Bad news, optimistic readers: if a book can change your life positively, it follows that it can have the opposite effect as well (well, maybe, at least).
Neither French politicians nor French writers have ever been lauded for their discretion in the face of sex—but call it an apparition: booksellers in France are boycotting the latest juicy tell-all memoir (titled Thank you for this Moment perhaps too preemptively) by Valérie Trierweiler, spurned ex-partner of openly philandering president François Hollande. Seems as though a big issue isn’t the scandal, but the lowbrow scumminess of the whole affair—wonder what the Frankfurt School, including those German ur-critics of popular culture, Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, would have to say about it.
Prize time. The Rona Jaffe Awards, honoring emerging female writers, has announced its six winners, who will all receive a $30,000 grant. We don’t often see writers refusing awards—and a translator refusing an award is practically unheard of! But the Dutch translator Hans Bolland bluntly refused the Russian Pushkin Medal for translation, citing his issues with the Russian government. And the country’s largest literary award, the German Book Prize, has announced its six-title shortlist (amid some grumbling). The Booker Prize has announced its shortlist, and—surprise, surprise—there are indeed some Americans to be found in the assembly (the Prize had excluded Anglophone works from the United States until last year, only taking the Commonwealth into account). Speaking of the Booker Prize, recent winner from New Zealand Eleanor Catton is instituting a grant for emerging authors, bestowing financial support not to write—but to read (I want it!).
Perhaps our translation is a little one-sided here at Asymptote, since we have the luxury of reading our laptops wherever we please. But what if we’re listening to poetry, or watching it being performed? American Sign Language storytellers confront the conundrum of “rhyming,” visually—in fascinating ways. And we frequently post about the poetics of protest, so we can’t help but feel a bit surprised by Juan Vidal’s piece begging for more revolutionary poetics.