This week, our Editors-at-Large take us to book fairs, awards ceremonies, and book launches. From celebrated poets and dearly departed essayists to up-and-coming novelists and prize-winning translators, read on to find out more!
Sofija Popovska, Editor-at-Large, reporting from North Macedonia
The recent publication of The Long Coming of the Fire, a collection of poems by Aco Šopov, translated from the Macedonian by Rawley Grau and Christina E. Kramer, was met with interest and celebration from Macedonian literary critics, journalists, and laymen alike. The book features a total of seventy-four poems, selected by Jasmina Šopova—daughter of the poet and established connoisseur of his work. A selection of Šopov’s poems in Kramer and Grau’s translation was featured in the Winter 2023 issue of Asymptote Journal.
Aco Šopov’s literary output is significant beyond its stylistic excellence and thematic range—it also marks the beginning of the modernist period in Macedonian culture. “His work,” writes N.M. for Nova Makedonija (New Macedonia), “is essential to a poetic movement that freed poetry from the grasp of both the folk oral tradition and the short-lived socialist-realist style, thus directing the [still] tenuous poetic tradition of authors writing in the newly minted Macedonian language towards the expansive spaces of modern European songmaking.” This swift evolution, propelled onwards by the “long strides” of Šopov’s visionary lyric, was the reason Macedonian literature managed to catch up with the still-relevant themes and styles of its European counterpart.
Now, 100 years after Šopov’s birth, the public at large can experience his unforgettable voice through The Long Coming of the Fire, a bilingual Macedonian-English edition published by Deep Vellum Press. In an unusual but successful move, the edition was translated via the synergy of three translators. In an interview organized by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences & Arts, Kramer explains that this translation resulted from the synergy of three unique approaches and skillsets: “Rawley [Grau], who translates poetry very well but doesn’t know Macedonian, me, who knows the Macedonian language very well but not how to translate poetry, and Jasmina, who weaved the threads together in a way that resulted in the creation of a team of translators.” Although, being a linguist, she would’ve “been more comfortable discussing Šopov’s use of nouns and verbs than his poetics”, Kramer notes that his images, recurrent within his poems, “subtly bind” the author’s inner workings to the outside world, creating poetry that is “simultaneously personal and universally human”.
Miranda Mazariegos, Editor-at-Large, reporting on Latin America
One of the most prestigious book prizes in the United States—the National Book Awards—was awarded last week in New York City. The National Book Award in translation shortlist included four Latin American novels: Pilar Quintana’s The Abyss (translated by Lisa Dillman), Juan Cárdenas’ The Devil of the Provinces (translated by Lizzie Davis), Fernanda Melchor’s This is Not Miami (translated by Sophie Hughes), and Stênio Gardel’s The Words that Remain (translated by Bruna Dantas Lobato.
The big prize was awarded to Stênio Gardel’s and Bruna Danta’s work with The Words That Remain. Gardel and Dantas’ work explores the power of the written word and language through the scars left by poverty and homophobia in rural Brazil. When accepting the prize, Dantas nodded to #NameTheTranslator by thanking New Vessel Press for putting her name on the cover of the translated book. “It is so rare to see the Brazil I know in translation,” she said, “Here’s to reading the world with curiosity and empathy.” This year, Dantas was also the only woman to win a National Book Award.
Meanwhile, Miami just wrapped up an exciting week for literature after several days of hosting its landmark Miami Book Fair. The fair, held from November 12-19, hosted hundreds of critically acclaimed authors in three languages and highlighted conversations and panels with Latino, Caribbean, and Hispanic journalists, poets, essayists, and novelists. Some of the main speakers included Andrés Oppenheimer (Argentina), Jaime Bayly (Peru), Elena Odriozola (Spain), and Marie Ketsia Theodore Pharel (Haiti).
Alton Melvar M Dapanas, Editor-at-Large, reporting from the Philippines
In early November, the Philippines lost one of her major figures in journalism and the essay—Conrado S. de Quiros (May 27, 1951-November 6, 2023).
Aged 72, de Quiros authored several books of nonfiction such as the essay collections Flowers from the Rubble: Essays on Life, Death and Remembering (1990), which won the Philippine National Book Awards, Dance of the Dunes (1991), and Tongues on Fire (2007); the book of narrative history Dead Aim: How Marcos Ambushed Philippine Democracy (1997); and co-authored The February Revolution: Three Views (1986) and the biographies The Bird-Catcher Was a Poet: The Life and Passion of Eduardo A. Makabenta, Sr. (2002) and Honorary Woman: The Life of Raul S. Roco (2015). As a columnist for the Philippine Daily Inquirer he penned the “There’s The Rub” column from 1991 until his medical leave in 2014. According to the Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, de Quiros wrote sociopolitical critiques for Now magazine, Asia Philippines Leader, Manila Chronicle, and Philippine Daily Globe (where he also wrote a popular column, beginning in 1987) in the decades surrounding the Marcosian dictatorship. The archives also reveal his significant essayistic contributions to venues such as The Manila Review, Far Eastern Economic Review, Philippine Review, and Kudeta: The Challenge to Philippine Democracy (1990). His work has been cited by books and journals, published locally and internationally, across various fields including history, area studies, theology, media and popular culture, mobilities, and political science.
The University of the Philippines-College of Mass Communication’s Paz H. Diaz, in Media Asia, hails de Quiros as the trailblazer of “the discovery of subjectivity in [Philippine] journalism”—possibly the equivalent of the New Journalism movement in the United States. For Benjamin N. Muego, de Quiros was “one of the country’s most perceptive social commentators.” Unknown to many, he was also a playwright. His three-act play 1898: Sa Mata ng Daluyong (1898: In the Eye of the Storm, 1981), a period piece, won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, earning praises from theatre and food historian Doreen G. Fernandez. In her survey of the late 20th century Philippine Anglophone essay, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo names the works of de Quiros as “marvelous examples of the [personal] essay.” On social media, tributes to de Quiros were penned by, among others, poets Alma Cruz Miclat and Jerry B. Gracio, playwrights Karl Gaspar and Guelan Luarca, and fictionist Ian Rosales Casocot.
Although born in Manila, he identified as a Nagueño, a citizen of Naga City in the eastern Philippine region of Bikol. Perhaps a foreshadowing to the current times of collective amnesia, de Quiros is best remembered for his 1999 obituary for the late nationalist-historiographer Renato Constantino: “the Philippines is a country with an almost desperate need to forget, one that lives almost exclusively in the present, the past gliding by like water against an aimless boat, leaving no markers behind.”
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