I like writers’ festivals – not when the writers read their work, which is usually boring, or when the discussions are overly organized, in which case they can be dull too. The most interesting aspects of writers’ festivals are the moments that typically slip through the cracks, that you have to see in person to […]
A response to Tao Lin’s article in the New York Observer. Every so often the “Novel” is brought out on the stage of a newspaper, magazine or manifesto like a patient aboutto go under the knife in an operating theater. “Does the Novel Have a Future?” reads the headline of Taiwanese-American writer Tao Lin’s latest […]
For many authors the acronym MFA refers to the Master of Fine Arts programs in writing that are currently so popular in the US, and that some critics argue create a stifling uniformity among aspiring scribes. For Tomáš Kafka, MFA instead refers to his employer, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As the current Czech […]
The 20th century is often justifiably referred to as a bloodbath. The 21st century is bloody too, but might more accurately be described as a bubble bath. It was ushered in following the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and since then has experienced a housing bubble, a commodities bubble and almost every kind of financial, […]
Designing book jackets requires a certain amount of humility and acceptance that your work will be enjoyed without most people acknowledging the time and effort you put into it, or ever associating the book with your name. On the other hand who else is there who can boast of having collaborated with the likes of […]
Link: Prague Writers’ Festival about to get underway The 21st Prague Writers’ Festival boasts the presence of Don DeLillo, Derek Walcott, Junot Díaz and a host of Czech and international writers coming to take part in readings, discussions, book signings and more. DeLillo will be reading a text from Falling Man specially edited for the […]
Some literary stars, like the cautious Don DeLillo, had to be enticed to the festival, while Nobel laureate Derek Walcott volunteered himself The 21st Prague Writers’ Festival (PWF) — with a thematic title of Some Like it Hot — begins Saturday, April 16, with a program packed with literary encounters, including readings, discussions, book signings […]
Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that’s what makes it so boring. —Edward Gorey, who died on this day in 2000 (taken from Today in Literature)
One of the most striking stories in the Slovak fiction issue of Dalkey Archive Press 2010 Review of Contemporary Fiction was Uršula Kovalyk’s “Mrs. Agnes’s Bathroom,” a story of an ordinary old woman’s descent or release into an unreal tropical dream world that just happens to appear in her bathroom one night. A poet, fiction […]
The Balkanized readership of Ivo Andric For readers of Ivo Andric who are not from the Balkans, the Nobel Prize winning writer seems far from controversial. If anything, the author of The Bridge on the Drina may seem a somewhat old-fashioned novelist, a good and colorful storyteller, ] – hardly someone who deserves an assessment […]
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