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opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review
16 March 2026
- Monday
Shahrnush Parsipur profile | Sisters in Yellow review
Shahrnush Parsipur profile
More than a decade after it first came out in the US the second translation of Shahrnush Parsipur's Women without Men is finally coming out in the UK, and between renewed interest in Iran and its International Booker Prize-longlisting it, and she, have been getting some well-deserved attention -- and now there's a profile of sorts of her in The Guardian, by Dina Nayeri: Shahrnush Parsipur: ‘The women of Iran will cause the fall of the Islamic Republic’
(While it's good to see that Women without Men is getting all this attention, don't forget that another of Parsipur's novels is also available: Touba and the Meaning of Night.)
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Sisters in Yellow review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kawakami Mieko's latest, Sisters in Yellow, coming out this week in both the US and UK.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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15 March 2026
- Sunday
Kerouac scrolls | Jürgen Habermas (1929-2026) | Jnanpith Award
Kerouac scrolls
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, among the many things from Jim Irsay's estate going up for auction were two manuscript-scrolls of works by Jack Kerouac -- On the Road and The Dharma Bums -- and on Friday they sold, both for considerably more than their estimates.
The nearly 120-foot scroll of On the Road went for US$12,135,000 (!).
As reported by, for example, Rolling Stone it was apparently purchased by entertainer Zach Bryan.
The Dharma Bums scroll -- only 61 feet long -- went for US$1,651,000.
Irsay had only purchased this in 2023 -- from Sotheby's; see their page for more illustrations of it.
Scroll-manuscripts seem to fetch good prices -- recall that the Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom -- an 11.85 meter long scroll -- was bought by the French government in 2021 for €4,550,000.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Jürgen Habermas (1929-2026)
German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has passed away; see, for example, the notice from his publisher, Suhrkamp, and obituaries at The New York Times (presumably paywalled) and The Guardian.
Much of his work has been published in English -- see his books at Polity --; his best-known work is probably The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere; get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Jnanpith Award
They've announced the latest winner of the Jnanpith Award, the leading Indian author award, and it is Tamil author Vairamuthu; see, for example, the report at The Federal.
Not much of his work appears to have been translated into English; Sahitya Akademi did publish a translation of his novel, The Saga of the Cactus Land, but it does not seem easy to find.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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14 March 2026
- Saturday
Film adaptations
Film adaptations
At El País Ianko López considers Insult or adaptation ? Why films still struggle to adapt novels.
However, now I am eager to see this adaptation, which I had not heard of:
Spain has also seen notable clashes between writers and filmmakers over adaptations.
One of the most famous involved Javier Marías and director Gracia Querejeta after she turned his novel Todas las almas (All Souls) into the film El último viaje de Robert Rylands (Robert Rylands’ Last Journey).
Marías dismissed the adaptation as a “soap‑opera melodrama” and wrote that he felt impatient and even embarrassed watching scenes that viewers might mistakenly assume came from his book.
He eventually won a court ruling that granted him compensation and ordered his name removed from the credits.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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13 March 2026
- Friday
PEN Presents: Brazil shortlist
Tomas Tranströmer's Nobel Prize medal and diploma
PEN Presents: Brazil shortlist
English PEN has announced the shortlist for PEN Presents: Brazil, "the latest round of its programme funding the often-unpaid work of creating samples, giving publishers access to titles from underrepresented languages and regions, and helping diversify the translated literature landscape".
Thirteen fiction and poetry titles -- all from the Portuguese --, with quite a few interesting-sounding ones among them.
All these shortlisted translators: "receive £600 grants to create 5,000-word sample translations of their proposed projects".
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Tomas Tranströmer's Nobel Prize medal and diploma
The heirs of Nobel laureates often flog the winners' gold Nobel medals and diplomas -- Alexander Bitar has a good overview at Collectors Weekly, Nobel Prize Medals: History, Specifics and Auction Records -- and they often get good money for them: apparently eleven have gone for more than half a million dollars, with the best-selling ones raking in considerably more.
Oddly, however, literature laureates do not do well: Doris Lessing's, sold at auction for £187,500 in 2017, is only the 26th highest-grossing cash-in and the only literature-laureate to crack the top 32; among the few others that have been put up for sale both Maurice Maeterlinck's medal and diploma (Sotheby's, 2023) and those of William Faulkner (Sotheby's, 2013) were withdrawn when bidding didn't reach the reserve price.
