In this week’s dispatches, Bulgarian readers brave the winter for an event highlighting environmental literature, Sweden commemorates the beloved children’s book author, Astrid Lindgren, and Italy celebrates what would have been Umberto Eco’s 90th birthday with a new publication. Read on to find out more!
Andriana Hamas, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Bulgaria
Believe it or not—it is already February, and despite the cold weather in Bulgaria, various cultural events are popping up here and there. With an ever-increasing focus on climate change and the dire consequences we are already facing, different local artists are attempting to highlight the need for conscious, collective action.
One of the strategies employed to combat phenomena such as global warming constitutes the recycling of different materials. Interestingly enough, the whole concept also happens to be at the heart of literary critic and professor of literary theory Amelia Licheva’s latest poetry collection, The Need for Recycling, which considers the act through the prism of creative impulses and intuitive journeys through one’s feelings and experiences. The book, officially published by Lexicon Publishing House on Christmas Eve, 2021, also contains illustrations by the painter Veselin Pramatarov. In an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, Licheva revealed that the title could be interpreted as “the search for lost meaning.” She is fully aware that the formula is far from light, but insists that the initial shock—bound to rock the reader’s inner world—is in fact a sought-after provocation of sorts.
The launch of the book, which took place not long ago at Sofia City Library, was attended by over fifty people eager to hear the poetess’s newest verses. The lively discussion was hosted by the prominent writer Georgi Gospodinov (whose works have previously appeared in Asymptote) and translator Daria Karapetkova, with the actress Snezhina Petrova was in charge of recitation. After the long-anticipated premiere, the author used her social media profile to extend her gratitude to “all of my colleagues, friends, and students who attended the debut of my poetry collection. Thank you for the solidarity and for the unique privilege to be able to feel like a part of a meaningful community.”
Eva Wissting, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Sweden
A week ago today, on January 28, Sweden commemorated twenty years since the country’s most internationally known writer, Astrid Lindgren, passed away at the age of ninety-four. The creator of strong, ingenious, and unforgettable children’s book characters like Pippi Longstocking, Karlsson on the Roof, Ronja the Robber’s Daughter, and Lotta on Troublemaker Street, Lindgren has enthralled and inspired readers around the world for generations. Her books have been translated into 107 languages, including numerous translations into English by Joan Tate—who also has translated other significant Swedish writers like Ingmar Bergman, Kerstin Ekman, and P.C. Jersild. Lindgren has been awarded both national and international literary awards, as well as received honorary degrees from Linköping University in Sweden, the University of Leicester in the UK, and the University of Warsaw in Poland. On the year of her passing, the Swedish government instituted the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), which awards a writer, illustrator, or promoter of reading in March every year. During her lifetime, Lindgren not only wrote for and about children, but she was also an activist for children’s rights––which is why the Astrid Lindgren estate today, together with Save the Children, continues to work on the Pippi of Today campaign for refugee girls.
Lindgren, who began her career as a reporter and proofreader, wrote her manuscripts in shorthand, and they are famously difficult to decipher. Later this year, a research project called The Astrid Lindgren Code will deliver its results; it is a citizen science project, led by Uppsala University Astrid Lindgren scholar Malin Nauwerck, and involves participants from the general public whose competencies complement academia—in this case, 150 experienced stenographers. The materials produced by the project will be used in the research of Lindgren’s creative process, and the project has already seen results in newly decoded chapters of The Brothers Lionheart—which has previously been inaccessible to most Astrid Lindgren scholars. Nauwerck emphasizes the urgency of transcribing and decoding the shorthand manuscripts sooner rather than later, before the analogous knowledge of shorthand is forgotten, which would mean that the original manuscripts remain indecipherable forever. You can follow the progress of the project on Instagram.
Amaryllis Gacioppo, correspondent, reporting from Italy
The end of 2021 saw the release of major screen adaptations of Italian literature. The Lost Daughter, the Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed English-language feature film based on the Elena Ferrante novel of the same name premiered on Netflix to rave reviews on December 17. The wildly popular Italian cartoonist Zerocalcare was introduced to international audiences with the series adaptation of his comics on November 17 (also on Netflix). Soon, English-language readers will also get the opportunity to read Zerocalcare’s work for themselves: on November 16, Ablaze Publishing announced that it would be publishing the English translations of his first three graphic novels: The Armadillo Prophecy (2011), Tentacles At My Throat (2012) and Forget My Name (2014).
The 25th edition of the three-month-long Una Montagna di Libri international literary festival is currently underway. The festival takes place each winter season in the Dolomites’ Cortina d’Ampezzo. Events held in the past month included: a discussion between Maria Cristina Soldi and Matteo Spicuglia, author of the book Noi Due Siamo Uno (The two of us are one), an account of the tragic death of Andrea Soldi and the state of Italian mental health services (January 15); and a discussion on the late Italian novelist, short story writer and journalist Dino Buzzati (January 25).
In memory of what would have been the writer, philosopher and medievalist Umberto Eco’s 90th birthday on January 5, his publisher La nave di Teseo (of which he was also a founder) has republished a new edition of his book Filosofi in Libertà (Philosophers in Freedom). Originally published in 1958 in a limited run of 500 copies, it has yet to be translated into English. The book is signed with the Joyce-inspired pseudonym of Dedalus, and features a playful collection of verse and drawings by Eco.
*****
Read more on the Asymptote blog: