This week, our reporters bring you news of new publications, prizes, and book fairs in Brazil and the release of new novels in Spain examining the Franco regime. Read on to find out more!
Daniel Persia, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Brazil
Things are heating up in Brazil, as summer carries on in full force and the Sambadrome gears up for its first parade of the decade. Brazil is more than just Carnaval, though, as Eliane Brum reminds us in The Collector of Leftover Souls (Graywolf Press), translated by Diane Grosklaus Whitty and longlisted for the National Book Award. A prolific journalist and documentary filmmaker, Brum calls out the reader in the first few pages of the book: “Whenever I visit an English-speaking country, I notice Brazil doesn’t exist for most of you. Or exists only in the stereotype of Carnival and soccer. Favelas, butts, and violence.” Brum invites the reader on a journey into indigenous villages, through environmental destruction (and reconstruction), and into the heart and soul of politics in Brazil. The translation resonates in the midst of growing tensions over fires in the Amazon, met by what Brum characterizes as an unfit and “destructive” response by the Bolsonaro administration.
Environmental awareness is sure to be one of the topics addressed by writers competing for this year’s SESC Prize for Literature, one of Brazil’s most distinguished awards for early-career writers. First established in 2003, the award seeks to support emerging talent by helping young writers navigate the editorial market in Brazil. Competition will be stiff; last year saw a record number of submissions—1,043 novels and 926 short story collections. The winning authors will have their work published and distributed by Record Editorial Group. Submissions will remain open until February 20, 2020.
As we look further ahead, Flipoços, the International Literary Festival of Poços de Caldas (Minas Gerais, Brazil) will celebrate fifteen years with the theme “Woman and Literature: From Poetry to Power.” Running from April 25 to May 3, 2020, the festival will honor Brazilian women writers such as Carolina Maria de Jesus, Clarice Lispector, and Ana Maria Machado. The festival’s distinctly Brazilian lineup stands out this year, as critics voice their discontent over the recent selection of American writer Elizabeth Bishop as honoree for the nation’s largest literary event—the International Literary Festival of Paraty. Among the primary reasons for concern: Bishop’s support of the military coup in 1964. Bishop will be the first foreigner to be honored in the festival’s eighteen-year history.
Leah Scott, Social Media Manager, reporting from Spain
After a lengthy holiday season, the people of Spain have finally settled back into quotidian life. Here, Christmas festivities stretch for nearly two weeks, beginning with Noche Buena on December 24 and ending with El Dia de los Reyes on January 6. And as the luminous Navidad glow yields to the hum of normal routine, excitement for the year’s upcoming book releases and literary affairs is beginning to brew like a large pot of pote.
While the most famous and prestigious events—numerous International Literature Conferences, the Madrid Book Fair, the Miguel de Cervantes Prize ceremony, etc.—won’t happen until spring, several smaller gatherings are gearing up to showcase the dazzling authors local to Spain’s vibrant literary scene. On February 18, for example, a release party for Margot Chamorro’s new novel, Tiempo Roto, will take place at the Traficantes de Sueños bookstore in Madrid. Chamorro’s novel chronicles the harrowing experience of a woman in the years that followed the Spanish Civil War, examining the struggles that many endured during the long decades of Francisco Franco’s totalitarian rule. A topic that remains taboo almost fifty years after the dictator’s death, franquismo has been making a marked appearance on the pages of Spanish writers in recent years. Its relevance reached a notable zenith when Franco’s remains were exhumed from a mausoleum in the Valley of the Fallen and later relocated to a cemetery in Madrid last October.
Indeed, this theme of life under Franco has permeated the prolific works of Javier Marías, who spoke to the New York Times last August about the pervasive nature of Franco’s legacy in contemporary Spanish culture. This conversation happened in conjunction with the English-language release of his latest novel, Berta Isla, which follows a young couple navigating life in a country still gripped by Franco’s rule. More recently, Barcelona-based author Javier Cercas is celebrating the English-language publication of his “nonfiction novel” Lord of all the Dead, released in the U.S. on January 14. Cercas’s book also examines the rippling effects of the Franco regime, focusing on the story of his own great uncle, who fought and died for the dictator.
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Read more dispatches on the Asymptote blog: