Holidays are nearly upon us, but there is no rest in the world of literature. This Friday, Asymptote staff brings you dispatches from Spain, The United Kingdom, and Iran. Spain mourns the death of poet Adolfo Cueto, says Editor-at-Large Layla Benitez-James, while her colleague M. René Bradshaw has plenty of awards news from the UK. To wrap up, Editor-at-Large for Iran Poupeh Missaghi writes about the recent scandal involving the late poet and filmmaker Forugh Farrokhzad.
Layla Benitez-James, our Podcast Editor, gives us the rundown on literary awards and new publications:
Many in Spain’s creative community are mourning the death of Spanish poet Adolfo Cueto who passed away unexpectedly in Madrid on Sunday, December 4 at the young age of 47. His collection of poetry, Dragados y Construcciones, won him the Premio Alarcos de Poesía in 2010, followed by the Ciudad de Burgos de Poesía in 2013 for Diverso.es, and the Manuel Alcántara Prize in 2016.
As Spanish writers come to terms with losing one of their literary greats, they are also celebrating the accomplishments of Eduardo Mendoza, who has just won the Miguel de Cervantes Prize. The award celebrates an author’s entire career, and for Mendoza, the honor comes on the heels of the Premio Ciudad de Barcelona, Premio al “Libro del Año,” Premio de Novela Fundación José Manuel Lara Premio de la Cultura de Catalunya, and the Premio Franz Kafka, among many others. Mendoza was born in Barcelona in 1943, and his win has been especially heartwarming to the city. A group of young writers born after the invention of the prize in 1976 were inspired to get together and talk about the modern state of writing in Spain and Barcelona’s role as a key literary city.
The work of twelve important writers is about to debut in a new collection, Mujer, lenguaje y poesía, which will be forthcoming early in the New Year. Poets Alicia García Núñez, Lola Nieto, Laia López Manrique, Miriam Reyes, Chus Pato, Flavia Company, and Elena Medel, among others, will appear in this new anthology which hopes to expand the contemporary conversation of poetry in the country.
Further discussion and promotion of modern verse took place at the event “Displaced Verses: Nomadic Poetry Recital,” part of the recent Encuentro euroMediterráneo, a meeting of creative people showing solidarity with refugees. Participants hailed from eighteen Euro-Mediterranean countries: Spain, France, Belgium, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Libya, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. The conference continued the trend of poets and writers in Spain taking an active role in advocating for human rights, highlighting the overlap of the poetic and the political.
In a similar spirit, María Isabel Quiñones, also known as Martirio, dedicated her recent Premio Nacional de Músicas Actuales 2016 to “young people who are ready to fight.”
M. René Bradshaw, Editor-at-Large for the UK, brings us the literary update from England:
Year-end “Best-of’s”: The Guardian published its “Best books of 2016,” in which writers select their favorite reads. Several translated novels were nominated, including Mexican writer Daniel Saldaña París’ Among Strange Victims, translated by Christina MacSweeney, and Han Kang’s Human Acts, translated by Deborah Smith.
Two very British literary awards crowned their winners: Sarah Perry’s historical novel, The Essex Serpent, was awarded the Waterstones Book of the Year for 2016, beating the likes of J. K. Rowling and a recently discovered Beatrix Potter manuscript. Published by Profile Books’ imprint Serpent’s Tail in May, it was voted “overwhelmingly” as the title which booksellers were most proud to recommend to customers. Literary Review named Italian novelist Erri De Luca’s The Day Before Happiness the finalist of its infamous annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award. (Last year’s winner, Morrissey, won for such phrases as “bulbous salutation,” found in his widely chaffed debut novel.)
An aubade: In commemoration of the 31st anniversary of Philip Larkin’s death, a memorial stone—inscribed with lines from one of his most famous works, “our almost-instinct almost true/What will survive of us is love”—was unveiled in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner on December 2.
Next week in the capital: Paul Beatty will visit Cambridge (12/12) and the British Library (14/12) to discuss his 2016 Man Booker Prize-winning novel, The Sellout. The Donmar Warehouse’s adaptation of Bernard Shaw’s tragic classic, Saint Joan, opens on December 9. Sława Harasymowicz’s exhibition “To Spring To Come,” which tells the story of an aspiring poet, continues at the Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival (through 10/1).
Swing Time: Although Zadie Smith has just wrapped up the last of her public events in the UK to promote her latest novel—with a sold-out event sponsored by the London Review of Books—she is still a coveted oracle of timely thinkpieces. You can listen to her interview with The Penguin Podcast, which is trending on iTunes (UK), or read her interview about Donald Trump from The New Statesman.
And in Iran, Editor-at-Large Poupeh Missaghi and the literary community are asking about a famous dead poet’s love letters—public or private?
On November 29, Masoud Behnoud, an Iranian journalist based in London, posted a note on Facebook claiming that Forugh Farrokhzad, the late, legendary, Iranian poet and filmmaker, had married her lover Ebrahim Golestan, Iranian filmmaker and writer residing in the UK thirty years ago (making her Golestan’s second wife). The claim stirred intense debate, following another recent and controversial development regarding Farrokhzad’s life and relationship history.
On October 16, Khabgard, a well-known Persian literary website, published a love letter from Farrokhzad to Golestan. The day also marked the publication of a new book by Farzaneh Milani, an Iranian-American scholar who teaches at the University of Virginia. Forugh Farrokhzad: A Literary Biography with Unpublished Letters (in Persian but published outside of Iran by Persian Circle) is the result of Milani’s thirty years of research on the poet and includes interviews with more than seventy of her family members, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, along with thirty of her unpublished letters.
Farrokhzad (1935-1967), who died in a car accident at the age of thirty-two, is still perhaps the most beloved and controversial female Iranian poet today, both because of her unconventional life and her work. Her poetry delves into subjects that were (and continue to be) taboo, such as women’s carnal desires and freedoms and the upsetting of patriarchal and cultural traditions, all in a voice that is bare, direct, and non-apologetic.
The reactions to the letter and Behnoud’s claims have been all over the spectrum. Some consider the publication of the letters important to the study and our knowledge of the life and work of Farrokhzad, while others argue that her private life should have remained private. Some have questioned the authenticity of Behnoud’s claims and asked for evidence. Farrokhzad’s sister has been quoted suggesting that Behnoud commit suicide like Hemingway did when he felt he was declining. Others have used the revelation as an opportunity to engage in a more general discussion about the boundaries of private and public life for writers, artists, and other public figures.
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