opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       Ovid's Heroides

       A University of Kansas press release suggests that a New translation of Ovid’s ‘Heroides’ offers insight into ‘ancient fan fiction’; see also the Hackett Classics publicity page for the new translation.
       (There's also a Loeb edition -- an older translation --; see the Harvard University Press publicity page.)

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       TikTok Book Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's TikTok Book Awards; see, for example, Lucy Acheson's BBC report.
       From what I hear, 'BookTok' is incredibly popular; I'm afraid I still don't have the patience to watch this kind of stuff (well, pretty much anything for that matter) online (I remain a text person, through and through), and I am not familiar with the award winners -- neither the BookTokers nor the books ....

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       Sinan Antoon profile

       At The New Arab Sarah Shaffi profiles the The Book of Collateral Damage-author, in Echoing Palestinian perseverance: Iraqi novelist Sinan Antoon on NYU Gaza protests arrest and upcoming translation of Palestinian story.

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       Veza-Canetti-Preis

       The city of Vienna has announced the winner of this year's Veza Canetti Prize, a €10,000 author-award for a female Austrian author, and it is Karin Peschka.

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       Reading in ... the UK

       The Reading Agency has issued their 'The State of the Nation's Adult Reading: 2024 Report', reporting on the results of a survey conducted 2 to 4 April of 2003 people in the UK 16 and older -- see their summary or the full report (warning ! dreaded pdf format !).
       Only 50% of respondents report reading for pleasure any longer -- down from 58% in 2015 -- with 24% of those aged 16-24 saying they were never regular readers, while an astonishing 44% in that age group are 'lapsed readers', having given up on it.
       Interestingly, 55% of respondents reported borrowing books from their local library (16% doing so once a week)
       Oddly, while only 50% report reading for pleasure, 52% say: "they enjoy visiting a bookshop or library" .....

       (Hey, at least this is all (slightly) more than just anecdotal; for a really silly why-aren't-they/we-reading-? (non-)thought piece, see Georgina Elliott at Dazed exploring the tough question(s) of ... uh, Why don't straight men read novels ?)

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       Lewis Lapham (1935-2024)

       Much-admired editor -- of Harper's and Lapham's Quarterly -- Lewis Lapham has passed away; see, for example the mention at Lapham's Quarterly or Robert D. McFadden's obituary in The New York Times (presumably paywalled).

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       Hillbilly Elegy dumped by German publisher

       The German publisher of Hillbilly Elegy -- the bestseller written by American vice-presidential candidate (for now) J.D.Vance --, Ullstein, has declined to renew the license for the German edition of the book (i.e. they no longer wanted to be tainted by association with it and what its author has come to represent); see, for example, Florian Kappelsberger's report in Der Spiegel.
       A new edition will now be brought out by some new and not quite as illustrious outfit called YES

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       The Understory review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Thai author Saneh Sangsuk's novel The Understory -- out from Peirene in the UK last year, and Deep Vellum in the US earlier this year.

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       Lev Grossman Q & A

       Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword is now out, and at the Literary Hub Jane Ciabattari has a Q & A with the author, in Lev Grossman on Adapting Arthurian Legends for a World in Turmoil.

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       Proust and translation

       At the drift Simon Leser considers 'Proust in the Age of Retranslation', in Time and Time Again -- well worth a look.

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       New Saudi novel prize

       The Saudi General Entertainment Authority has announced a new 'Golden Pen Award for the Most Influential Literature', focusing: "on the most popular novels with the highest potential for adaptation into films", whereby the: "first and second place winning novels will be adapted into films". There will also be a 'Best Screenplay Adapted from a Literary Work' -- where, again: "the first and second place screenplays will be adapted into films".
       The prize money is good, too -- the main novel and screenplay prizes pay out US$100,000 to the winners, and US$50,000 to the second-place titles; novel category winners -- there are eight, including Best Comedy Novel and Best Historical Novel -- each get US$25,000. And there's even a translated novel-category -- also paying the winner US$100,000.

