Gert Jonke, Oskar Pastior, and Esther Kinsky.

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       Too long ?

       In The Times Charlotte Alt reports on Ian Rankin complaining Crime novels today are far too long.
       The most recent statistics she cites are almost a decade old:

According to a 2015 survey, the average number of pages of books grew by 25 per cent over 15 years. The survey, by James Finlayson at Verve Search, for the interactive publisher Flipsnack, found the average length increased from 320 pages in 1999 to 400 pages in 2014, based on analysis of more than 2,500 books.

       (The average length of books under review at the complete review has long been around 250 pages, but has tended to the longer in recent years as well.)
       There is something to be said for the shorter mystery novel -- they do seem to have gotten more bloated in recent decades.

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       Grand Prix du Roman finalists

       The Académie française has announced the three finalists for their Grand Prix du Roman.
       The winner will be announced on 24 October.

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       Nobel afterthoughts

       As I mentioned yesterday, Han Kang has been named this year's Nobel laureate.
       In the aftermath of the Nobel, I'll re-up Álex Vicente's article on When receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature becomes a curse at El País, where he quotes Javier Aparicio Maydeu:

Getting a Nobel Prize never hurts, but authors who won it, such as Camilo José Cela, Nadine Gordimer, J. M. G. Le Clézio or Herta Müller, did not write anything significant after receiving it and today they are dead in literary terms, so to speak: very few people read them anymore

       (Some of these authors -- and many readers -- would beg to differ, but .....).
       This guy also said:

Those who are awarded the prize for reasons that are not strictly artistic or literary, but for geopolitical reasons, such as Orhan Pamuk, can be affected. Many become luxury lecturers, lose their creative intensity and are wasted as authors

       Ouch ..... And, much as I love the term and idea of 'luxury lecturer', how many still-living laureates could be considered one ? Handke ? Ishiguro ? Vargas Llosa ? Maybe Jelinek ? Come on .....

       Meanwhile, at The New Republic Mark Krotov and Alex Shephard suggest that: 'The Swedish Academy's decision to award Korean novelist Han Kang is a minor victory in a world of consolidation' in considering Can The Nobel Prize Save Publishing From Itself ? -- arguing, generously, that: "The Swedish Academy has cast itself as an island of seriousness in a swirling ocean of garbage and filth"

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       Shortlists: ALTA National Translation Awards

       The American Literary Translators Association has announced the shortlists for this year's National Translation Awards, in the two categories -- prose and poetry.
       None of the finalists are under review at the complete review.
       The winners will be announced 26 October.

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       Shortlist: Baillie Gifford Prize

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction -- six titles selected from 349 submissions.
       The winner will be announced 19 November.

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       The Third Realm review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the third in Karl Ove Knausgaard's The Morning Star-series, The Third Realm, just out in English.

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       The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature goes to ... Han Kang

       They've announced that Han Kang will receive this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life"

       Two of her works are under review at the complete review:

• The Vegetarian
• The White Book

       She has an Official website; see also the RCW Literary Agency author page.

       There are quite a few interviews with her available online; see, for example:

• First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2024 - the Nobel interview
• Han Kang, the star author of South Korean literature, returns: ‘I stopped writing for a year and forgot how to do it’ by Berna González Harbour in El País (23/9/2023)
• Han Kang: ‘That will be a problem when I die – I won’t be able to finish all my ideas’ (profile) by Annabel Nugent in The Independent (7/5/2023)
• Han Kang: ‘If I was 100% healthy I couldn’t have become a writer’ by Hannah Beckerman in The Guardian (17/12/2017)
• Korea's Kafka ? Interview with Man Booker winner Han Kang by Sabine Peschel at Deutsche Welle (9/12/2016)
• Interview with Han Kang by Sarah Shin in The White Review (3/2016)
• Don't Be Fooled, 'The Vegetarian' Serves Up Appetites For Fright by Linda Wertheimer at npr (13/2/2016)
• Han Kang Interview by PP Wong at Banana Writers

       A new work of hers will conveniently be appearing in English in January in the US (and February in the UK), We Do Not Part, translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris -- see the publicity pages from Hogarth and Hamish Hamilton, and pre-order your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.
       At Asymptote Linnea Gradin has an interesting -- and particularly relevant (translation into Swedish !) -- piece on Risgröt or juk ? On Han Kang’s We Do Not Part and Translating Between Small Languages

       For early reactions to her win, see:

• Han Kang Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature by Alex Marshall and Alexandra Alter in The New York Times
• South Korean author Han Kang wins the 2024 Nobel prize in literature by Ella Creamer in The Guardian
• South Korea's Han Kang wins Nobel Literature Prize by Annabel Rackham at the BBC
• South Korean author Han Kang wins 2024 Nobel Prize in literature by Neda Ulaby at npr

       More in-depth coverage should become available in the hours and days to come.

