Another Day…
Another article on Iranian writers–this one focusing on women authors, who have been dominating best-sellers lists in the Islamic Republic of late.
Link via Maud.
Another article on Iranian writers–this one focusing on women authors, who have been dominating best-sellers lists in the Islamic Republic of late.
Link via Maud.
While attending a book fair in Costa Rica, Jose Saramago condemned the U.S. embargo on Cuba. No surprise there.
Over at the Guardian, International Man Booker judge John Carey denounces the virtual conspiracy that keeps world literature out of the hands of British readers.
Dr Carey said foreign literature was “neglected” in the UK, and to an outsider the British publishing industry could “seem like a conspiracy intent on depriving … readers of the majority of the good books written in languages other than their own”.
If such laxity had applied 50 or 60 years ago, “that would have meant, for the English reader, no Kafka, no Camus, no Calvino, no Borges,” he said.
As bad as things sound from this excerpt, they’re even worse here in the U.S.
Over at Rockslinga, Randa reports on a recent reading by Naomi Shihab Nye in Austin.
After she read novel excerpts, Naomi read some of her poetry, including “Red Brocade,” which begins: “The Arabs used to say/When a stranger appears at your door,/feed him for three days/before asking who he is,/where he’s come from,/where he’s headed./That way, he’ll have strength enough/to answer./Or, by then you’ll be such good friends/you don’t care.”
Of course, I got all teary.
Read more Rockslinga here.