Ron chats with National Book Award nominees Joan Silber and Lily Tuck. [Lily Tuck] pointed out the industry’s confused (or even “double-faced”) posturing over the awards. “Last year, when the National Book Foundation nominated Stephen King for a lifetime achievement award,” she recalled, “there was a huge hue and cry about how he was a [...]
The murder of Theo van Gogh has sparked some legitimate concerns among artists who are critical of Islam but the Reuters report is brief and rather superficial. Irshad Manji is quoted as saying that she doesn’t “share her schedule,” and the obligatory reference to Salman Rushdie is made, but there is little in the way [...]
Quite the day for prizes, it seems. Angolan writer Maria de Fatima Cho do Guri has won the Marques de Vale Flor Institute prize for her novel, Chiquito da Camuchiba. I know it sounds bizarre but news like this sort of stresses me out because it makes me realize how much world literature is out [...]
Nextbook has an interview up with Roya Hakakian, whom I’m sort of surprised not to have heard about before. She is the author of a memoir, Journey From The Land of No, about her experiences coming of age during the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran. Even though Hakakian was born of Jewish parents, she [...]
