This week our editors bring you the latest news from Sweden, where a new edition of Nobel Prize-winner Nelly Sachs’s Swedish translations has been published; Mexico, where cultural centre Casa Tomada has continued its remarkable response to the coronavirus situation with a series of author events; and from Boston in the United States, which has lined up exciting programming this summer. Read on to find out more!
Eva Wissting, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Sweden
This summer, Swedish publishing company Faethon released a new collection with the poetry of German-Swedish Nelly Sachs. For the first time, all of the most prominent Swedish translations of her poetry are presented together in one book. The collection includes classical translations by poets such as Gunnar Ekelöf and Erik Lindegren, as well as new interpretations by Margaretha Holmqvist, who also was a friend of Sachs. The book also presents thorough commentaries by Daniel Pedersen, professor in comparative literature, and an afterword by poet and translator Eva Ström.
The Jewish poet and playwright Nelly Sachs was born in 1891 in Berlin and fled together with her mother to Sweden in 1940 where she lived until her death in 1970. Sachs had a long friendship with Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, who used her contacts with the Swedish royal family to enable Sachs and her mother to escape Nazi Germany. In Sweden, Sachs lived with her mother in Stockholm and it was at this time that she became a poet of note. She remained active as a writer and a translator for the most part of her life. In 1966, Nelly Sachs was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel’s destiny with touching strength.”
On a more contemporary note, the Nazi organization the Nordic Resistance Movement was sued late last year by the Swedish Academy for violating the integrity of the literary works by classical Swedish poets Esaias Tegnér, Viktor Rydberg, Verner von Heidenstam, amongst others. According to the Academy, it is unacceptable for the literary works by these poets to be associated with the Nazi message of NRM’s website. The NRM has now responded to the indictment, claiming that the Swedish Academy doesn’t have the legal right to sue on this matter, since the Academy is not a government authority.
Andrew Adair, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Mexico
Despite wildly varied reports on the numbers of cases/deaths in Mexico, wherever you might be getting your data, it’s clear that the virus is here in full force. This might be hard to infer by taking a stroll down the street where, apart from the little kiosks for taking your temperature and squirting sanitizer into your hand at the entry of most businesses, everything appears to be utterly normal. That is, until you pass a case such as beloved used bookstore, A Través Del Espejo (Through the Looking Glass), in the neighborhood of la Roma, which shuttered on July 4 after a long goodbye in the form of a two-week sale. It isn’t the only literary casualty so far and sadly, is unlikely to be the last.
In a previous dispatch, I mentioned just one of cultural space Casa Tomada‘s workshops, but it’s worth highlighting that they have done a remarkable job of adapting to the pandemic by launching an ongoing series of courses and events that is without compare. These include an August book club which will read Ni siquiera los muertos (Not Even the Dead) by Juan Gómez Bárcena, to later convene and discuss on August 28, as well as what’s sure to be a great conversation on August 14 entitled, “Maternidad, escritura, encierro” (Motherhood, Writing, Lockdown) on, as you might have guessed, the struggles of juggling these three things simultaneously, featuring Daniela Rea, Isabel Zapata, Jazmina Barrera, and Paulette Jonguitud.
Clémence Lucchini, Educational Arm Assistant, reporting from Boston in the United States
If there is an upcoming local publication that we should keep an eye out for, it’s the one from 826 Boston’s Youth Literary Advisory Board. A couple of months ago, this youth-led board invited students in grades seven to twelve to submit their productions about self-identity and living in the time of this ongoing pandemic. Selected authors were notified at the end of June, and the selected submissions will end up being compiled in a book as a part of 826 Boston’s publishing projects. If you’d like to read more from their young authors, you can also click here.
Considering the number of virtual events that keep on increasing, here is a roundup of websites to browse to find what’s happening in the literary community during the summer in Boston. Harvard Book Store and Brookline Booksmith have quite the listings. For their Transnational Literature Series, Brookline Booksmith received on August 6 Andrzej Tichý and translator Nichola Smalley to discuss Wretchedness, whose review, by Lindsay Semel, you can find in Asymptote’s criticism section. I attended a similar event when they presented Minor Detail (a past title from Asymptote Book Club) by Adania Shibli and translated by Elisabeth Jaquette, and I really appreciated the quality and care of the moderating
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