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Weekly News Roundup, 26th June 2015: Plagiarism You Don’t Remember

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Hey guys, happy Friday!

We frequently report happy awards-news (and don’t worry, we’ve got a bit this week, too). But unhappy literary awards news? Forget about it—until now. South Korean Man Asian Book Prize-winner Shin Kyung-Sook has (sort of) admitted to pilfering passages from Japanese writer Yukio Mishima’s work. Apparently, she “can’t trust her own memory” on the issue. Hm. And speaking of South Korean bestsellers—apparently the Talmud is a hot-ticket bestseller right now.

We’ve spoken about the buzz surrounding Algerian writer Kamel Daoud’s Prix Goncourt-winning (originally French-language, recently translated into English by John Cullen) The Meursault Investigation, itself a riff on Albert Camus’ legendary The Stranger—here’s another great review at NPR. Speaking of literary rivalries/riffs, here’s what Irish writer playwright George Bernhard Shaw thought of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.  READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 19th June 2015: Schadensorrow, Bloomsday.

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy Friday, Asymptote pals! In the Internet, especially in the Translation Deep-Web we at Asymptote wander in, clickbait articles about “untranslate-able words” are so common we hardly register them any more. But articles about untranslate-able words that don’t exist yet—that’s another thing entirely. Why doesn’t “Schadenfreude” have an antonym?

You probably noted that this past week marked Bloomsday, a holiday for the literati invented by Irish writer James Joyce—who inspires fear and awe in most English-language readers. Not the case in China, apparently, where Finnegans Wake is a bestseller and several Joycean works, including the ominous Ulysses, have been adapted to the stage. In other unlikely artsy feel-good stories: you’ve probably never heard of Annecy, France (unless you went there for study-abroad like a certain roundup contributor). Here’s how a little picaresque French town became central in the international film circuit. But France isn’t the only country with an on-the-ball film scene: here’s why Chilewood should be on your radar. READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 12th June 2015: What’s Pure Prose & Poetry?

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy Friday, Asymptote friends!

Big congratulations to the new poet laureate of the United States, Juan Felipe Herrera! Herrera attended the University of Iowa and his current gig is a direct update from his last one (he spent the past two years as poet laureate of the state of California, where he’s from).

Meanwhile, recommended reading abounds. The Millions reviews French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation, big winner of the Prix Goncourt and only recently appearing in John Cullen’s English translation (would have been nice to know this from the review—but, alas). In the Paris Review Daily, former blog contributor and all-around translator/thinker/writer extraordinaire Damion Searls argues for a lesser-known (stateside, at least) Norwegian writer: Jon Fosse. According to Searls: in the Beatles band of Norwegian lit, Fosse is George, “the quiet one, mystical.” Hmm. If Fosse is a pure/prose/poet, it’s important to remember the dutiful audacity of prose-at-large: how should we remember what and how prose writing accomplishes what it does? (I’d like to wager that translation plays a vital role in revealing the mechanics of language. But that’s just me). READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 5th June 2015: Don’t Write Your Memoir.

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happiest of Fridays, Asymptote pals! This is the first week Katrine, new blog co-editor, is on board—so let’s give her a big web-round-of-applause (tapping on the keyboard in the comments section helps). Hi Katrine! You might recognize Katrine because she was a judge for the Best Translated Book Award so, yeah—she’s a celeb.

Speaking of celebs, our former Central Asia Editor-at-Large, Alex Cigale, recently guest-edited a section on Russian poetry over at the Atlanta Review—it’s definitely worth checking out (and look for a blog interview on the guest-editing process soon). If you are a fan of the Norwegian Nobel Prizewinning bard, Tomas Transtömer, here’s a treat—his final interview given before his death, in translation. And, speaking of poetry—the New Yorker has an interesting piece on Jihadi poetry and what it means to share some words.

Multitasking artists: American playwright Tennessee Williams took up painting, once (just like American ex-President Dubya, whose outsider-art paintings I frankly prefer). And Dany Lafferière, a Haitian novelist who came of age in Canada, is the first non-French citizen to be admitted in the prestigious Académie Française.

