Happy friday, translation friends! We frequently post all sorts of dispatches on the blog—when the Asymptote family stretches far and wide to connect with other readers all across the globe—but rarely does our team encounter literature under threat. Here’s a report on the Karachi literary festival, in which the Guardian contends that “books really are a matter of life and death.” (they aren’t elsewhere, either?!). And in Egypt, good news for freedom of the press: a high court has granted bail to two Al Jazeera journalists. And Guernica reports on another country in conflict struggling to find voice on the international stage: Syria in image.
Edgar Allen Poe may often be considered one of the United States‘ foremost literary voices, but the TLS muses on the strange nature of his writerly voice—perhaps he owes more to France than Uncle Sam. But perhaps that’s just France being France—as the French embassy plants the French flag in bookstores across the United States in hopes of raising its literary clout stateside. And at the Paris Review, musings on Danish author Aksel Sandemose’s indelible satirical mark on his own nation’s literature, and beyond.
Underway this week in New York, the Festival Neue Literatur highlights German-language authors from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and beyond. You might like this year’s theme: LOVE AND MONEY (or you might just like love, or money). And further reading: Once excerpted on the blog, now in review: via Dalkey, 1922 Georgian tome Kvachi, written by Mikheil Javakhishvil and translated by Donald Rayfield (the Millions likes it: “if you read one 500-page classic of Georgian literature this year, make sure it is this one“). Finally, in case you missed it as a teenage girl: a lot of Sweet Valley High books were actually ghostwritten by Confucius himself.
Interested in prizes? The International Prize for Arabic Fiction has announced its shortlist (and at ArabLit, blog friend Marcia Lynx Qualey gives the list a thoroughly helpful breakdown). Clock’s a-ticking for the Best Translated Book Award—longlist is to be announced in April. Have you been keeping up with the contenders, or have you got any picks of your own?
Finally, this week witnessed the passing of two indelible voices in letters. On remembering Philip Levine, American poet laureate, and André Brink, South African novelist.