Admirably, the wife of 2011 Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer didn't put his diploma and medal up for sale, but rather has now donated them to the Nobel Prize Museum; see their official press release.
Recent literature-diplomas have come without illustrations and hardly even seem display-worthy, but Tranströmer still got one of the good ones.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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12 March 2026
- Thursday
Stella Prize longlist | Wortmeldungen Literaturpreis
Stella Prize longlist
They've announced the longlist for this year's Stella Prize, "a major literary award celebrating Australian women and non-binary writing" -- twelve titles, selected from 212 entries.
The shortlist will be announced 8 April, and the winner on 13 May.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Wortmeldungen Literaturpreis
They've announced the winner of this year's Wortmeldungen Ulrike Crespo Literaturpreis, and it is Ivna Žic's text 'Die Unversehrten'; read it here
This is a prize for 'short, critical texts', but pays out a generous €35,000 to the winner; Žic's text is just over 8000 words long, so she's getting €4.36 per word.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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11 March 2026
- Wednesday
Alfredo Bryce Echenique (1939-2026)
Republic of Consciousness Prize (US/Canada)
Carol Shields Prize longlist | The Mad review
Alfredo Bryce Echenique (1939-2026)
Peruvian author Alfredo Bryce Echenique has passed away; see, for example, the BBC report
Not enough of his work has been translated into English, and A World for Julius and Tarzan's Tonsillitis both seem to be out of print.
See the Agencia Literaria Carmen Balcells information page for an overview of his other works.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Republic of Consciousness Prize (US/Canada)
They've announced the winner of the 2025 Republic of Consciousness Prize (US/Canada), and it is New Vessel Press' The Remembered Soldier, by Anjet Daanje, in David McKay's translation.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Carol Shields Prize longlist
They've announced the longlist for this year's Carol Shields Prize For Fiction -- "the largest English-language literary prize for women and non-binary writers in the world".
The shortlist will be announced 21 April, and the winner on 2 June.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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The Mad review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ignatius T. Mabasa's 1999 novel, The Mad, now out in English as the first in the University of Georgia Press' African Language Literatures in Translation-series (after appearing last year from Carnelian Heart Publishing and amaBooks in the UK/Zimbabwe).
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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10 March 2026
- Tuesday
Libris Literatuur Prijs shortlist
Libris Literatuur Prijs shortlist
They've announced the shortlist for this year's Libris Literatuur Prijs, one of the leading Dutch novel prizes.
The winner will be announced 11 May.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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9 March 2026
- Monday
Jennifer Crewe Q & A | Musashi review
Jennifer Crewe Q & A
At the Columbia University Press blog Maritza Herrera-Diaz has a Q & A with the director of the press, in Jennifer Crewe: A Legacy of Leadership at Columbia University Press.
Interesting the fairly recent change:
Herrera-Diaz: The Press became formally integrated into the university during your leadership. In what ways did this integration strengthen the Press’s role within the university, and why did you see that as a strategic priority?
Crewe: I had clear goals when I became director, and I was lucky in that the provost had similar goals. From the start, it was important to me that we become formally integrated into the university as a unit. The Press had been created in 1893 as an affiliate of the university and was a separate 501(c)(3) organization. As a result, many at the university didn’t know what we did, or even that we existed. I felt strongly that we should be clearly aligned with the university’s academic mission and priorities, and more visible to faculty and administrators. So I set about making that change.
[Note that my The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction was published by Columbia University Press.]
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Musashi review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the new (unabridged, three-volume) translation of Yoshikawa Eiji's 1939 epic, Musashi, just out, from Tuttle.
This is the longest book I've reviewed so far this year -- 1692 pages -- and also the longest review so far this year (and, indeed, in quite a while), at over 4600 words .....
I'm fine with not reaching either level again for the rest of the year; I imagine you are fine with that, too.
The previous -- apparently abridged -- translation came out in 1981, on the heels of the 1980 Richard Chamberlain-Toshiro Mifune Shōgun miniseries-adaptation (of the 1975 James Clavell novel), and The New York Times reported that it: "has sold more than 40,000 copies in the United States" in the first year -- that: "Despite its heft" (and despite the The New York Times Book Review's very unimpressed review ...) --; it was also then published in five volume in mass-market paperback.
