Albanian writer Ismail Kadare has been announced as the winner of this year’s Jerusalem Prize, which he will be awarded at the Jerusalem International Book Fair on Feb. 8. The prize is given to writers dealing with the theme of human freedom in society and was inaguarated in 1963 with Bertrand Russell the first winner. Previous prize winners include Jorge Luis Borges, Graham Greene, Milan Kundera, Ernesto Sabato and Susan Sontag.
You can read more about it in an article in Haaretz.
Romanian Fiction
The latest issue of Words Without Borders is out and it has a mini-issue on Romanian fiction that includes three stories and an introduction by translator Jean Harris, in which she writes:
“Joking is endemic and marked by fantasy and black humor. In a country where it seems that anything can happen, magic realism thrives, and wordplay and joking are always at the service of lightening the mood.”
The stories are by Tatiana Niculescu Bran, Mircea Horia Simionescu and Răzvan Petrescu and are translated by Harris, Floran Bican and Sean Cotter respectively.
The major part of the issue is titled Alternate Pasts: International Uchronia, and looks pretty amazing as well, so get to it.
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