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       A Maggot review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of John Fowles' strange 1985 novel, A Maggot.

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       PEN Translates winners

       English PEN has announced the latest batch of PEN Translates winners -- 16 titles originally written in 10 languages, including Greenlandic (Zombieland by Sørine Steenholdt -- see the milk publicity page -- in Charlotte Barslund's translation, forthcoming from Norvik Press) and two titles in Vietnamese.
       I look forward to seeing these .....

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       Peter Blackstock Q & A

       Via I'm pointed to Tim Groenland's Q & A with the Grove Atlantic-editor in “A list that reflects the world”: An Interview with Peter Blackstock at Post45.
       It's part of their Issue 9: Editing American Literature, which includes some other interesting pieces, too.

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       China Miéville/Keanu Reeves profile

       China Miéville and Keanu Reeves have collaborated on a novel, The Book of Elsewhere, apparently based on a popular comic book series -- see the official site, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk -- and at The Guardian Sam Leith profiles them, in ‘I wanted to do pulpy, hyper-violent action’: Keanu Reeves on his novel with China Miéville and the afterlife of The Matrix.

       Several books by Miéville are under review at the complete review -- e.g. Perdido Street Station -- but, while I do have and expect to get to the two volumes of Dial H, I don't think I'll be getting to this one. (Nothing by Reeves is under review at the site.)

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       Georg-Büchner-Preis

       They've announced the winner of this year's Georg Büchner Prize, the leading German language author prize, and it is Oswald Egger; he will get to pick up his prize on 2 November.
       Not much of his work is available in English, but Green Integer did publish Room of Rumor: Tunings; see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
       See also the Suhrkamp author page, with information about some of his other titles.

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       Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year

       They've announced the winner of this year's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, with In The Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan taking the main prize.

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       July Asymptote

       The July issue of Asymptote is now available -- a ton of good material for your weekend reading.
       Not least: Sarah Gear has An interview with Georgi Gospodinov -- the author of Time Shelter (etc.).

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       PEN/Heim Translation Fund

       PEN America administers the PEN/Heim Translation Fund -- and, as Dan Sheehan now reports at the Literary Hub, 100+ translators call for PEN America to relinquish control of the Heim Fund.
       The translators' open letter to the PEN America Board of Trustees is printed there, along with the response from PEN America.

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       Hong Kong Book Fair

       The Hong Kong Book Fair runs through the 23rd, and while Atlas Shao reports that Hong Kong Book Fair spotlights Beijing's literary treasures in China Daily, Hans Tse reports that Shortage of writers hurting local literary scene, publishers say as Hong Kong Book Fair opens.
       Ah, those darned writer-shortages.

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       Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes

       They've announced the latest set of winners of the Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes, the leading Japanese fiction prizes; see, for example, Thu-Huong Ha's report in The Japan Times, Three novelists named for Akutagawa and Naoki awards.
       The Akutagawa Prize was shared by バリ山行 ('Extreme mountain climbing') by Matsunaga K. Sanzo -- see the Kodansha publicity page -- and サンショウウオの四十九日 ('The 49th day of the salamander') by Asahina Aki; see the Shinchosha publicity page.
       The Naoki Prize went to ツミデミック, by Ichiho Michi; see the Kobunsha publicity page.

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       Forward Prizes shortlists

       They've announced the shortlists for this year's Forward Prizes -- "the most influential awards for new poetry in the UK and Ireland" -- in its four categories.

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       Last Nights of Paris review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Philippe Soupault's 1928 novel, Last Nights of Paris -- notable, at least in its English version, also because it was translated by poet William Carlos Williams.

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       Jan Michalski Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist -- well, the 'second selection' -- for this year's Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, awarded to a work of world literature, in any genre and any language.
       The only one of the five titles under review at the complete review is Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal.
       The winner will be announced on 27 November.

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       Singapore Literature Prize shortlists

       They've announced the shortlists for this year's Singapore Literature Prize -- 71 works in 16 categories in four languages -- English, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay, selected from 247 submissions.
       At the official site you can click through the different categories and languages; somewhat more convenient is the press release (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) -- but, given the number of shortlisted titles, it's a long press release -- 85 pages.
       The winners will be announced 10 September.