I'm curious how this (heftier) edition will do.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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8 March 2026
- Sunday
Shahrnush Parsipur Q & A | 1970s/80s Japanese fiction
Shahrnush Parsipur Q & A
At The Los Angeles Times Marc Weingarten has a (disappointingly brief) Q & A with Touba and the Meaning of Night and (International Boker Prize longlisted) Women without Men-author Shahrnush Parsipur, in This author was imprisoned by the shah and the ayatollahs. Her book could win the Booker Prize.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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1970s/80s Japanese fiction
The latest in the series on: "Japanese literature in the Shōwa era (1926–89) looks at books written from 1973 to 1989" at nippon.com, in Takino Yūsaku's The Rise of Popular Fiction: Japanese Books in the 1970s and 1980s.
(An interesting selection, but I'd suggest that Yoshimoto Banana's 1988 Kitchen is a pretty big omission here.)
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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7 March 2026
- Saturday
Can Xue Q & A | Gordon Burn Prize
English writing in Nepal
Can Xue Q & A
Can Xue has a new novel out in English, The Enchanting Lives of Others -- see the Yale University Press publicity page -- and they now have a Q & A with her, The Enchanting Lives of Others: A Conversation with Can Xue.
I have a copy and look forward to getting to it.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Gordon Burn Prize
New Writing North has announced the winner of this year's Gordon Burn Prize, recognizing: "exceptional writing which has an unconventional perspective, style or subject matter and often defies easy categorisation", and it is Endling, by Maria Reva; see also the publicity pages from Virago and Doubleday.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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English writing in Nepal
In The Kathmandu Post Jony Nepal considers The rise of English writing in Nepal.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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6 March 2026
- Friday
António Lobo Antunes (1942-2026) | Will Self Q & A
Perspective-shifting reads ?
António Lobo Antunes (1942-2026)
Portuguese author António Lobo Antunes has passed way; see, for example, The New York Times obituary (presumably paywalled).
Quite a few of his works have been published in English translation by Grove and Dalkey Archive Press.
I've read several of his works, but none are under review at the complete review at this time.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Will Self Q & A
At The London Magazine Alex Dommett has a Q & A with Will Self on the End of Satire, the Rise of Fascism and Writing His Own Death.
Self's new novel is The Quantity Theory of Morality -- see the Grove publicity page -- leaving The Times' reviewer Houman Barekat wondering Why is Will Self so obsessed with penises ?
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Perspective-shifting reads ?
At The Conversation they: "asked ten academic experts to share a work of fiction that has challenged their assumptions and changed their thinking in a lasting way", in The novel that changed my mind – ten experts share a perspective‑shifting read.
Several of these titles are under review at the complete review: The Years by Annie Ernaux, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Middlemarch by George Eliot, and Convenience Store Woman by Murata Sayaka.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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5 March 2026
- Thursday
Women's Prize for Fiction longlist | Nero Gold Prize
Peter Schneider (1940-2026)
Women's Prize for Fiction longlist
They've announced the longlist for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction -- sixteen titles.
The shortlist will be announced 22 April, and the winner will be announced 11 June.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Nero Gold Prize
They've announced the winner of the Nero Gold Prize -- the successor-prize to the Costa Book Awards (which, in turn, succeeded the Whitbread Book Awards) -- and it is A Family Matter by Claire Lynch, the Debut Fiction category winner beating out the other category (Fiction, Non, and Children's Fiction) winners.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Peter Schneider (1940-2026)
German author Peter Schneider, best-known for The Wall Jumper -- see the publicity pages from Penguin Modern Classics and Phoenix Fiction --, has passed away; see, for example the obituary at Der Spiegel.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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4 March 2026
- Wednesday
Premio Formentor | Ockham Awards shortlists
Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards finalists | Newly discovered Ōe works
Premio Formentor
The Fundación Formentor has announced the winner of the revived-in-2011 Premio Formentor de las Letras, and it is Gonçalo M. Tavares.
Several of his works are under review at the complete review:
While a bit Romance-language-author-heavy, the Premio Formentor has (re)established itself as a leading international author prize; a pretty impressive record of winners includes would-go-on-to-win-the Nobel authors Annie Ernaux (2019) and Krasznahorkai László (2024), as well as the recently deceased Cees Nooteboom (2020).
I am a great admirer of Tavares' work and disappointed there isn't more available in translation -- not least his recent nine-hundred-page O Fim dos Estados Unidos da América -- "uma epopeia, satírica e distópica"; see the Relógio D’Água Editores publicity page.
Alberto Manguel -- 2017 winner of the Premio Formentor ! -- recently reviewed (paywalled) this in the TLS -- noting that: "This is not the stuff bestsellers are made of, yet the first run of this 900-page novel sold out overnight in Portugal".
