“Look at this be-me-ne,” he’d say unfurling a hand-woven striped headscarf, “The El-Dzhamans of Baghdad wore them on their heads. The old El-Dzhaman — by the way, he let me have it for a sky-high price — told me that it once belonged to Queen Be-me-ne from the clan of El-Dzhamans. She strangled her husband […]
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Readux – Books from Berlin
If you’ve been reading the Readux website, where I’ve written some book reviews and essays over the past couple years, you already know it as being in touch with the German book scene. With the launch of Readux Books it has become part of that scene, publishing four short literary works three times a year. […]
B O D Y 1st Birthday Bash
Prague-based literary journal B O D Y is celebrating a year of publication this coming Thursday, July 11th at Prague’s Anglo American University Library, so anyone in the vicinity is invited to attend a reading that includes Joshua Weiner (USA), Yang Lian (CHINA), Yo Yo (CHINA), Natashia Deón (USA), and Milan Děžinský (ČR) along with […]
Damaged by reading: an interview with Balla
An excerpt from Balla’s novella In the Name of the Father was this week’s Sunday European Fiction at B O D Y and here is an interview conducted by Jitka Rožňová with the writer for the forthcoming issue of Slovakia’s Knižná revue (The Book Review): To receive so many awards for a single book (In the […]
Balla in B O D Y
“Of all the people I knew in those days he was the only one who could switch off, sit down and just stay seated, puffing away without – I’m quite sure – a thought in his head. He would just sit there, immersed in emptiness. Not that he had a clue about Buddhism.” From an […]
Literary roundup: Pushkin and Russian bombs
“Russia’s regular historical paradox is that its rulers want one thing but the result is often something entirely different. Peter the Great wanted to strengthen the empire, but instead he placed a bomb beneath it, which destroyed it. In our time, Gorbachev wanted to save communism and instead he buried it.” Author of Maidenhair, Mikhail […]
Literary roundup: Seeing the Gorgon’s head and a judgment on Delchev
In Granta’s ongoing Best Untranslated Writers series author of the fantastic East of the West (reviewed on Literalab here) Miroslav Penkov chooses to feature “The Brave Words of Petar Delchev.” Delchev has been a sailor in the Black Sea and more recently been “restoring ruined village houses” and “managing a tailoring factory” all the while […]
Book World Prague 2013 report in Publishing Perspectives
Here’s what I wrote about the Prague book fair for Publishing Perspectives, covering the significance of Slovakia as the Guest of Honor, poetry being a focus of the fair and various ups and downs facing the Czech book industry, such as the insanely high VAT tax on books and the impending arrival of Amazon. On […]
“All of That” on film: an interview with director Branislav Milatovic
The short story “All of That” by Ognjen Spahić was featured in B O D Y’s Sunday European Fiction’s on June 30. It was also the basis for a short film by Montenegrin director Branislav Milatović that has appeared in film festivals throughout Europe, recently winning the Gjorgi Abadziev Award at Macedonia’s Asterfest international short […]
Ognjen Spahic in B O D Y
“He’ll carry the wreath, and Maria and Anna will walk after him. He said it as if he didn’t have any idea what he was supposed to do. Like he’s going to carry the wreath on his back and walk around the house. Cruel. It seems cruel to bother children with that kind of stupidity; […]
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