What are your favorite authors’ favorite words? Here’s a little list. And what’s your favorite curse word—it might not have existed too long ago (except, of course, for “fart,” which has stood the test of time).

How does it feel to write and never be read? Most of us know, all too bitterly. But perennial Nobel-speculation and speculative-fiction writer, Canadian novelist/poet Margaret Atwood, has written for a library that won’t be available for another one hundred years. Will we all be screened-up e-readers by then? The Chicago Tribune thinks not. Nine hundred years later, we’re still collectively obsessed with the old Icelandic god, Loki, though. What gives?

Finally, please, and for the love of God—unless you are Karl Ove (in which case it is already too late): delete your memoir. If it’s written from a female perspective, it’s less likely to win any big prizes, anyway (ugh), unless, of course, it is the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction (congrats Ali Smith for How to Be Both, this year’s prizewinner). Prizes aren’t always great, though: even judge Marina Warner (from the Man Booker!) is bemoaning the dearth of world literature available in English—good thing journals like Asymptote are working to buck that trend.

What’s New with the Asymptote Team?

We've been very busy!

Aamer Hussein (contributing editor) has released a new collection of short stories, entitled 37 Bridges and Other Stories.

Aditi Machado (poetry editor) has a poem anthologized in February as well as four poems out in Web Conjunctions.

Ágnes Orzóy (Hungary editor-at-large) has written an article for Quarterly Conversation on Prae, the monumental 1934 novel by Miklós Szentkuthy, a writer previously introduced in our pages. She has also recently begun to blog for ELit Literaturhaus Europa, an observatory for European contemporary literature focusing chiefly on research, discussion and publishing results concerning literary trends across Europe, as well as inter-cultural communication of literature within Europe. Her first two posts can be read here and here.

Isle-to-Isle, chief executive assistant Berny Tan and Sher Chew’s collaborative data visualization project based on Jules Verne’s classic novel, The Mysterious Island, has come full circle. Berny also recently published a nonfiction, “Ah Ma’s Chilli,” in Junoesq Literary Journal.

Drama editor Caridad Svich‘s new book, Innovation in Five Acts: Strategies for Theatre and Performance, gathering forty-three essays from admired theater professionals discussing techniques for creating theater, is now available for pre-order at Amazon.

On April 26, Chenxin Jiang (senior editor for Chinese content) and Lee Yew Leong (editor-in-chief) took part in Singapore: Inside Out’s Beijing showcase at the contemporary art enclave, 798.

Chris Tanasescu (a.k.a. MARGENTO, Romania editor-at-large) has published an article (co-authored with Research Assistant Andres Lou and Computer Science Professor Diana Inkpen) titled “Multilabel Subject-based Classification of Poetry” in The Proceedings of the Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference; the paper is part of his ongoing project titled The Graph Poem. Alaska-based writer and academic Helena Spector also recently reviewed his book Nomadosophy in Semne Bune (previously reviewed in Asymptote here).

Diana George (proofreader) published a new story, “Wara Wara,” in the Spring 2015 issue of Conjunctions as well as a review of Antoine Volodine’s Writers in 3:AM magazine.

Contributing editor Ellen Elias-Bursac‘s translation of David Albahari’s novel, Gotz and Meyer, has been republished by Dalkey Archive.

Joshua Craze (nonfiction editor) published an essay on the conflict in South Sudan with Creative Time Reports. He also has an essay in the catalogue for Jenny Holzer’s exhibition, War Paintings, currently on display at the Museo Correr in Venice; a version of this essay was also featured in Media-N. His essay on redaction appeared recently in the collected volume Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Cultures and Contested Narratives in the Middle East.

Julia Sherwood (Slovakia editor-at-large) and Peter Sherwood (past contributor) have published an extract of Czech writer Zuzana Brabcová’s The Year of Pearls, in Words Without Borders’s queer issue, out today. Their extract of Ján Rozner’s autobiographical novel Seven Days to the Funeral also appeared in BODY.Literature.

The first full-length poetry collection, Vulgar Mechanics, of assistant editor Kara Billey Thordarson (pen name K.T. Billey) is a semi-finalist for the 2015 Pamet River prize from YesYes Books. The winner will be announced on August 1.