(The Literarische Agentur MertinWitt information page on Tavares -- showing also just how much of his work hasn't been translated into English yet ... -- notes that so far rights have (only) been sold to publishers in ... Egypt and Poland; come on, you US/UK publishers, what are you waiting for ?)
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Ockham Awards shortlists
They've announced the shortlists for this year's Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in its four categories.
The winners will be announced 13 May.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards finalists
They've announced the eleven finalists for this year's Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which: "recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of race and human diversity"
The winners will be announced on 15 April.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Newly discovered Ōe works
As the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Letters has announced, two early manuscripts by Nobel laureate Ōe Kenzaburō have been discovered; see, for example, Kensuke Nonami's Asahi Shimbun report, Earliest Oe novels, penned as Todai student, unearthed.
They are to be published in the April issue of the literary magazine Gunzo, due out on Friday.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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3 March 2026
- Tuesday
OCM Bocas Lit Prize shortlists | Revolver Christi review
OCM Bocas Lit Prize shortlists
They've announced the shortlists for the OCM Bocas Lit Prize -- the: "Caribbean's biggest literary prize" -- in its three categories, fiction, non, and poetry.
The category winners will be announced 25 March, and the overall winner -- selected from the three category winners -- will be announced 2 May.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Revolver Christi review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Anna Albinus' Revolver Christi, now in English, from Dedalus.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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2 March 2026
- Monday
Rob Grant (1955-2026) | Esther Allen on Borges
Rob Grant (1955-2026)
Rob Grant, co-creator of the Red Dwarf TV series, has passed away; see, for example, the obituary at Ganymede & Titan.
With co-creator Doug Naylor he published several 'Red Dwarf'-novels and scripts, and I've read and enjoyed most of them; a Red Dwarf-prequel, Red Dwarf: Titan, co-writtten with Andrew Marshall, is due out this summer; see the Orion publicity page.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Esther Allen on Borges
If you're in Princeton tomorrow you can hear Esther Allen speak on Borges & Borges at high noon, as she makes the case that:
The relationship of Bioy's book to the writer whose name it takes as title problematizes and undermines legal concepts of originality, authorship, ownership, and selfhood.
Intellectual property issues are rarely the focus of literary scholarship, but as David Bellos and Alexandre Montagu have recently argued, they are fundamental to any real understanding of how literature circulates globally.
(See also her piece on Borges and “Borges” at Nimrod.
And, sure New York Review Books is coming out (some day ...) with a(n abridged, sigh) translation of this, but, b(i)oy, would I love to get my hands on a copy of this:
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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1 March 2026
- Sunday
Profiles: Yuzuki Asako - Vincenzo Latronico
Profile: Yuzuki Asako
At The Guardian Lisa Allardice profiles the Butter-author, in Butter author Asako Yuzuki: ‘I’m very far from the ideal Japanese woman’.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Profile: Vincenzo Latronico
At The Times Hannah Swerling profiles the Perfection-author, in What’s the next millennial cliché ? Just ask Vincenzo Latronico
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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28 February 2026
- Saturday
New World Literature Today | Dan Simmons (1948-2026)
The Nigerian literary canon
New World Literature Today
The March/April issue of World Literature Today, featuring Catalina Infante Beovic is now available; lots to keep you busy with over the weekend -- including, of course, the extensive book review section.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Dan Simmons (1948-2026)
American author Dan Simmons has passed away; see, for example, the Locus obituary.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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The Nigerian literary canon
In The Sun Damiete Braide considers Reimagining the Nigerian literary canon: Power, memory, and struggle for inclusion.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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27 February 2026
- Friday
Nordic Council Literature Prize finalists
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Alfred-Kerr-Preis
Nordic Council Literature Prize finalists
The Nordic Council has announced the finalists for its Literature Prize, the leading Scandinavian book prize; see also the previous winners under review at the complete review. .
Among the authors with nominated books are Jón Kalman Stefánsson and Pirkko Saisio.
The winner will be announced 20 October.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Victorian Premier's Literary Awards
They've announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the winners of this year's Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, "Australia's richest state-based literary prize", with The Rot by Evelyn Araluen winning the A$100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature, as well as the Prize for Indigenous Writing.
Fierceland, by Omar Musa, won the Fiction prize.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Alfred-Kerr-Preis
Börsenblatt has announced the winner of this year's Alfred Kerr Prize for Literary Criticism, and it is Dietmar Dath.
