Posts featuring Xu Xi

Weekly Dispatches from the Front Lines of World Literature

The latest news from Hong Kong and Thailand!

This weekour writers bring you the latest news of international book prizes and cultural events. In Thailand, Peera Songkünnatham sheds light on the highest-nominated titles in the “Books You Should Read” festival, while in Hong Kong, Charlie Ng introduces us to a recent article celebrating Hong Kong writer Liu Yichang. Read on to find out more! 

Peera Songkünnatham, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Thailand

For three years now, the annual book recommendation festival ความน่าจะอ่าน (Books You Should Read) has pooled Top 3 nominations from a cross-section of editors and readers in the Thai publishing industry. With fifty to sixty participants each year, this “mass” nomination system organized by the media website the101.world has helped spotlight a wide range of noteworthy books that would otherwise not be in the running for awards that only consider works not in translation or that judge in narrow categories (Thailand’s S.E.A. Write Award, for example, rotates between novel, short story, and poetry in three-year cycles).

The highest-nominated book has consistently been a creative account of political oppression in the country. A book that, in other words, combines urgency with craft. This year’s number one “Top Highlight,” with eight nominations, is ในแดนวิปลาส (In the Land of Madness), the book I also blogged about earlier last month. 2020’s top title was ตาสว่าง (Il Re di Bangkok), an Italian graphic novel grounded in ethnographic research whose English translation is forthcoming this December. And 2018-2019’s winner was มันทำร้ายเราได้แค่นี้แหละ (All They Could Do to Us), a lèse-majesté prison memoir hailed by many readers as Thailand’s Orange is the New Black—this rather clichéd comparison may now have more substance after the book gained praise from a high-profile showbiz executive. All these come from very, very small publishers who did not expect the widespread critical and commercial success. That this kind of dark-horse candidate appears to be obvious “winning material” now is a testament to how “Books You Should Read” has influenced public perception of literary noteworthiness. READ MORE…

Weekly Updates from the Front Lines of World Literature

This week's latest news from Lebanon, Japan, Romania, and Hong Kong!

Our writers bring you the latest literary news this week from Lebanon, where writers have been responding in the aftermath of the devastating port explosion. In Japan, literary journals have published essays centred upon literature and illness, responding to the ongoing pandemic. Romanian literature has been thriving in European literary initiatives and in Hong Kong, faced with a third wave of COVID-19, the city’s open mic nights and reading series have been taking place online. Read on to find out more! 

MK Harb, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Lebanon

This week, as French President, Emmanuel Macron, began his Lebanon tour by meeting the iconic Lebanese diva, Fairuz, the literary world continued to grieve for Beirut in the aftermath of the explosion. Author Nasri Atallah, writing for GQ Magazine, recounts the cataclysmic impact of “Beirut’s Broken Heart.” Writer and translator Lina Mounzer and writer, Mirene Arsanios, exchanged a series of letters to each other for Lithub, talking about the anguish of distance and the pain of witnessing tragedy.Writer Reem Joudi also wrote an intimate essay exclusively for Asymptote, reflecting on her experience of the explosion and the uncertain future that Beirut now faces. Naji Bakhti, a young Lebanese writer, made his literary debut with Between Beirut and the Moon. Published on August 27 with Influx Press, the book is a sardonic coming of age story in post-civil-war Beirut (1975-1990). While Bakhti was chronicling the past, reading it now feels eerily relevant.

In translation news, writer and transgender activist, Veronica Esposito, interviewed Yasmine Seale about her upcoming translation of the Thousand and One Nights. Seale, whose English translation of Aladdin is beautiful in the most transgressive sense, will be the first woman to translate the Thousand and One Nights into English. In the interview, she discusses the colonial and class legacy of translating classics and the wild possibility of re-translating and re-imagining many Arabic classics. Lastly, here at Asymptote, we are excited about acclaimed Egyptian author, Mansoura Ez-Eldin’s new novel, Basateen Al-Basra from Dar El-Shourouk publishing house. Her previous novel, Beyond Paradise, was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2010. We eagerly await its translation from Arabic!

David Boyd, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Japan

This month, Japan’s major literary journals continue to showcase writing that deals with illness. The September issue of Subaru features several essays on the intersection between literature and illness, including “Masuku no sekai wo ikiru” (Living in the World of the Masque), in which Ujitaka Ito connects Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman to the current pandemic. READ MORE…

Weekly Dispatches from the Frontlines of World Literature

The most important literary news from Hong Kong, Romania, Moldova, and the UK.

It’s Friday and that means we are back with the latest literary news from around the world! From Hong Kong, Editor-at-Large Charlie Ng brings us the latest on theater, literary festivals, and poetry readings. MARGENTO brings us exciting news about past Asymptote-contributors and other brilliant writers from Romania and Moldova. Finally, our own assistant blog editor, Stefan Kielbasiewicz shares news about poetry in the UK. 

Charlie Ng, Editor-at-Large, Hong Kong

November is a month filled with vibrant literary performances and festivals in Hong Kong. On stage from late October to early November, a Cantonese version of The Father (Le Père) by French playwright, Florian Zeller, winner of the Molière Award for Best Play, is brought to Hong Kong audiences by the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre for the first time.

The seventeenth Hong Kong International Literary Festival kicked off on November 3 with a grand dinner with Scotland’s well-loved crime fiction writer, Ian Rankin, who also attended two other sessions as a guest speaker: Mysterious Cities: the Perfect Crime Novel and 30 Years of Rebus with Ian Rankin. Carol Ann Duffy was another Scottish writer featured in this year’s Festival. The British Poet Laureate read her poetry with musician John Sampson’s music accompaniment on November 9. The dazzling Festival programme includes both international authors such as Hiromi Kawakami, Amy Tan, Min Jin Lee, Ruth Ware, Hideo Yokoyama, and local writers and translators such as Xu Xi, Louise Ho, Dung Kai-cheung, Nicholas Wong, Tammy Ho, and Chris Song.

READ MORE…