A festival devoted to Warsaw’s pre-war Yiddish culture is taking place now in the Polish capital. The 8th annual Singer’s Warsaw festival of Jewish Culture (Warszawa Singera) runs from August 27 to September 4 and includes literature, music, theater, art, lectures and an assortment of participants aiming to evoke the atmosphere of Warsaw’s massive pre-war […]
One might be tempted to think that literature commonly characterized as absurdist or nihilist would not get much official attention in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Still less would anyone think that it could serve as a springboard to reaching the rarefied heights of literary prizes. Yet, as absurd and potentially nihilistic as it sounds, […]
In a bid to obtain the status of a “UNESCO Creative City of Literature,” Prague’s Municipal Library has put a literary map of the city online that locates both Czech and international writers in various parts of the city. At the moment the map is only in Czech (which I would think might hinder their […]
Is the poet who engaged in grimace contests being fixed into the useful image of a European literary saint? The centenary of Czesław Miłosz falls on June 30 of this year amidst a more than yearlong array of festivals, readings, official declarations and celebrations stretching from the poet’s birthplace in Lithuania to Poland and the […]
Michael Scammell came to the Prague book fair with two seemingly related tasks – to speak about his biography of Arthur Koestler, Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth Century Skeptic, and to participate in a panel on Index on Censorship, of which he was the founding editor. And while issues of censorship […]
Link: Saudis at Prague book fair: cultural legitimacy for sale On the controversy surrounding Saudi Arabia being the Guest of Honor at Book World Prague 2011 and the Saudi writers that weren’t there, as well as the idea that balancing the “Arab focus” of the event with a broad range of panels and writers was […]
Laurent Binet, author of HHhH, had a lot to say about the local setting of his succesful Goncourt-winning debut novel which recounts the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich carried out by two Czech paratroppers during WWII. About the documentary aspect of his novel and whether it will be an ongoing characteristic of his work, Binet replied […]
Book World Prague kicked off May 12 at the historic Industrial Palace, site of the Communist Party congress for 41 years during the regime of the same name. That the political landscape has changed considerably is evident even before stepping inside the building. With the opening ceremony approaching, the palace’s imposing art-nouveau façade was matched […]
Link: Pick Your Literary Poison An article published on Readux about Literature Night 2011 and the Night of Czech Detective Stories taking place in Bremen on May 11. (Photo by Drahomír Stulír of the Libeň Gasholder and Libeň Chateau, where some of the Prague readings will take place).
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 […]
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