The European Culture Congress wraps up on September 14 in Wrocław, Poland. Among the literary participants were Dubravka Ugresic, Dorota Masłowska and science-fiction writer Jacek Dukaj. Umberto Eco, Václav Havel, and Amos Oz were all members of the Honorary Committee. Masłowska was involved in a collaboration with Polish theater director Krystian Lupa titled “Waiting Room. […]
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19th international theater festival
A Hungarian production of Vladimir Sorokin’s Ice, Romeo and Juliet in the housing projects and Orestes in the modern age are just some of what is on offer at the 19th International Festival Theatre in Plzeň. For an article on the festival continue reading … Photo from a production of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” by Kladno’s […]
Spotlight on Vasily Grossman
Russian novelist and celebrated war correspondent Vasily Grossman is the focus of a conference at Oxford as well as a radio dramatization of his epic novel Life and Fate on BBC Radio 4. The conference is taking place on September 9 (which is today, so hurry) and includes discussions of Grossman’s work and life, its […]
International Literature Festival Berlin
The 11th International Literature Festival Berlin (internationales literaturfestival berlin) is in full swing with its typically amazing lineup of writers and events. The focus this year is Asia/Pacific and with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 coming in the middle of the festival there is bound to be a lot of discussion surrounding the myriad of […]
Notes from the Berlin Underground
Danielle de Picciotto’s Berlin memoir begins with her arrival in the divided city in 1987, though its story follows threads back into her and her family’s past as well as the dark, glittering history of the German metropolis itself. Artist, musician, filmmaker, curator, co-founder of the Love Parade and more, she brings a wealth of […]
A season of Stanisław Lem
On September 9, the British Library will host an evening devoted to the great Polish science-fiction writer Stanisław Lem. Discussions of Lem’s work and film screenings will take place in conjunction with the publication launch of Lemistry: A Celebration of Stanisław Lem, an anthology featuring three previously untranslated stories as well as commissioned works by […]
Eastern disillusionment meets western incomprehension
On Dorota Masłowska’s play – “A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians” It is hard to be subversive in the 21st century. Writers and artists of all kinds have been aiming in that particular direction for so long now that it seems almost old-fashioned. And if you’re from what is commonly referred to as Eastern Europe, […]
Counterfeits and stolen literary goods – new writing in translation
There must be something in the air. The Center for the Art of Translation’s Two Lines just came out with its annual anthology, titled “Counterfeits,” including a special section edited by Luc Sante focusing on noir literature. Then, Words Without Borders’ September 2011 issue came out with an issue devoted to an elevated form of […]
Yiddish Warsaw of I.B. Singer
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 […]
The Persian possessed
In Reading literary nihilists in Tehran I speculated that having an officially-sanctioned, award-winning, condemnatory literary critical book on absurdist, nihilist fiction might find its largest audience among the country’s future nihilists. Seeing some of the surprising titles that are being translated in Iran these days makes it look like these 21st century apostles of nothingness […]
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