Lee Yew Leong (editor-in-chief) has published his book-length English translation of Fu-chen Lo’s memoir, From Taiwan to the World and Back, excerpted in the January 2014 issue. He also served as guest editor for the recently launched Issue 53 of Columbia: A Journal of Art and Literature.

Interviews editor Matt Jakubowski has published an experimental work entitled “Corner of the World” in 3:AM magazine.

Marketing manager Rosie Clarke reviewed Richard Weiner’s The Game for Real (translated by Benjamin Paloff) in the May 29 issue of The Times Literary Supplement.

Poetry Foundation ran an essay by Win Bassett (legal advisor) about his summer stint at a hospital and the necessity of poetry.

Weekly News Roundup, 28 May 2015: PEN! BTBA! IFFP!

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy Friday, Asymptote! For those of us interested in translation—and the funds to pay for it—the day the PEN/Heim Translation Fund awards/fellowships are announced is always good. Special congrats to Dong Li, Asymptote blog friend—but he’s by no means the only familiar name on the list. Big congrats to all the winners, and the blog wishes you luck on all your projects!

And. Continuing the theme of huge news (for translators, writers, and readers at least—and aren’t we all?), Three Percent has announced the winners for the Best Translated Book Awards! In the fiction category, top honors go to Chinese author Can Xue (who we interviewed in the journal over a year ago) for her novel The Last Lover translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen, and Rocío Cerón’s Diorama, which was translated from the Spanish by Anna Rosenwong. Pride note: new blog co-editor, Katrine Jensen, was a member of the judging panel—so you can trust these picks! READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 21 May 2015: Booker, the Man

This week's literary highlights from across the globe

Happy Friday, Asymptoters! You must be rather cozy living under a rock if you haven’t heard the most explosive news of the week: Hungarian writer (and Asymptote contributor!) László Krasznahorkai has won the prestigious International Man Booker Prize this year. He received 60,000 pounds sterling, but a 15,000-pound prize for his English-language translators is split between George Szirtes and Ottilie Mulzet (also contributors to both blog and journal). This year’s snag means things are stacked two-for-two with regard to the Man Booker and Asymptote. Two years ago, Lydia Davis earned top honors—and you can see her work in the journal, herself translating from the Dutch in 2013. Furthermore in lit prizes: at Wall Street Journal, an interview with the most recent “Arab Booker”—also known as the International Prize for Arab Fiction—prizewinner: Tunisian novelist and prizwinner Shukri Mabkhout opens up on novelizing the political crises and opening literary doors in the region.   READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 15th Mary 2015: PEN or Sword, Too Many Prizes

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy Friday, Asymptote friends! Another day, another dollar, another slew of literary prizes to report. This week, the PEN prizes were of special interest: Two Lines Press’ translation of Baboon, written by Danish author Naja Marie Aidt with translation by Denise Neuman has snagged the PEN Translation Prize (for a short-story excerpt from Baboon, click here!—or better yet: read Eric MIchael Becker’s exclusive interview with the author here). Meanwhile, the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize (for translations of German-into-English) is slated to go to Catherine Schelbert, for her translation of Hugo Ball’s Flametti. And the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize has announced its shortlist, which includes our own friend of the blog (and Tiff-ster) Susan Bernofsky, for her translation of German writer Jenny Erpenbeck’s The End of Days (coincidentally reviewed here in our latest issue). READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 8th May 2015: Finnegan’s Woke, Emoji Language

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy Friday, Asymptote friends! While you are struggling to convince your chapbook-making friend to publish your manuscript, in Iceland there’s the opposite “problem:” are there too many books being published? (I have a hard time believing such a thing exists). Meanwhile, the International New York Times wonders who publishes the most foreign fiction stateside (answer: Amazon. But you knew that already).

Like translations? Like the Internet? We forgive you for never having completed Finnegans Wake by Irish legend James Joyce—especially since the confounding book is confounded by an exciting and experimental turn in collaborative translations and readings: take a look at Waywords & Meansigns (and keep an eye out for an interview on the blog!). It’s a book designed for the Internet, after all.  Asymptote alum, contributing editor, and all-out translator celebrity Adrian Nathan West has got a new book forthcomingThe Art of Flying by Spanish graphic novelist Antonio Altaribba. Check out Words Without Borders for ten tantalizing sample pages. And if you’re interested in re-iterations of epic tomes and animation, check out these animations of Crime and Punishment, by Russian lit-demigod Fyodor Dostoyevsky.  READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 1 May 2015: PEN or Sword?