He's probably better-known for his fiction, but is certainly an aways interesting author; I still hope to get my hands on his most recent novel, Skyrmions oder: A Fucking Army; see also the Matthes & Seitz Berlin foreign rights page.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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26 February 2026
- Thursday
Preise der Leipziger Buchmesse | Neil Griffiths Q & A
AI books in ... South Korea
Preise der Leipziger Buchmesse
They've announced the finalists for this year's Leipzig Book Fair Prize in its three categories (fiction, non, translation) -- five titles each, selected from a total of 485 submissions.
Noteworthy: none of the five finalists in the translation category are translations of a work originally written in English -- very unusual for a European translation-prize.
The winners will be announced 19 March.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Neil Griffiths Q & A
At The Observer Anthony Cummins has a Q & A with 'The writer and publisher on the prize he created to champion risk-taking independent imprints, and why we should be paying more for books', in Neil Griffiths: ‘Mainstream presses are not taking risks’.
Griffiths: "launched the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses, now rebranded as the Queen Mary small press fiction prize"
He suggests:
At least six books on this year’s longlist would never find a mainstream publisher.
It isn’t just on-trend modernist stuff or regional literature in translation.
Mainstream presses are often not taking risks on things that hitherto weren’t risky: quiet midlist writing that would once have been part of their publishing schedule but didn’t sell huge amounts.
Also: "And finally, customers must pay £14.99 for a paperback. Not £12.99" .....
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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AI books in ... South Korea
In The Korea Times Kim Se-jeong reports on 1 year, 1 publisher, 9,000 books: AI-generated titles flood Korean shelves.
Among the observations:
In brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries, readers are running into titles that feature tables of contents that look plausible at first glance, but open to pages with unnatural phrasing and uncanny images that bear little relation to the text.
I have to say: surely that's on the bookstore owners and librarians, who surely have to do a better at gatekeeping.
Regardless, this is obviously going to be a significant issue in all aspects of the industry moving forward.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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25 February 2026
- Wednesday
International Booker Prize longlist
Shortlists: Lionel Gelber Prize - Republic of Consciousness Prize - US/Canada
Tarantula review
International Booker Prize longlist
They've announced the longlist for this year's International Booker Prize -- thirteen titles selected from 128 books submitted:
- The Deserters by Mathias Énard (tr. Charlotte Mandell)
- The Director by Daniel Kehlmann (tr. Ross Benjamin)
- The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre (tr. Antonella Lettieri)
- The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar (tr. Ruth Martin)
- On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia (tr. Padma Viswanathan)
- The Remembered Soldier, by Anjet Daanje (tr. David McKay)
- She Who Remains by Rene Karabash (tr. Izidora Angel)
- Small Comfort by Ia Genberg (tr. Kira Josefsson)
- Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ (tr. Lin King)
- The Wax Child by Olga Ravn (tr. Martin Aitken)
- We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (tr. Robin Myers)
- The Witch by Marie NDiaye (tr. Jordan Stump)
- Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur (tr. Faridoun Farrokh)
I'm pleased to see the inclusion of Women Without Men -- though somewhat surprised by it, as Feminist Press appears to have brought this translation out (presumably only in the US) in 2012 (copyright date 2011).
(A previous translation -- the one I reviewed --, by Kamran Talattof and Jocelyn Sharlet, came out from Syracuse University Press in 1998, and was re-issued by Feminist Press in 2004.)
Other than those I've reviewed, I haven't seen any of these titles.
The shortlist will be announced 31 March, and the winner on 19 May.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Shortlist: Lionel Gelber Prize
They've announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the shortlist for this year's Lionel Gelber Prize, honoring: "the world's best book on international affairs published in English"
The winner will be announced on 30 March.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Shortlist: Republic of Consciousness Prize - US/Canada
The Republic of Consciousness Prize - US/Canada -- which surely can now just call itself the 'Republic of Consciousness Prize', since the original UK/Ireland one has re-branded itself as the Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize -- has announced its shortlist.
Five titles -- including The Remembered Soldier, by Anjet Daanje.
I actually have two more of these titles .....
The winner will be announced 10 March.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Tarantula review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Eduardo Halfon's Tarantula -- coming out in English in the UK at the beginning of next month and in the US in May.
This got a lot of very positive attention in the Spanish-reading world and France; I'm curious how it will fare in English.
