Arnon Grunberg on Dubrakva Ugresic
Last week, The Millions ran this excellent piece by Arnon Grunberg on fellow Open Letter author Dubravka Ugresic: The Russian word poshlost, according to a seminal essay by Vladimir Nabokov, has a number of possible definitions — “cheap,” “inferior, “scurvy,” “tawdry” — but is perhaps best grasped by ...
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Why This Book Should Win: "The Island of Second Sight" by Albert Vigoleis Thelen [BTBA 2013]
As in years past, we will be highlighting all 25 titles on the BTBA Fiction Longlist, one by one, building up to the announcement of the 10 finalists on April 10th. A variety of judges, booksellers, and readers will write these, all under the rubric of “Why This Book Should Win. You can find the whole series by clicking ...
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More Shishkin for Your Enjoyment
Following on yesterday’s announcement of Mikhail Shishkin’s April tour, here’s an excerpt from an essay he wrote for The Independent, A Revolution for Russia’s Words: My departure from the language, the loss of Russian murmuring in my ears, forced me to stop, to be silent. On the rare occasions ...
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Why This Book Should Win: "Basti" by Itizar Husain [BTBA 2013]
As in years past, we will be highlighting all 25 titles on the BTBA Fiction Longlist, one by one, building up to the announcement of the 10 finalists on April 10th. A variety of judges, booksellers, and readers will write these, all under the rubric of “Why This Book Should Win. You can find the whole series by clicking ...
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Late-March 2103 Open Letter Newsletter
For anyone who’s not already a subscriber, click here to read the new issue of the Open Letter Newsletter. And if you’re not a subscriber, you should definitely sign up now. It’s the best way to find out what’s going on with Open Letter, AND we’ve been giving away free books via the ...
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Words Without Borders's Amazing James H. Ottaway, Jr. Award for the Promotion of International Literature
Announced yesterday by Words Without Borders, the James H. Ottaway Jr. Award for the Promotion of International Literature is one of the coolest prizes ever: The Ottaway is named in honor of the organization’s first chair and current Chair Emeritus, James H. Ottaway, Jr., in recognition of his leadership during the ...
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Latest Review: "Lenin's Kisses" by Yan Lianke
The latest addition to our Reviews Section is a piece by Brendan Riley on Yan Lianke’s Lenin’s Kisses, translated from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas and published by Grove Press. This is Yan Lianke’s third book to come out in English translation, the first two being Serve the People! and Dream of Ding ...
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