The winners of the European Union Prize for Literature were announced today at the Frankfurt Book Fair meant to recognize “the best new and emerging authors in Europe.” Of the writers from Central and Eastern (really, Southern) Europe it’s a mix between those I’ve heard of and haven’t and those who’ve had something translated into […]
This evening in London, Brazilian author of the novel Nowhere People, Paulo Scott, will be appearing at the London Review Bookshop. Published by And Other Stories, the book was translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn and is described on the event host’s site as presenting “the stark contrast between the world of the rich, […]
In celebration of the 113th birthday of the Nobel Prize–winning Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert there will be an evening devoted to his work in Malkovich Bar in the poet’s old neighborhood of Žižkov. Great poet, great bar – should be good (though if you don’t understand Czech the bar part will be more important as […]
The Paris Review has an article on great Polish science-fiction writer Stanisław Lem’s view of the future (and, of course, present) of humanity entitled “The Future According to Stanisław Lem”. The occasion is the screen adaptation of Lem’s 1971 novella The Futurological Congress, translated into English by Michael Kandel, into a film called The Congress […]
This week’s Saturday European Fiction is a short story by the author of Coming from an Off-Key Time and Miruna, a Tale, to mention just his books translated into English – “Greetings From Prague” by Bogdan Suceavă and translated from the Romanian by Alistair Ian Blyth (as were the two abovementioned novels). Tycho Brahe, Kepler, […]
At the outset I have to admit that I really don’t understand this. The Read Russia Prize, at least on their website, is stated to be for “English translations of Russian literature” and to be given in New York each May. So naturally last weekend in Moscow they announced the winners of the prize, the […]
Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading this week is a story by the great Russian writer Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky entitled “The Unbitten Elbow”. Translated by Joanne Turnbull, who also provides a brief introduction, the story comes at the recommendation of The PEN Literary Awards. Not much more needs to be said about it than what Turnbull says in […]
Throughout August, Literalab asked writers, translators and publishers to comment on both the women writers from their own language they most appreciate having been translated into English as well as those they would most like to see make the leap. Ágnes Orzóy is the editor of Hungarian Literature Online and editor-at-large at Asymptote. She has […]
“The effort of saying more than two sentences seemed to exhaust him. I was tempted to conclude he was one of those people who don’t have the vocabulary to talk about their emotions, the kind of person who doesn’t know how to express, let alone discuss his feelings with a stranger.” From an excerpt from […]
Throughout August, Literalab will be asking writers, translators and publishers to comment on both the women writers from their own language they most appreciate having been translated into English as well as those they would most like to see make the leap. Susan Curtis is the founder of Istros Books, a novelist, and sometime […]
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