       To sample some of Han Kang's work, see:

• First Read — From “The White Book”
• White | State of Mind (excerpt from The White Book)
• The Vegetarian (excerpt)
• The Fruit of My Woman

       Han Kang also attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, in 1998.

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       Prix Alain Spiess

       They've announced the winner of this year's prix Alain Spiess du deuxième roman, a French second-novel prize, and it is La nuit de David, by Abigail Assor; see, for example, the report at Livres Hebdo; see also the Gallimard publicity page.

       An English translation of her debut came out as As Rich as the King -- see the Pushkin Press publicity page -- so maybe we'll see this in English as well.

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       Austrian Book Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Austrian Book Prize -- five titles left in the running.
       The winner will be announced 18 November.

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       Sally Rooney Q & A

       At The Paris Review's The Daily they have Loving the Limitations of the Novel: A Conversation between Sally Rooney and Merve Emre.
       Among her responses:

I started reading what you call the ordinary language philosophers. I read some J. L. Austin and Margaret MacDonald and made my way to the later work of Wittgenstein. I ended up reading Philosophical Investigations, and I felt, after I read it, that I knew how to finish Intermezzo.

       I have somehow managed to never come across a Rooney novel but I am intrigued and will certainly pick them up at some point.

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       Profile: Gerald Murnane

       At ABC News Gerald Murnane speaks about life, writing ahead of Nobel Prize for Literature announcement.
       As they note:

He prefers not to travel outside Victoria. He has never been on a plane, never voluntarily been into the ocean, has rarely taken holidays and has never listened to the radio or watched television for more than 20 minutes.

But he likes maps and sits a globe near his desk where he writes.

       Four of his works are under review at the complete review, including Barley Patch and A Season on Earth.

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       Profile: Jonathan Carroll

       At the Los Angeles Review of Books Gary K. Wolfe 'surveys the career of American fabulist Jonathan Carroll', in Jonathan Carroll's Impossible Realism.
       Five of Carroll's novels are under review at the complete review, including Mr. Breakfast.

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       Grand prix de littérature américaine shortlist

       Perhaps thinking that Americans can't be trusted to honor the best American fiction, the French have their own prize which is limited to ... American fiction, the Grand prix de littérature américaine (with the additional limitation of the work having been translated into French) -- and they've now announced the four finalists for this year's prize; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       Novels by Kaveh Akbar, Richard Ford, Nathan Hill, and Alice McDermott remain in the running.
       The winner will be announced 12 November.

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       Lore Segal (1928-2024)

       Author Lore Segal has passed away -- see, for example, the Melville House announcement.
       The New York Times Magazine just published Matthew Shaer's profile of her the day before her death, A Master Storyteller, at the End of Her Story (presumably paywalled); see also Penelope Green's obituary (presumably paywalled) in The New York Times.
       See also the information page for Segal at the Cynthia Cannell Literary Agency.
       None of her work is under review at the complete review, but I should eventually be getting to some.

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       Crossword Book Awards longlists

       They've announced the longlists for this year's Crossword Book Awards longlists -- ten titles each in five categories: Fiction, Non, Translation, Children's, and ... Business and Management; see, for example, the report at Scroll.in.
       Good to see some of the titles in the translated category are from languages we see far too little from, including Assamese, Konkani, and Nepali. Hopefully, some of these will make it to the US/UK markets as well.
       The shortlists will be announced 11 November, and the winners 12 December.

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       Nobel Prize week

       They start announcing the winners of this year's Nobel Prizes today, with the literature-prize announcement to come on Thursday, 10 October, at 13:00 local (Stockholm) time; see the Swedish Academy notice; you'll be able to watch the announcement live at the Nobel site and on YouTube.

       I have not been following (or participating in) this year's speculation; as always, most of the names being thrown around are those familiar from previous years.
       There are the usual betting-opportunities -- Ladbrokes and Betsson, while Unibet, for example, walked away from this year's competition.
       Ladbrokes' odds are not readily accessible in the US.
       Betsson offers bets on a mere 21 candidates -- including Paul Simon ..... (See also.)
       Current favorites, last I checked, are:

• Gerald Murnane +350
• Can Xue +400
• Salman Rushdie +500
• Jamaica Kincaid +700
• Alexis Wright +700
• Anne Carson +900
• Ko Un +900

       (Salman Rushdie seems to have been yesterday's big mover on Betsson.)

