Demand The Immediate Release of Liu Xiabo
Back on December 11th, Liu Xiabo was formally indicted by the Beijing Municipal Procuratorate for “inciting subversion of state power,” a charge that is often leveled against writers the Chinese government wishes to silence. Here’s a bit more background info from PEN America: Liu Xiaobo is a renowned ...
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New Issues: Rattapallax and PEN America
After briefly lamenting the fact that there’s not a lot of places to turn to to learn about/gain exposure to international poetry, I opened my mail and found the new issue of Rattapallax, which, along with CALQUE and Circumference, is one of the best sources for poetry in translation. This particular issue kicks off by ...
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PEN America #11 Launch Party
The new issue of PEN America comes out next week, and to celebrate, PEN is throwing a launch party at Le Poisson Rouge that sounds like a lot of fun. Here’s the official details: Celebrate “make believe“—and writers who make us believe in the worlds of their own creation—with PEN America, the ...
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PEN's Poetry Slam
This is pretty cool: Inspired by live translation slams that proved to be audience favorites at the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, and again at PEN World Voices, PEN’s online Translation Slam aims to showcase the art of translation by juxtaposing in a public forum two “competing” ...
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Some Buzz for The Conqueror
In my opinion, Jan Kjaerstad’s The Conqueror is one of the best books we brought out in our first season. Compelling and engaging, with a brilliant over-arching structure, it’s a novel that’s very literary and very readable, and one that we were really hoping would take off. (Especially since this is part of ...
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Global Correspondences: A Benefit Reading for PEN America
On Tuesday, February 24th, PEN America will put on the first ever event specifically for the magazine. If you’re not familiar with it, PEN America is definitely worth checking out. Lots of great fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama in every issue, including a number of pieces from international authors. (The most recent ...
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National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists
On Saturday, the NBCC announced the finalists for the series of awards they hand out every year. As always, all of the finalists are pretty strong, and there are two works in translation up for prizes. Bolano’s 2666 is a fiction finalist, and Pierre Martory’s The Landscapist is a poetry finalist. I must say, ...
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