Happy Friday, translation friends and fiends! Do you keep a diary? Literary journaling is a genre of its own—arguably the juiciest way to find the real-life parallels in our favorite novels—and Russian behemoth Leo Tolstoy’s work is no exception, though his struggles to narrate the self are arguably more insightful than my teenaged angst. Maybe perennial Nobel-favorite and Japanese author Haruki Murakami might like my tween journals a bit more, as he’s penning an advice column (available in English translation!).
On a more serious bent, Russian satirist and playwright Anton Chekhov dabbled in a genre not usually associated with the author of the Seagull: journalistic nonfiction. The writer penned a brutal examination of Russia’s prison system that the New Yorker has proclaimed the best journalism of the nineteenth century. And lest you think Leo was the only writerly talent in his household (perhaps his diaries reveal as much?), rest assured that his wife the Countess Sofiya Tolstoy’s own writing does not fail to impress.
We haven’t reported on literary awards for a while, and quite frankly it’s because the endless listing can get quite tedious (Foreign Policy might agree, as it wonders if international awards dilute world literature). But we can’t help but get excited about Typgraphical Era’s Translation Award finalists, which include several Asymptote friends, such as Wu Ming-yi‘s The Man with Compound Eyes (translated by Darryl Sterk) and Faces in the Crowd, by blog favorite Valeria Luiselli (translated by Christina MacSweeney), as well as With My Dog Eyes by Hilda Hilst (translated by Adam Morris), among others! We can’t help but be excited by the list, as well as by Typographical Era‘s impressive visual guide to 2015 in translated fiction—chapeau to you, Internet friends.
Would you dedicate 42,000 Wikipedia edits to a grammatical error that grinds your gears? This guy did, hoping to stop the widespread incorrect use of the phrase “comprised of” (it really should be “composed of,” FYI). And linguists everywhere agree, to the chagrin of grammarians everywhere: “like” is like, here to stay, guys.
Literature is freeing, in a way: here’s an update on a continent filled with talented—but unfortunately, terribly marginalized—literary voices: on writing from Africa. And more silent voices, speaking out: stories from Sri Lanka in the midst of conflict. Looking to the (distant) past, you might be pleased to hear that Spanish (first!) novelist Miguel de Cervantes’ coffin has been found after a nine-monthlong search. In the nearer past, you may be sad to hear about the passing of Chilean writer Pedro Lemembel.
We’re lucky (maybe?) for a subdued comments section. But trolls, here are thirteen ways of looking at you (Wallace Stevens might approve).