Polish writer Andrzej Stasiuk has written a compelling article about the interlinked history of the Polish and Jewish people at the Central European Forum’s Salon site. It comes in response to the controversy arising out of the upcoming publication of the book Golden Harvest (Złote żniwa) by Jan Tomasz Gross and Irena-Grudzińska Gross, which was […]
Link: Prague and the Jerusalem International Book Festival This year’s Jerusalem Prize might have gone to Ian McEwan, but the week-long event has a number of connections to the Czech capital, whether it be the Prague-born writers attending or ties going further back into the city’s storied past.
Link: The shadows of Central Europe The Conspirators by Michael Andre Bernstein shows another side of the Central European literary heritage, that of the region as a setting and a subject, maybe even, with its cafe conspirators, religious fanatics and haunted self-made men, as a whole genre in itself.
Link: The Slovak fiction scene – Part II – Michal Hvorecký The second part of a review of the Slovak issue of the Dalkey Archive Press’ Review of Contemporary Fiction looking at an extract from Michal Hvorecký’s novel The Escort
“You’re asking whether there can be an innocent painting? What kind of a question is that? Innocent – how?” Hans glanced at the pictures around him. “A painting that would bear a direct relationship to reality, simply and openly, without any gimmicks, irony or hyperbole, or any other twisted perspectives,” Michal, the painter, developed his […]
What can you say about Slovak fiction and the need to collect the work of some of its contemporary practitioners without having recourse to the inane cliché that it’s a way of learning about another part of the world? Because while some of the stories in the Dalkey Archive Press’ Review of Contemporary Fiction issue […]
Evading intensifying KGB searches members of the Belarus Free Theatre managed to cross the Belarusian border and have arrived in New York to perform in the Under the Radar international alternative festival. “We’ve truly been under the radar, in hiding in a real detective story,” group co-founder Natalia Koliada told the New York Times in […]
The most recent literalab post recounted the arrest and detention of Belarus Free Theatre director Natalia Koliada and the fact that she and her husband, Nikolai Khalezhin, subsequently went into hiding. Although updates on their whereabouts have been virtually non-existent I will pass on any information I discover. In the meantime you can support their […]
The work of György Spiró and his relationship to Central Europe As the first part of this interview indicated, being a Hungarian who can speak Polish and other Slavic languages has been a tremendously important facet of György Spiró’s scope and identity as a writer. Besides the influences previously mentioned he also cited Serbian poet […]
Angelus-award winning Hungarian writer discusses his connection with Poland and the writing of unpleasant truths The Angelus Central European Literary Award is a literary prize awarded to the best regional prose work in Polish, so it would be logical to assume that the Central European part of the name designates the qualifying countries and nothing […]
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