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       New Virago Modern Classics design

       Virago has announced a new design for its Modern Classics list.
       I liked the old, original design -- but in any case, it's the books that count.

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       Tonke Dragt (1930-2024)

       Dutch author asnd illustrator Tonke Dragt (1930-2024) has passed away; see, for example, the DutchNews report.
       Pushkin Press has published several of her works.

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       Worlds Built to Fall Apart review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of David Lapoujade on Versions of Philip K. Dick, Worlds Built to Fall Apart.

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       Benjamín Labatut profile

       In The Guardian Sam Leith has a profile of the We Cease to Understand the World1-author, in ‘People say my book gave them a panic attack’: When We Cease to Understand the World author Benjamín Labatut.

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       Prix de la littérature arabe finalists

       They've announced the finalists for this year's prix de la littérature arabe; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The winner will be announced 27 November.

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       Top ... 75 Sci-Fi books

       Two year's ago I mentioned Esquire's list of '50 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time'.
       Well, they've now expanded it, offering: The 75 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time.
       As I already complained regarding the 50-title list, they continue to limit it to one book per author, undermining their 'best' claim. (If you're putting together a best book list, it doesn't/can't matter who wrote them .....)

       Look for their top-100 list, presumably coming in the fall of 2026.

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       New RSL fellows

       The Royal Society of Literature has announced 29 new Fellows and 13 new Honorary Fellows.

       Works by only two of the new Fellows are under review at the complete review -- Mick Herron (e.g. The Secret Hours) and Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Tail of the Blue Bird).

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       Bestselling in ... the UK

       At The Bookseller Tom Tivnan reports on the bestselling books and authors in the UK for the first half of the year, according to Nielsen BookScan; see also the top 20 -- both by units sold and value.
       Julia Donaldson tops the list, with 1,253,890 units sold; J.K.Rowling is third, with 383,261; Stephen King slips in at number 19, with 159,186.

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       Dennis Cooper Q & A

       At Interview Lucy K. Shaw has a Q & A with Dennis Cooper Has a New Book Out. Just Don't Expect Him to Do Any Readings.
       Among his responses:

I read a lot of fiction, but I only read avant-garde fiction or whatever, I never read normal fiction.

       (And see also DC's, 'The blog of author Dennis Cooper'.

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       Union State literature awards

       BelTA reports that Lukashenko presents Union State literature, art awards at Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk, as Putin-puppet Aleksandr Lukashenko presented: "prizes of the Union State of Belarus and Russia for literature and art for 2023-2024 to people, who had made a significant contribution to the reinforcement of friendship between the peoples of Belarus and Russia".
       Yeah, there's an 'honor' .....
       And I don't suspect we'll see the work of any of these prize-winners in English (or other) translation soon.

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       Lit Hub's Most Anticipated (II)

       At the Literary Hub they have Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2024, Part Two -- '193 Books to Read in the Second Half of the Year'.
       Certainly some titles of interest here .....
       The only titles under review at the complete review at this time are Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword and Ogawa Yoko's Mina's Matchbox.

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       International Booker Prize judging panel

       They've announced the members of the judging panel for next year's International Booker Prize, and they are: Max Porter, who will chair; Caleb Femi, Sana Goyal, Anton Hur, and Beth Orton.
       They've also announced the dates for it, with the longlist to be announced 25 February 2025, the shortlist on 8 April, and the winner on 20 May.

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       Robert Chandler on Andrey Platonov

       In Prospect Robert Chandler writes on People person: the greatness of Andrey Platonov -- a good introduction to the author.
       His (and wife Elizabeth's) new translation of Chevengur is recently out in the US from New York Review Books -- see their publicity page -- and from Harvill Secker in the UK -- see their publicity page.
       The US publishers recently noted: "Platonov's Chevengur has been a bit of a breakout "hit"", which is pretty neat.
       The only Platono under review at the complete review is Happy Moscow.