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy first of May, Asymptote readers! On this first of May, readers and observers are reeling at a bit of a scuffle around awards (this happens more rarely than you’d think): a few authors, among them Michael Ondaatje, Rachel Kushner, Salman Rushdie, and Joyce Carol Oates have formally withdrawn from a gala event honoring the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo with its Freedom of Expression award, citing discomfort with the periodical’s inflammatory depictions. If you’re interested in an insider look at the controversy, here’s the letter between the PEN exec and a dissident. Meanwhile, French cartoonist at Charlie Hebdo says he’s withdrawing from depictions of Mohammed altogether, for reasons you may not anticipate. And altogether less contentious is the PEN Manheim award for translation, given to Chinese and Japanese scholar/translator Burton Watson.

READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 24th April 2015: Don’t Do This Title

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy Friday, Asymptote readers! We say this every week, but perhaps some new vocabulary might spice up your reading experience. We can certainly say that for short stories—steer clear from these overused titles (I’ve certainly read at least five pieces titled “Hunger”).

So many of us battle with the canon—or struggle against it. At the Millions, a piece about reading (and not-exactly re-reading) Russian behemoth’s epic literary tome, War and Peace (wonder what translation she was using?). In present tense, Joseph Brodsky is still making waves: here’s a look at his bestselling biography. And finally, if contemporary Russian literature’s more your thing, be sure to check out this bloggin’ run-down of recent Russian book prizes. READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 17th April 2015: International Excellence!

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy Friday, Asymptote friends! We’ve announced it on the blog already, but still can’t stop celebrating at Asymptote having won the London Book Fair’s International Excellence Award for International Literary Translation Achievement. After Indiegogo campaigns, calls for submissions, and projects spanning the entire globe in words, it feels good to be honored.

The prize—and big-time book event in London—couldn’t come at a better time, especially with the slightly disheartening release of translation statistics in the United Kingdom via Literature Across Frontiers. And at the NYBlog, Tim Parks asks if there simply is too much published fiction nowadays—one thing is certain: there isn’t enough translated literature in the English-speaking biblioglobe (not in the slightest!). And if we’re going to data-analyze the literary scene, why not the literature itself? Here’s how computer-driven literary analysis is changing (and how it’s still limited). READ MORE…

Asymptote Honored at London Book Fair 2015

Spoiler alert: we won the International Translation Initiative Award!

Greetings from sunny London!

This week is shaping up to be very exciting for Asymptote, as yesterday evening we were honoured with the 2015 London Book Fair’s International Literary Translation Initiative Award. This is undoubtedly a very momentous occasion for us, both personally and professionally, as this prestigious prize recognizes excellence in the field of literary translation, awarded to an organisation that has  “succeeded in raising the profile of literature in translation, promoting literary translators, and encouraging new translators and translated works.” Not only is this the first time a Singaporean organization has been honored at the London Book Fair, but also the first time Singapore has been represented altogether. READ MORE…

Weekly News Roundup, 10th April 2015: BTBA vs. VIDA vs. IFFP?

This week's literary highlights from across the world

Happy Friday! The time has finally arrived for the Best Translated Book Award longlist… After weeks of blog- and social-media hype, both the fiction and poetry longlists have been announced, and we can’t say we aren’t impressed! The lineup includes, among others, several Asymptote friends, like Faces in the Crowd author and blog contributor, Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli, blog interviewee and Translation Tuesday featurette Danish author Naja Marie Aidt, deceased Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal (featured in another Translation Tuesday dedication), Chinese interviewee and Nobel-deserving Can Xue, and many, many more. It’s definitely worth taking a peek through the list—I’ve no idea how the judges managed to narrow it down (at Three Percent, Chad Post laments the books he thought would make it—but didn’t), nor how they’ll be able to pick a winner from such a strong group.  READ MORE…