Category: literary life

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.

A French anti-government watchdog has attacked the top French literary prizes (Femina, Medicis, Goncourt, etc.) for being open to corruption.

France’s major literary awards such as the Prix Femina, the Prix Medicis and – most prestigious of all – the Prix Goncourt have long been accused of rigging their votes, taking it in turns to reward big publishers.

Of the four best-known names in French publishing, Gallimard has won the Goncourt 34 times, Grasset 16 times, Albin Michel 11 and Seuil five. Perhaps in response to mounting resentment, the prize went last year to a small and relatively recent house, Actes Sud.

The situation is unlikely to change soon–membership in juries doesn’t rotate often, if at all. It’d be interesting to see a similar survey conducted here.

The Guardian says that Hitler was the best-selling author of the last century. Mein Kampf was sold, never given away, and Germans were essentially “required” to own it.