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       Hotlist finalists

       They've announced the thirty finalists for the German Hotlist competition, selected from 204 entries -- one from each independent publisher.
       Readers can vote, with the three top vote-getters joining seven titles chosen by the official jury for the shortlist that will be announced on 10 September; the winner will be announced 18 October.

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       Martin Puchner Q & A

       In The Harvard Gazette Eileen O'Grady reports on how: 'Martin Puchner is using chatbots to bring to life Socrates, Shakespeare, and Thoreau', in A modern approach to teaching classics.
       Puchner edited the latest, fifth edition of The Norton Anthology of World Literature -- see my mention -- and that's addressed here as well.
       And, yes, he's 'customized' AI chatbots, as:

You upload a defined data set -- let's say the Platonic Dialogues -- and then you generate instructions. Through trial and error, I figured out how to shape that combination of data set and instructions so that you can talk to Socrates.

       It's apparently that simple .....

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       Korean anthology

       In The Korea Times Park Han-sol reports on how the First century-spanning anthology of modern Korean women's literature hits shelves; see also the Mimusa weblog mention.
       Seven volumes -- this looks very impressive.

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       Best Books of the 21st Century ?

       The New York Times is the latest to try to determine The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century (presumably paywalled) -- so far only 100-81, though they might have revealed more by the time you read this.
       They had: "503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers" vote.

       They are,of course, far from the first to have a go at this; see, for example The Guardian's The 100 best books of the 21st century (from 2019) and Vulture's Premature Attempt at the 21st Century Canon, from 2018.

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       Robert Walser-Preise

       They've announced the winners of this year's Robert Walser Prizes, a biennial Swiss prize awarded for first works of prose, one in German, one in French, with Ferymont by Lorena Simmel winning the German prize -- see also the Verbrecher Verlag publicity page -- and Ceux qui appartiennent au jour by Emma Doude van Troostwijk winning the French prize -- see the Éditions de Minuit publicity page.
       Each winner gets CHF 20,000.

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       Cavafy house

       I mentioned the recent opening of the Constantine Cavafy archive a few months ago, and now Helena Smith has a longer piece in The Observer on Cavafy's house in Alexandria, in Greek poet who inspired Forster, Hockney and Jackie Onassis emerges from the shadows.

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       Rose Royal review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nicolas Mathieu's novella, Rose Royal: A Love Story.

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       Anita Desai

       Anita Desai has a new book, Rosarita -- out in the UK, and coming in January in the US; see the publicity pages from Picador and Scribner, pre-order your copy from Amazon.com or get it at Amazon.co.uk -- and so there are a some profiles and the like out.
       In The Guardian Emma Brockes recently had a profile of her, Anita Desai: ‘After I left India, I had to train myself to express my opinions’.
       At Scroll.in Sayari Debnath now has a Q & A with her, ‘I have spent at least a part of my day writing since the age of seven’: Anita Desai.

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       HKW Internationaler Literaturpreis

       The Haus der Kulturen der Welt has announced the winner of this year's Internationaler Literaturpreis, a leading German prize for a work in translation, and it is Stefan Moster's translation of Pajtim Statovci's My Cat Yugoslavia; see also the Vintage publicity page for the English translation.

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       Crime Writers' Association Daggers

       The Crime Writers' Association has announced the winners of this year's Daggers -- though not yet at the official site, last I checked; see, for example, Melina Spanoudi's report at The Bookseller.
       The Gold Dagger went to Tell Me What I Am, by Una Mannion.
       The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger went to Emma Ramadan's translation of My Husband, by Maud Ventura.

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       Bookselling in Germany 2023

       Christina Schulte has the official numbers for the German book market in 2023 at Börsenblatt, in Die offiziellen Zahlen für den Buchmarkt 2023 sind da.
       Among the numbers of interest:

• 25 million people bought books in 2023 -- down 2.8 per cent from 2022.
• 60,230 new titles were published in 2023, down 6.3 per cent from 2022 (64,278) -- and down from 70,395 in 2019 .....
• 8760 works in translation were published, down 6.8 per cent from 2022 (9403)

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       The Book and the Brotherhood review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Iris Murdoch's The Book and the Brotherhood.

