This week, our editors-at-large take us from memorial ceremonies in Kenya to a colloquium in Brussels, exploring the life and legacy of celebrated literary figures, exciting prize nominations, and cross-cultural events. Read on to find out more!
Carol Khoury, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Palestine
Palestinian writer and poet Ibrahim Nasrallah has been nominated to the longlist for the 2026 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, better known as the “American Nobel” for its global reputation and the extent of its sway in the world of literature. Nasrallah’s much-acclaimed novel, Time of White Horses, stands as the only Arabic-language novel among this year’s nine distinguished finalists, another significant achievement for Arabic literature in the international arena.
Presented biannially by the University of Oklahoma’s World Literature Today, the Neustadt Prize recognizes outstanding literary achievement in all genres and languages. The winner, who will receive a $50,000 award, will be announced at the Neustadt Lit Fest in October 2025.
Nasrallah’s Time of White Horses is a sweeping narrative charting the course of Palestine from the twilight of Ottoman rule to the earth-shattering convulsions of the 1948 Nakba, all refracted through the lens of an imaginary village. The book, celebrated for its blend of documentary realism and imaginative storytelling, has previously been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and is celebrated for its nuanced analysis of collective memory and identity.
The Neustadt cohort this year consists of a diverse array of international voices, including Ukrainian novelist Yuri Andrukhovych, American authors Elif Batuman and Robert Olen Butler, Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo, French author Mathias Énard, Japanese author Yoko Tawada, and American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jesmyn Ward.
No Arab author has received the Neustadt since Algerian novelist Assia Djebar in 1996, which makes Nasrallah’s nomination especially notable. The choice highlights the lasting international appeal of his work and the role it plays in re-examining history through a humanist perspective.
The literary scene eagerly awaits the winner to be announced this October, with Nasrallah’s nomination already hailed as a victory for Palestinian and Arabic literature.
Wambua Muindi, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Kenya
On May 28, the literary world woke up to the news of the demise of Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Since then, there have been reverential eulogies for the giant of African literature whose oeuvre includes Weep Not, Child (1964), River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), and I Will Marry When I Want (1970) co-written with Ngugi wa Mirie, Petals of Blood (1977), Devil on the Cross (1980), Decolonising the Mind (1986) and Wizard of the Crow (2006), among others. Educated at the University of Nairobi, Makerere University, Ngugi had teaching stints at the University of Nairobi, Northwestern University, Amherst College, Yale University and New York University. Until his death, Ngugi was a professor at the University of California, Irvine. His death was received in Kenya with shock, and the parliament of Kenya even had a session on June 4 to commemorate the towering intellectual. There have been several events all through Nairobi celebrating Ngugi’s works, with one held, remarkably, at the Kenya National Theatre’s Ukumbi Mdogo on June 14. It was organised by Ukombozi Writers’ Forum and speakers included Ngugi’s son, Mukoma wa Ngugi, a professor at Cornell University, as well as Njuki Githethwa, Neo Musangi, Ndungi Githuku, Mshai Mwangola and Sefu Sanni, among others. The literary giant has since been cremated in the US, according to his wishes and as reported by his family. Go gently into the good night, Ngugi.
Still to come, in line celebration of this intellectual life well-lived, a special event is lined up at the University of Nairobi. On Friday, June 20, the Department of Literature, University of Nairobi, in collaboration with Ngugi’s longtime publisher, East African Educational Publishers (EAEP) and Ngugi wa Thiong’o Foundation, will honour the writer and professor’s life and works in a day-long event. It is in this department where Ngugi, in the formative stage of his career, was named the first African head of department after the ‘Nairobi Revolution’, famed for creating a sea change in how African literature is taught. The event, which will be held at the prestigious Taifa Hall, will feature tributes, poetry readings, drama, song and dance, readings from his books and a photo exhibition. The event promises to attract people from the literary community in Kenya and beyond to honour the creativity and intellectual commitment of one of the best writers Kenya has gifted the world. To keep tabs on the event, which will include a virtual component, check the University of Nairobi website as well as the Department of Literature social media handles.
MARGENTO, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Belgium, Spain, Denmark, and Egypt
Just a few days ago, a very rich 3-day international colloquium and festival marked 175 years since the passing of the iconic and paradigmatic late Romantic/early modernist Mihai Eminescu, known as the Romanian “national poet” (a notion that is heavily contested, though the poet continues to be widely revered by critics and general audiences alike). Hosted by Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and organized by Alice Toma, ULB Romanian Lecturer, and Moldovan academic Liubovi Cibotaru, together with other Romanian European-Union and Romanian-Belgian representatives, the event had major partners such as the Moldovan and Romanian Embassies to Brussels, and the Romanian Cultural Institute in Brussels (ICR). The event featured academic talks, round tables, public readings, poetry and music performances, while, as academics and authors Felix Nicolau and Bogdan Tanase posted on Facebook, some of the main critical references remained the lasting contributions to Eminescu’s contemporary reception of Ioana Em. Petrescu, Ioana Bot, and, I would also add, Nicolau himself.
Past Asymptote contributor Felix Nicolau has been keeping busy himself, as always, organizing talks and presentations in the Romania Cultural Center at University of Granada where Spanish-Romanian literary confluences are tangibly present on a weekly basis. Most recently at the Center, a thesis was defended on the milestone bilingual Romanian-Spanish anthology Grandes escritores rumanos (Great Romanian Writers) (Huerga y Fierro Editores, 2024), Spanish poet and journal editor Fulgencio Martínez lectured on clarity in poetry, and Romanian academic Gabriel Bărdășan gave talks on Romanian-related Eastern Romance languages from across the Balkans, such as close-to-extinction Istro-Romanian and severely endangered Aromanian.
Nicolau and another Asymptote contributor, Andra Rotaru, were also invited to one of the most important Scandinavian literature festivals, Literature Exchange, taking place later this month in Denmark. On June 20th they will be both feature in a conversation with the author and publisher Vagn Remme and the author Flavia Teoc within the framework of the annual literature festival. Teoc, a Romanian-Danish poet and author and a contributor to our journal herself, is the perfect person for the job, as she co-edited an anthology of Romanian poetry in Danish translation in 2023 (Rumænsk poesi, Frolaget Synapsis).
Another major event in present-day Romanian-international letters was the festival Interwoven Voices organized in May by the Romanian foundation Zidul de Hartie (The Paper Wall) and its leader, poet Florin Dan Prodan in Cairo, Egypt, together with local and (inter)national partners. The festival featured poets from all around the world and deserves a stand-alone dispatch which I will include in my next report from the frontlines of world literature.
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