Without a doubt, this week’s spine tingling, gosh-wow literary hullabaloo was due to the fortuitous discovery of two new poems by Greek lyric poet (and all-around legend) Sappho. Our archives of Sappho’s poetry are notoriously fragmented, but Oxford papyrologist Dr. Dirk Obbink says the poems are “indubitably” hers—heartening news for lyric-lovers all around.
Sappho’s seventh-century BC poetry makes waves despite our ever-changing reading habits. How fitting that blogging turns twenty this week—happy birthday from all of us at Asymptote blog (we’re sure the live-blogging Chinese lunar rover is celebrating in its own way, too). At MIT, science fiction becomes hard science: transforming the tingly feeling of a good book into a full-on sensory experience, and the age-old practice of annotation goes digital. In a dystopian turn, Slate ponders a comma-less English language (if “dystopia” sounds like “utopia” to you, you might want to check out this dystopian New York map). Despite a week that sounds clipped from 2050, reminders that reading stays the same: in Italy, a book cart spreads the love of reading, and in New York, the Rochester Public Library offers living, breathing human “books” for check-out. If there isn’t a library near you (for shame!), rest assured: English literary masthead Ben Jonson’s complete works are offered in their entirety online—those should keep you occupied for quite a while. Honor a different literary heritage by celebrating Bengali literary pioneer Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s 190th birthday this week. Finally, a dead language revived by the people themselves: the Latin Wikipedia reaches 100,000 entries.
Last week’s Jaipur Lit Fest continues to impress literati across the world: check out Elen Turner’s dispatch on the blog or get up to speed by watching the festival’s panels on YouTube for yourself. It was a good week for literary accolades: in Australia, the Victorian Prize for Literature is awarded to poet Jennifer Maiden for her collection Liquid Nitrogen, while Nathan Filer snags the United Kingdom’s 2013 Costa Book Award for his debut The Shock of the Fall. It’s no secret that many deserving books are undeservedly snubbed, and Bookslut blog wants to fix that: introducing the Daphne Awards, amending literary injustices fifty years past. If this year’s Sochi Olympics aren’t your thing, check out the impressive linguistic athleticism in Russia’s tenth-annual Persian-language Olympiad. For translation lovers, recognition is an award in itself: Three Percent’s 2013 database has busted the 500-book mark!
2014 might be the year of reading women (perhaps you even read about it on our blog), but lest you forget women writers exist across the world: at ArabLit, it’s the year of reading (Arab) women, and at South Asia Book Blog, South Asian female writers join in on the #readwomen2014 movement. Literary habits differ across the world: in the United States, disheartening statistics suggest book-reading is on the decline—same goes for readers in Finland. In Zimbabwe, writer Tinashe Mushakavanhu blames publishers for the country’s poor literary outlook—but others keep hope. Hong Kong unfortunate literary situation. Despite the world’s fourth-largest population, Indonesian literature is unfairly marginalized: here’s how to fix that. Take heart, dear readers: it isn’t bad news all around… Despite a (supposedly) depressing national literature, bookstores in Sofia, Bulgaria are absolutely booming.
Political turmoil is a thorn in our literary sides: a book party for teen activist and inspiration Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan has been cancelled amid murky circumstances. Egypt’s immensely valuable National Library and Archives has been partially destroyed due to the detonation of a car bomb. Dangerous times for at-risk languages: the Iranian Persian Language Academy cracks down on groups advocating local language education in schools. In Hong Kong, literary dissenters (like publisher Yao Wentian) are silenced by arrest. A reminder that we’re good at heart: in Shanghai, a Chinese family searches the owner of a Jewish refugee’s 2,000-volume book collection it has guarded for over seventy years.
Finally, it is cold season, and if you feel like you’ve got a perennially stuffed nose… English may actually be to blame for that.