Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that’s what makes it so boring. —Edward Gorey, who died on this day in 2000 (taken from Today in Literature)
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Magical elements: an interview with Uršula Kovalyk
One of the most striking stories in the Slovak fiction issue of Dalkey Archive Press 2010 Review of Contemporary Fiction was Uršula Kovalyk’s “Mrs. Agnes’s Bathroom,” a story of an ordinary old woman’s descent or release into an unreal tropical dream world that just happens to appear in her bathroom one night. A poet, fiction […]
The Balkanized readership of Ivo Andric
The Balkanized readership of Ivo Andric For readers of Ivo Andric who are not from the Balkans, the Nobel Prize winning writer seems far from controversial. If anything, the author of The Bridge on the Drina may seem a somewhat old-fashioned novelist, a good and colorful storyteller, ] – hardly someone who deserves an assessment […]
The 48th annual International Book Fair for Children
The 48th annual International Book Fair for Children wound up in Bologna a few days ago and some great Polish designers were among the award winners. Iwona Chmielewska won top prize in the non-fiction category for her illustrations for the Korean book Maum – House of the Spiritsby Heekyung Kim. Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielilinski, who […]
Oxford’s Bodleian Library and the Marbach Literary Archive in German
Oxford’s Bodleian Library and the Marbach Literary Archive in Germany have prevented a collection of letters and postcards written by Kafka from being auctioned off and will soon be put on public display, switching between the two prestigious institutions like a child shuttling back and forth between divorced parents. I attended a meeting of Prague’s […]
Bring on the Romanians
“The rest is vibration. The old man went on laughing and listening to the distinct vibrations of love at a distance in the outer quarters of Bucharest. The apparatus had been perfected at this point, and its accuracy had increased so greatly that all the old satyr had to do was close his eyes, and […]
A look at Absinthe: New European Writing’s Spotlight on Romania
“The rest is vibration. The old man went on laughing and listening to the distinct vibrations of love at a distance in the outer quarters of Bucharest. The apparatus had been perfected at this point, and its accuracy had increased so greatly that all the old satyr had to do was close his eyes, […]
The quiet, beauteous shadow
At the ongoing Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City – which includes Sam Lipsyte, Das Racist and John Waters among many others – Queens-based cooperative Lightful press will be introducing their latest book, Poems from Children’s Island by Sasha Chernyi (also transliterated as Sasha Chernyi and Chorny). The bilingual edition of this classic of Russian […]
Readux is a new Berlin-based literary website with a wide range of coverage
Readux is a new Berlin-based literary website with a wide range of coverage of German and French books and literary goings on. The site will feature reviews, interviews, articles, opinion and through April 3rd even has a book giveaway. Launched earlier in March the site already has a lot of interesting content, including a great […]
Estonian Literary Magazine
Link: Estonian Literary Magazine With articles on two different ways for writers to approach Estonian history comparing author of Purge, Sofi Oksanen and the less well-known poet and novelist Ene Mihkelson, as well as one on Russians in Estonian literature (ethnic Russians make up 25% of the population) there looks to be a lot on […]
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