News
Another day, another case of foolish racial profiling. This time, it’s John Sinno, the director of Seattle’s Arab and Iranian Film Festival, who was stopped and questioned for nine hours in Vancouver because he had a box of DVDs in the trunk of his car.
“I felt like I was in a military zone,” Sinno says. “They followed me to the bathroom and stood right behind me when I was at the urinal. It was unbelievably harsh for having a small box of DVDs.” That the box included titles such as Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm was the least of his problems, says Sinno, who was travelling with a white American colleague. The colleague was waved on his way, while Sinno was held for nine hours. “They asked me where I got the DVDs from, and when I told them they didn’t believe me,” he says. “It was pretty scary. I said to them, look, I’m being racially profiled. Let’s admit it and move on.” He hesitates. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to talk about it. We live in touchy times.”
More at the Guardian.
The shortlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award has been announced, the Guardian reports. The selected books are:
Graceland by Chris Abani
Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam
Havoc, In Its Third Year by Ronan Bennett
The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe
An Altered Light by Jens Christian Grondahl – translated from the Danish by Anne Born
The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra – translated from the French by John Cullen
Breaking the Tongue by Vyvyane Loh
Don’t Move by Margaret Mazzantini – translated from the Italian by John Cullen
The Master by Colm Toibin
The Logogryph by Thomas Wharton
You can view the longlist here. Last year’s winning book was The Known World by Edward P. Jones. In 2004, it was This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun.
Dan Wickett continues his litblogger e-panel series with interviews with SD Byrd, Becky Bame, Jeff Bryant, Steven J. McDermott, Clifford Garstang, Katrina Denza, Kristin, Anne Fernald, and Patrick Rapa.
The latest issue of Granta is available, and the theme is “God’s Own Countries.” Contributors include Pankaj Mishra, Nadeem Aslam, Nell Freudenberger, A.L. Kennedy, and others. None of the texts are available online, unfortunately. Granta is one of my favorite magazines. Check it out.
Link via the indispensable Maud.
The Spanish-language edition of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits was released earlier this week in Spain by Ediciones Maeva, under the title Esperanza y Otros Sueños.
In other news, the Brazilian Portuguese language rights were sold just before the London Book Fair to Editora Rocco. More news as it happens.