Happiest Friday, Asymptote pals! For those of us north of the equator, this summer season bodes lots of sweat and sunshine. Here’s some Internet reading to keep you occupied.
Japanese novelist and perennial point of Nobel speculation Haruki Murakami’s identified the very moment he became a novelist: at a baseball game. (Do you remember becoming a blog reader, dear one?). And over at the Paris Review, more behind-the-scenes author insight: here’s a full, unedited recording of an interview with Polish poet, translator, and all-around phenom Czeslaw Milosz.
Check out the longlist for the inaugural iteration of the First Novel Prize—nominees include writers like Sara Novic, who also happens to be a translator (that’s the best kind of writer, in our humble opinion). And the ALA announced its Carnegie winners this week, which included Anthony Doerr (for All The Light We Cannot See)—which was this year’s Pulitzer winner, too.
French filmmaker Claire Denis is going to embark on her very first full-length English-language project—an as-yet-untitled science fiction adventure, penned with the help of literary power couple British writer Zadie Smith and Irish poet Nick Laird. We can’t wait. And Quebecoise author Nelly Arcan passed away in 2009, but her most recently-published book, Breakneck, proves she should be treasured for years to come. Fellow Canadian novelist (and, like Murakami above, fellow focal point of Nobel speculation) Margaret Atwood is contributing her own graphic art to a kickstarter-funded anthology of geek-girl comics.
Last week, we reported on literary fraud in South Korea—this week, Argentina‘s in the mix, as the estate of literary legend Jorge Luis Borges sues contemporary writer Pablo Katchadijan for having riffed a little too much on Borges’ Aleph. Speaking of riffs: you may be able to read the Paris Review‘s actual interview of the long-standing couple of Russian translators, Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear—or you could read the blog’s re-imagining of their translation of a restaurant menu.