Midnight's Children the Booker of Bookers, Again
Despite Sara Kramer’s most passionate campaigning for J.G. Farrell’s Siege of Krishnapur, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children once again has received the “Booker of Bookers”: For the second time, Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie has been judged the best ever winner of the ...
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Not Sure This Is a Good Thing
From Tell Zell here’s an excerpt of a memo from Lee Abrams, Chief Innovation Officer at the Tribune Co.: *Books: Heard a conversation about how Book reporting doesn’t generate revenue and may have to go away. WAIT! Maybe Book reviews and coverage are one of those things that don’t generate revenue ...
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Zhu Wen's What Is Love and What Is Garbage
We’re planning to post a review of Zhu Wen’s short story collection I Love Dollars (first published by Columbia University Press and now available in paperback from Penguin) in the very near future, but in the meantime, Paper Republic has an excerpt from his first novel. I’ll let translator Cindy Carter set ...
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Books in Argentina
Over at the Guardian books blog, Karla Starr has a piece about the cost of books in Argentina: Then it occurred to me that it’s all down to purchasing power. Take Harry Potter – as plenty did both in Argentina and the UK. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sells for 108 pesos, which corresponds to the ...
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Looking for Chinese Translators
I just got this e-mail from PEN America about their Freedom to Write program and a special event they’re hosting on August 7th in support of jailed Chinese dissidents. All the info is below, but the bottom-line is that PEN is seeking Chinese translators to help work on this project. The date is coming up quick, so ...
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Ben Lytal on Nabokov
I’ve said it before, and will repeat it endlessly—Ben Lytal has one of the sweetest reviewing gigs there is. He has the opportunity to write about the latest works of international fiction, and at the same time, can write pieces like the one today on the recent New Directions reissues of Nabokov’s Laughter ...
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Illinois!
This past weekend, Pat Reardon featured Dalkey Archive Press, Northwestern University Press, University of Illinois Press, and University of Chicago Press in an article for the Chicago Tribune about how the State of Illinois is one of the centers of translation in the country. Translators are unofficial ambassadors, ...
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