       As always, there's a very active Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 Speculation-discussion up at the World Literature Forum, the thread now with over 2000 posts.
       Discussion hasn't been quite as active at the The Mookse and the Gripes discussion board, where the 2024 Nobel Prize-thread has only reached ... 33 posts, last I checked.

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       Robert Coover (1932-2024)

       American author Robert Coover has passed away; see, for example, John Williams' obituary (presumably paywalled) in The New York Times, or the AP report.

       I've read quite a few of his works, but none are under review at the complete review; he was at Brown during my college years, but I never encountered him.

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       Suhrkamp takeover

       Leading -- or at least once-leading -- German literary publisher Suhrkamp has now been completely taken over by longtime but also long not particularly active-in-the-business minority owner Möhrle Group (essentially: Dirk Möhrle) as, in a surprise announcement, we learn that he/they are now the sole owners of the entire business (his/their stake used to be 39 per cent), with the Siegfried und Ulla Unseld Familienstiftung (and with it Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz) withdrawing from the business -- the end of an era.
       Apparently, Suhrkamp has been 'troubled' for a while -- see, for example, Roman Bucheli's report on Der Suhrkamp-Verlag ist völlig überraschend an einen Immobilien-Unternehmer verkauft worden in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Certainly, in the post-(Siegfried-)Unseld era -- since his death in 2002 -- its footing has been less sure (and less 'literary'); it'll be interesting to see how things develop from here on.

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       Olga Tokarczuk Q & A

       At The Guardian Anthony Cummins has a Q & A with the The Empusium-author, in Nobel prize winner Olga Tokarczuk: ‘We live with violence and misogyny like some sort of constant illness’.
       Among her responses: "I wrote The Empusium slightly out of anger and spite, I suppose".
       And she says:

the story I’m writing now might be my last huge book, because I’ve been having horrible problems with my spine. My body says: “Tokarczuk, this position you’re in when you’re writing isn’t for you any more – you should retire.” And I think that’s what I’m going to do.

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

       Grand Prix SGDL

       The Société des Gens de Lettres has announced the winner of this year's Grand Prix SGDL/ministère de la Culture, a leading French translator prize, and it is translator from Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Terje Sinding.

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

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       KulturPass numbers

       Germany is one of those European countries that provides money -- €100, in their case -- to youths once they turn eighteen which they can spend on anything cultural, the KulturPass, and at Börsenblatt they have the latest numbers -- with books being, by a considerable margin, still the most popular thing (and about half of the total) users cash in on.

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

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       Prix Hors Concours finalists

       The big French literary prizes tend to be dominated by the big publishers, but of course they also have their own independent-publishers prize -- runs by the Académie Hors Concours, they have a prix Hors Concours which has now announced its finalists; see, for example, the ActuaLitté report.
       The winner will be announced 26 November.
       Perhaps in imitation of the prix Goncourt -- the grand-daddy of French literary prizes, which notoriously only pays out €10 to the winner --, or perhaps in the low-budget 'independent' spirit, the prize money is ... not great: €100. (Well, yes, that is ten times as rich as the Goncourt .....)

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

       Cundill Prize finalists

       They've announced the three finalists for this year's Cundill History Prize, "the world's leading prize for a work of history written or translated into English".
       The winner will be announced 30 October.

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

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       Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Prize shortlist

       The New India Foundation has announced the shortlist for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize, honoring: "nonfiction books about modern and contemporary Indian history".
       The winner will be announced 14 December.

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

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       William H. Gass centenary celebrations

       They celebrated the centenary of The Tunnel-author William H. Gass at Washington University yesterday -- and you can watch the proceedings on YouTube; it sounds like it was a great programme. (I unfortunately do not have the patience to watch this (or most any) kind of thing on my computer, so I can't vouch for it, but it does sound good.)
       See also Diane Toroian Keaggy's preview of events, WashU Libraries celebrates centenary of acclaimed writer William Gass.

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

       Goldsmiths Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Goldsmiths Prize -- "awarded to a book that is deemed genuinely novel and which embodies the spirit of invention that characterises the genre at its best".
       The winner will be announced 6 November.

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

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       Comrade Papa review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of GauZ''s Comrade Papa.
       This came out in the UK earlier this year, and now (next week) Biblioasis is bringing out the North American edition.

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

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