American literary magazines and blogs have been awash with all the autumn releases – the so-called heavyweights (yawn) and many others of varying merit and interest. For a little perspective it’s interesting to look at Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza’s 20 most interesting fall books, as noted on Slovakia’s Project Forum Salon. Because the list is […]
When the first Annual Conference of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) took place 35 years ago I didn’t really mind that I couldn’t go. I was nine, and barely read English-language writers, even those who filled speech bubbles in comic books. I was interested in other things. Times have changed. Today I would give […]
“It was as if there was a roulette wheel turning, not with numbers, but with destinations that had evocative names: Sofia, Odessa, Bangkok, Istanbul. He had been watching the wheel spin, waiting to see where the ball would finally land. He would be happy to go to any of these faraway places and so assumed […]
Prague German Writers – Gustav Meyrink He was twenty-three years old and living alone in Prague. A wounded heart caused him to look at his life up to that point as shallow and empty. Gustav Meyrink had just put a farewell letter to his mother in an envelope and reached for his revolver, when he […]
The US consulate in Poland has opened a photography exhibition in the central Polish city of Kielce titled “American Milosz.” The show consists of photographs of the poet Czesław Miłosz while he was living in the US taken by his brother Andrzej Miłosz in Berkeley in the 70s as well as by a Chicago-based Polish […]
There is something as poetic as it is sad that one of the great Russian-Jewish writers of the latter half of the 20th century worked as a pathologist (worked, that is, until the powers that be demoted and eventually fired him). The New Yorker has a very short story by the magnificent author of Summer […]
Pole Position is a series of Polish book events kicking off this week in the UK and running through November. It’s a great lineup, opening on September 19 in London with author of Ryszard Kapuściński: A Life, Artur Domosławski speaking with Neal Ascherson about the legendary Polish journalist. In early October Paweł Huelle will present […]
Prague German Writers – Exhibition An article on the exhibition “The Cabinet of Prague German Writers” at Prague Literary House (Prager Literatur Haus) devoted to the Czech capital’s rich and widely unknown German-language literary milieu. Read the full article at Readux More on Prague’s German-language writers upcoming on literalab and elsewhere, including reviews of recently […]
Why, oh why, do filmmakers keep trying to adapt the work of Kafka? Do they see the pitiful results and want to strike back in the writer’s honor, to make a film worthy of one of literature’s great masters? I don’t think so. So why spend the time and money in such a futile pursuit? […]
The 5th International Bruno Schulz Festival kicks off this week in his hometown of Drohobych, Ukraine (formerly Drohobycz, Poland). Called “The Ark of Bruno Schulz’s Imagination” the festival also has some sideline events in the regional capital of Lviv, including an exhibition of his paintings and graphic works opening September 4. Schulz first exhibited in […]
literalab 