Miroslav Penkov, author of East of the West:A Country in Stories, has a post on the official blog of The Story Prize about how when he first arrived in the US, in spite of telling friends he would wait to write in English until he felt comfortable with the language, he began submitting stories written […]
From October 19 to 21 neighbor of my former graduate school Claremont McKenna University is hosting a cenntenial festival devoted to Czesław Miłosz with a interesting program and varied array of guests. Absolute tops in terms of title is Polish intellectual, historian and journalist Adam Michnik’s talk – Miłosz: Man Among Scorpions, which seems to […]
When I hear of looted cultural artifacts I think of the image of train cars stuffed with Old Master paintings and objets d’art steaming back in the opposite direction of equally packed troop trains. Then come accusations and bitter quarrels, pleas of national patrimony and then lawsuits and more lawsuits. In fact many of the […]
The 14 semi-finalists for the Angelus Central European Literature Award have been announced, including works by writers such as Andrzej Stasiuk, Jenny Erpenbeck and Ismail Kadare. The award is for a Central European novel published in Poland and will be presented to the chosen winner at a mysterious future date in the Polish city of […]
The difficulties of getting writing translated into foreign languages is often taken as a particularly current subject, as if the glut and popularity of English-language bestsellers, the Internet and modern publishing are obviously to blame. But the case of Miklós Zrínyi would make even the most happily obscure contemporary poet shudder. He published his Hungarian […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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