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       Premio Strega

       They've announced the winner of this year's Premio Strega, the leading Italian novel prize, and it is L’età fragile, by Donatella Di Pietrantonio. It received 189 of the 644 submitted votes, comfortably beating out runner-up Invernale by Dario Voltolin which got 143 votes; Autobiogrammatica by Tommaso Giartosio fared by far the poorest of the six finalist, garnering a mere 25 votes.
       Europa Editions has published translations of two previous titles by Di Pietrantonio, and a translation -- by Ann Goldstein -- of this title is expected in 2025; meanwhile, see the Einaudi publicity page.

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       Wales Books of the Year

       They've announced the winners of this years Wales Book of the Year, with Tom Bullough's Sarn Helen winning both the Creative Non-Fiction Award and the Overall Wales Book of the Year, and Mari George's Sut i Ddofi Corryn winning the Overall Welsh-language Wales Book of the Year 2024 and Fiction Award.

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       Nerîman Evdikê Q & A

       ANF has a two-part Q & A with Northern and Eastern Syria Literature Council spokesperson Nerîman Evdikê -- The real literature of this revolution will emerge and We need more literary critics.
       Yes, among her responses is that:

One of our main problems is the lack of literary criticism. There is no evaluating or analyzing the new books.

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       Brands and literature

       A few weeks ago I mentioned a report on brands 'leaning into the literary world', and at Jing Daily Bethanie Ryder now offers examples of How brands are harnessing luxury's love for literature in China.

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       Kseniya Tsyhanchuk Q & A

       At New Eastern Europe Kinga Anna Gajda has a Q & A with Kseniya Tsyhanchuk, in Exploring crime fiction, war and Ukrainian literature.

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       Speculative Arab fiction

       At the Middle East Research and Information Project Marcia Lynx Qualey writes about Speculative Climate Futures in Arab Literature.

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       Miles Franklin shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award, a leading Australian literary prize.
       No surprise that Praiseworthy, by Alexis Wright, is still in the running .....
       The winner will be announced on 1 August.

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       Murakami re-translation

       Murakami Haruki's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World was published in English in 1991. As the small print acknowledged, it was in fact: "translated and adapted by Alfred Birnbaum with the participation of the author" [emphasis added].
       'Adapted', *sigh* ..... And there are people who complain about AI translation .....
       Fortunately, this outrage is now being rectified: a new translation, by Jay Rubin, is due out in December -- and the first big change is already the truer-to-the-original translation of the title (世界の終りとハードボイルド・ワンダーランド in the Japanese original), as: End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland.
       See also the publicity pages from Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series and Vintage Classics, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       The Millions' summer preview

       The Millions now has their Most Anticipated: The Great Summer 2024 Preview -- "more than 80 books".

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       Ismail Kadare (1936-2024)

       Leading Albanian author Ismail Kadare has passed away; see, for example, David Bellos' Ismail Kadare obituary in The Guardian -- Bellos translated a number of Kadare works from their French translations -- as well as Richard Lea's Ismail Kadare, giant of Albanian literature, dies aged 88, also in The Guardian, as well as Rusha Haljuci in The New York Times, reporting that Ismail Kadare, 88, Dies; His Novels Brought Albania's Plight to the World (presumably paywalled).
       Several of Kadare's novels are under review at the complete review:

• The Accident
• The Fall of the Stone City
• A Girl in Exile
• The Successor
• The Traitor's Niche
• Twilight of the Eastern Gods

       And see also David Bellos on The Englishing of Ismail Kadare: Notes of a retranslator at the cr Quarterly.

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       Robert Irwin (1946-2024)

       British author Robert Irwin has passed away; see, for example, the report at Locus, as well as some personal reflections by publisher Eric Lane at Dedalus.
       Two of Irwin's novels are under review at the complete review Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh and The Runes Have Been Cast, and I'm sure to get to more.

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