Join the Asymptote Editors-at-Large for the first weekly roundup of the year as they bring to you dispatches on literary prizes, book festivals, and more! From opposition to the proposed “cultural canon” in Sweden, the Kenyan launch of Taban Lo Liyong’s most recent poetry collection, and the expert- and child-elected best children’s book in Croatia, read on to learn more!
Eva Wissting, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Sweden
Just before the Christmas holidays, on December 22, the Swedish Writers’ Union along with eight other Swedish organizations published a statement against a Swedish “cultural canon.” The statement is a response to a proposed formalized “Swedish cultural canon,” initiated by the new Swedish government and its Minister for Culture, Parisa Liljestrand. According to the organizations, a formalized Swedish cultural canon that would define the central Swedish literary and artistic works is “a very simplified way of trying to define culture and that the effect is rather to limit the breadth, diversity and variation in cultural activities.” Neighboring country Denmark introduced a very similar kind of formalized canon in 2006, “Kulturkanonen,” which was wildly debated. The canon was published in book form and on a website—the latter of which, however, was closed down six years later. Today, the formalized Danish canon is mostly forgotten, but it still dictates what is taught in high schools and colleges. Out of the fourteen Danish writers listed in this canon, Karen Blixen is the only woman, and several important names in Danish literary history are not included because they were considered too complicated for high school students. Whether a Swedish version of such a canon will be formalized remains to be seen.
Another form of canonization is through prestigious literary awards, and the most esteemed of them all in Sweden is the Nobel Prize in Literature. In December, both literary laureates for 2022 and 2021 participated in the festivities at Stockholm City Hall, since the in-person banquet was cancelled in 2021 due to COVID restrictions. The 2022 laureate, French memoirist and professor of literature Annie Ernaux, was awarded “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.” The previous year’s laureate, Abdulrazak Gurnah, is a Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic who was awarded “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
Wambua Muindi, Editor-at-Large for Kenya, reporting from Nairobi
Nairobi welcomed the last month of 2022 with The Nairobi Book Festival. Buzz around the festival was compounded by the fact that Nairobi had, a month prior, hosted international writers including the Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah. The festival was organized by NuriaStore, a leading bookstore committed to enhancing the reading culture in Kenya one book at a time, and the four-day event was hosted at the city’s oldest library, McMillan Memorial Library in the CBD. The festival sought to bring together local writers and readers and was a unique opportunity that, among other things, made the point that self-publishing is alive.
After the festival, December 5 saw the Kenyan launch of Taban Lo Liyong’s After Troy, a book-length poem published in 2021 by Deep South in South Africa. A familiar yet controversial name to many Kenyans and East Africans, especially those with a literary bent, Taban is still writing. The launch happened at the United Kenya Club, just across the road from the University of Nairobi—where he taught at the department of literature in the 1980s. This latest title borrows from the setting of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, but innovatively adapts the epic form to problematize gender with philosophical musing on the epics. Speaking at the launch, Taban said that “the book is not about Troy, but rather about humanity and human behaviour.”
Katarina Gadze, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Croatia
We end the year with another round of literary awards in Croatia. On the last day of the 28th Istrian Book Fair, the Fric Literary Prize returned in full force, announcing the finalists for the best fiction book of 2021/22. This year fifty-nine titles competed for the prize, and the winner will be announced in January 2023.
In December, we also celebrated the best of Croatia’s children’s publishing. Ovca u kutiji (“Sheep in a Box”) is a literary and artistic award that has been awarded since 2005 to the author of the most distinguished Croatian picture book for children. This year’s 18th Edition of Sheep in the Box went to Tata u pidžami by Svjetlan Junaković (Bodoni, 2022). In addition to the expert jury, the best picture book is also chosen by an independent children’s jury, and the book that children loved most this year was E-Crvenkapica by Silvije Šesto and Tea Plepelić (Semafora, 2022).
While childlike ingenuity and enthusiasm are a prerequisite for success in any book trade, making money is equally important. Profit margins can be much higher on antique books than on ordinary works, but that has not always been the case, and the pandemic undoubtedly took an additional toll.
Even when it comes to prizes, frugality, generosity, and good taste are the order of the day these days in Croatia, as reflected in this year’s winners of the country’s best everyday and antiquarian bookstores, which were recently announced. As part of a project to revitalize the publishing and bookselling sector, awards were given to the best independent bookstores (Pričozemska and Rockmark) and the best bookstore chains in Croatia (Znanje, Školska knjiga, Hoću knjigu). In the category of “Best Antique Bookshop,” the golden oldie of Rijeka, Mali Neboder, takes the top spot for bibliophiles and ephemera enthusiasts alike. The smell of tattered old paper, the feel of yellowed pages, the treasures that long ago fired the imagination of a lamented world have finally found their well-deserved recognition.
*****
Read more on the Asymptote blog: