On Oct 13 from 2-3:30 pm (EST) there will be a reading and event devoted to Libuše Moníková’s novel Transfigured Night, a novel by the émigré Czech writer recently published by Karolinum Press. Whereas Kundera’s transition from Czech to French in his emigration has been much discussed and documented, the much lesser-known Moníková’s writing in […]
The 5th PesText literary festival is underway in Budapest. It boasts a lineup of European writers including Mathias Énard, Janne Teller and many others. On Thursday Sept. 28 at 5pm, myself and a few other editors from B O D Y will discuss the magazine, among other scintillating topics, with moderator Sándor Jászberényi. If you’re […]
The 14th Prague Microfestival takes place next weekend. Billed as a festival of ‘International Writing, Art, Film, Theory and Performance’ it will take place at Punctum, Krásova 27 in Žižkov. Among the writers and performers I will be reading on Saturday, October 15 at 6:30 pm, together with a number of other writers. You can […]
On May 4, Duncan Robertson will be appearing at Shakespeare and Sons bookstore and cafe to read from his newly published novel Visegrad. I will be hosting the event – in the sense that I’ll introduce and do a Q&A with Duncan, not that I live in a bookstore. Visegrad is the picaresque journey of […]
Short notice on this one but at 6pm CET (12 noon EST) the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation series Writers and Influences continues with Irish writer Colum McCann discussing John Berger. The event is free online, you just need to register. The ongoing series continues next week on June 21 with Jeffrey Eugenides on Alice Munro, Henry […]
Have you ever met a wolf? Not alive. Dead? Dead, yes. Does that mean a stuffed wolf? One stuffed, one run over, one killed. So begins the first part of a fantastic interview with László Krasznahorkai in Hungarian Literature Online in which he talks about everything from the disappearance of high culture, historical shifts and […]
On May 27, an online book launch will be held from the Hungarian Cultural Centres London and New York for the English translation of The Parasite by Hungarian writer Ferenc Barnás. The event will consist of a discussion between the author and the book’s translator Paul Olchváry, moderated by journalist, author and literary critic Nicholas […]
There is an excellent essay entitled “The Forgotten Genius of Leo Perutz” in the LARB by Daniel Polansky on the Prague-born Austrian writer Leo Perutz. He gives a survey of Perutz’s novels and unique sensibility and mix of genres with complicated exploration of issues of identity and nationalism among many other subjects. Add to this […]
For the occassion of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Istros Books is publishing Ludovic Bruckstein’s collection With an Unopened Umbrella in the Pouring Rain, translated from the Romanian by Alistair Ian Blyth. Bookanista has an excerpt from the novel here as well as a review of a pair of novellas published by Istros as The Trap. There […]
Milan Kundera, together with his wife Věra, have donated the author’s library and archive to the Moravian Library in Brno, Czech Republic. The library has announced that the transfer of books and other materials from the Kundera’s Paris apartment will take place later this fall. Besides numerous international editions of the author’s books, his articles […]
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