Happy Friday, joyous Asymptote-rs! You’ve probably already heard of some of this year’s MacArthur Fellows (or “geniuses,” as we like to call them)—like the Atlantic‘s Ta-Nehisi Coates (most recently the author of Between the World and Me), or 10:04’s Ben Lerner (will he write his next book about the award?)—but the full list, which includes classicists, poets, chemists, and puppetry artists, is certainly worth a look.
Also, September 30—this past Wednesday—marked the best holiday of the year: International Translation Day. We’d like to think we celebrate translation every day here at Asymptote, but perhaps you’d like to celebrate translation with some thoughts of Swiss master Robert Walser on French poet Paul Verlaine (thoughts via the Paris Review Daily and Damion Searls, translator extraordinaire and past blog contributor). Or you might be interested in this extensive and helpful roundup of South African writers in translation—there’s no better way to celebrate than reading.
In light of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair (which starts in less than a month—eek!) featuring Indonesian literature, here’s a primer to the nation’s literary scene—one that’s all-too-overlooked internationally, it seems. (Translation to the rescue!). And in a similar vein, here’s an article about the plight/project of raising the profile of Korean literature abroad.
This week also marked the passing of American literary advocate, scholar, and translator (of such widely-read tomes as Beowulf and Don Quixote, no less) Burton Raffel. Speaking of scholarship and critique: these highbrow endeavors are all-too-often reduced to blips, or more accurately: blurbs. Via NPR this week: what’s up with blurbing, and why does is matter? And what about those endless rabbit-holes (it’s more than David Foster Wallace): thanks to the New Republic, here’s a detailed story of the rise of literary annotation.
Finally, just to pique your interest and your literary ears: it’s likely the whopping-big Nobel Prize will be announced next week Thursday (it’s always announced a Thursday in October, and next Thursday fits the bill). Accepting guesses and bets in the comments section. Ladbrokes betting is a more serious alternative, as usual.