(Not a great deal of buzz around it yet (though there has been an early TLS review (paywalled) by Damon Galgut) -- and, for example, it didn't make the just-announced longlist for this year's International Booker Prize -- so we'll see .....)
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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24 February 2026
- Tuesday
বাংলা একাডেমি সাহিত্য পুরস্কার
বাংলা একাডেমি সাহিত্য পুরস্কার
The Bangla Academy has announced the winners of its annual Literary Awards; see also The Daily Star's report.
Nasima Anis won the fiction category.
Newly elected Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will hand over the awards 26 February.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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23 February 2026
- Monday
Teen reading in ... the UK | The 2025 book market in ... Russia
Shafi Shauq Q & A | A Parish Chronicle review
Teen reading in ... the UK
The (British) National Literacy Trust has released a report on Teenage reading: (Re)framing the challenge (warning ! dreaded pdf format !); see also their summary-overview.
Unsurprisingly, lots of ... not so great findings, including: "Daily reading becomes uncommon by mid-adolescence. In 2025, 31.1% of children aged 8 to 11 read daily, compared with 17.1% of those aged 11 to 14 and 14.0% of those aged 14 to 16" and: "Between 2005 and 2025, reading enjoyment fell by around 21 percentage points among children aged 8 to 11 and by nearly 15 points among those aged 11 to 14"
Sigh.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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The 2025 book market in ... Russia
At Realnoe Vremya Yekaterina Petrova reports about The book market in 2025: rising prices, marketplace expansion, and weak appeal to job seekers.
Unit sales were down slightly for physical copies -- 231 million books, down from 233 in 2024 -- but up significantly for e-versions: "222 million digital book copies were sold in 2025, compared to 153 million in 2024".
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Shafi Shauq Q & A
At Frontline Majid Maqbool has a Q & A with Shafi Shauq about Kashmiri literature and language.
Among his comments: "The most challenging task in translating Kashmiri literature is placing it in its proper context, with close attention to cultural content".
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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A Parish Chronicle review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness' 1970 novel, A Parish Chronicle, now out in English (in the US), from Archipelago (the UK edition is coming out in July).
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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22 February 2026
- Sunday
The books of my life: Georgi Gospodinov
Kafka in China | Publishing in Japan
The books of my life: Georgi Gospodinov
This week's 'The books of my life'-column at The Guardian features The Physics of Sorrow-author Georgi Gospodinov.
Among his responses:
The author that changed me as a teenager
All novels that contained erotic scenes -- because of the acute shortage of eroticism in the late socialist Bulgaria of the 1980s.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Kafka in China
At Engelsberg Ideas Jeffrey Wasserstrom writes about how: 'The journey of Franz Kafka's works from Europe to Mao-era China shaped generations of writers', in Kafka goes to China.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Publishing in Japan
At Publishers Weekly they have a 'publishing in Japan feature' -- ten pieces, including An Introduction to Japan's Publishing Scene by Ed Nawotka, a Q & A with Murakami Haruki, and Kaja Murawska reporting how Bestselling Women Writers in Japan Defy Cliché.
Among the quotes from Breasts and Eggs-author Kawakami Mieko:
Editors gambling on another dozen feminine and quirky titles will lead to disaster.
For Japanese literature to continue to attract readers beyond this current boom, the editors have to look beyond the tyranny of cute and cozy
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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21 February 2026
- Saturday
Sankar (1933-2026) | Romania Guest of Honour at 2028 FBF
Behind the scenes at the LARB | Hunger review
Sankar (1933-2026)
Indian author Sankar (Mani Sankar Mukherjee) has passed away; see, for example, an obituary in The Telegraph and a longer excerpt from his 'writer's memoir', Dear Reader (HarperCollins India).
The only one of his books under review at the complete review is Chowringhee, though I'd love to see more .....
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Romania Guest of Honour at 2028 FBF
The Frankfurt Book Fair has announced that Romania will be the 'Guest of Honour' at the 2028 fair.
This year the guest of honour will be the Czech Republic, and in 2027 it will be Chile.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Behind the scenes at the LARB
I occasionally link to articles and reviews of interest at the Los Angeles Review of Books, and No Bad Days now offers a peek behind the scenes there, where apparently things are rather messy -- as the title of the piece, How the LA Review of Books destroyed itself, suggests .....
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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Hunger review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Choi Jin-young's 2015 novella, Hunger.
This came out in the UK last summer, to what seems like very little review-attention; the US edition is coming out in May, and I am curious to see how it takes.
(Posted by:
M.A.Orthofer)
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