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 […]
With the anniversary of the events of 1989 upon us there will be a series of events revolving around contemporary Slovak writing taking place in the UK. Presented under the banner ‘Raising the Velvet Curtain:A journey through contemporary SLOVAK arts’ a series of writers and publications will be presented by translator Julia Sherwood as well […]
“The writer bought a literary magazine, leafed through it, and was gratified: he hadn’t submitted anything and none of his work had been published. A few weeks later the annual nominations for the national literary prize were announced: to his relief, he wasn’t nominated…” So begins Balla’s short story “Paper Planes“, translated from the Slovak […]
World Literature Today has issued its list of the 75 notable translations of the year and it includes three books that were excerpted in B O D Y as well as numerous writers, translators and publishers whose work has previously appeared in the magazine’s pages. An excerpt of Balla’s In the Name of the Father […]
Way back in 2013 when the world wasn’t utterly collapsing I had the foresight to publish an excerpt from Balla’s novella In the Name Of the Father, translated from the Slovak by Julia and Peter Sherwood. Now the book has been published by Jantar Publishing and translator Charles Sabatos has written about it in the […]
Two Slovak writers whose work is just coming out in English translation will be appearing this Wednesday, May 17 at Waterstones Piccadilly in London. Balla and Ivana Dobrakovová, together with translator Julia Sherwood will participate in conversation with Rosie Goldsmith. Dobrakovová and Balla’s work are both included in the excellent Slovak fiction anthology Into the […]
In the last four years B O D Y has published a lucky 13 pieces of Slovak fiction, soon to go up to 14. With short stories and novel excerpts – some now published, others still awaiting publishers for their English translations – we have presented some of the best contemporary Slovak writers, including Pavel […]
The shortlist for the Rossica Translation Prize 2014 has been announced for the best translation from Russian and it’s a pitched battle between five books. Interestingly, only one of the books’ authors is still alive, as one was quite famously killed in a duel (and that in 1837, so he wouldn’t be showing up at […]
Natasha Perova, editor of Glas New Russian Writing, has a very interesting piece in PEN America on the Russian literary scene in which she discusses the young generation of writers (some of which Glas publishes due to their association with the Debut Prize) and what differentiates them from the writers of the Russian and Soviet […]
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 […]
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