This week, our Editors-at-Large explore blockchain publishing, poets’ novels, and literary surrealism. Read on to find out more!
Charlie Ng, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Hong Kong
In December, Hong Kong independent bookstore Mount Zero Books announced that it will be closing in March 2024 due to anonymous complaints on the bookstore’s “illegal occupation of government land”, and the resulting warning from the Lands Department regarding the tiled platform outside of the bookstore. Mount Zero Books’ experience is not an isolated issue; it is part of the narrowing of Hong Kong’s cultural space under the current political climate, in which independent publishers and bookstores are facing increasing control and censorship. In 2022, for instance, local independent publisher Hillway Press was not allowed to participate in the annual Book Fair organised by Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The publishing house then planned to host a “Hongkongers’ Book Fair” featuring 14 independent local publishers and bookstores in the shopping mall Mall Plus in Causeway Bay. Unfortunately, the book fair was forced to cancel as they were accused of violating the terms of venue use. In December 2023, one of the founders of Hillway Press emigrated and the company decided to close down. What is more, two of Hong Kong’s remaining independent bookstores, Have A Nice Stay and Hunter Bookstore, have said that they face frequent complaints and regular monitoring by government departments.
In light of increasing challenges — both economic and political — faced by the local publishing industry, Hong Kong writers are beginning to explore new means of publishing their works and reaching out to readers. Hong Kong writer Dung Kai-cheung has been counting down to the 15 February publication of his new work, Autofiction, on his own writing platform, Dungfookei. Autofiction will be published in the form of an NFT. The new autobiographical nonfiction is part of the writer’s exploration of the potential of Web3’s blockchain technology for decentralizing publishing and granting more autonomy in user control and ownership of data. In 2023, Dung joined Likecoin — an application-specific blockchain for decentralized publishing developed by Hong Kong entrepreneur Ko Chung-kin — to republish his famous novel Tiangong Kaiwu·Lifelike, which became the first Chinese novel to be published as an NFT. While Tiangong Kaiwu·Lifelike is available for purchase on Likecoin’s website, Dung also developed his own platforms Dungfookei and DKC in Translation to digitalise his works and interact with readers in new ways. Although the project is still experimental, by turning to the web for more freedom and opportunities, Dung’s foray into Web3 and NFT publishing represents an innovative frontier in the evolving landscape of literature and author-reader interaction.
Rene Esau Sanchez, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Mexico
On January 29th, the poet, translator, and editor Héctor Carreto died at the age of 70. Carreto was a significant figure in Mexico’s literary world: not only did he translate the works of Fernando Pessoa and José Saramago into Spanish, but for many years, he was in charge of a Poetry Workshop at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and taught a Creative Writing class at the Autonomous University of Mexico City (UACM). In other words, he was responsible for teaching and nurturing many young poets and writers who later were able to publish in nationally-renowned magazines like Periódico de poesía, Luvina, and Punto de partida. His humility, humor, wry attitude towards love and death, and his patience with his students will leave an unfillable void in the academic and literary panorama of Mexico.
On a very different note, Mexican poet and editor Isabel Zapata has just released her first novel, Troika. Zapata is known for her book of poetry, A Whale is a Country, and her essay In Vitro: On Longing and Transformation, both translated into English by Robin Myers. She is also the co-founder of Ediciones Antílope, an independent publishing company that often looks for ways of connect literatures, languages and cultures. Troika tells two stories that are, perhaps, about the same theme of loss and absence: a girl and her relationship with her dog, and a woman who moves to another city to find a job. Zapata started writing the book during the pandemic. Her childhood memories and her relationship with her young daughter shaped Troika and the book is meant to accompany her daughter as she grows; it is a portrait of who Zapata is now as a woman and an author.
Sofija Popovska, Editor-at-Large, reporting from North Macedonia
Vlada Urošević —North Macedonian “Novel of the Year” contest winner and recipient of the Golden Wreath at the Struga Poetry evenings — recently co-authored a seminal work of literary scholarship with Lidija Kapuševska-Drakulevska—Ptici vo akvarium: nadrealizam 1924–2024 (Birds in an Aquarium: Surrealism 1924–2024). This wide-ranging text both returns the classics of surrealism to the limelight and presents an analysis of surrealist elements in modern Macedonian poetry. Per Vladimir Jankovski’s preface, the book is “one of the most complete interpretations of surrealism [in general],” and “the most thorough study of a literary movement published in [North Macedonia].”
Urošević is a North Macedonian writer, poet, and essayist. His oeuvre includes a wide array of literary genres—prose, poetry, essays, travelogues, literary and art criticism, and translations. He is a Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of St Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, where he teaches nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature. His co-author, Kapuševska-Drakulevska, is a professor of Comparative Poetics at the St Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, a member of the Macedonian P.E.N. and other organizations, and an author of numerous scholarly publications on Macedonian literature, imagology, intercultural relations, memory and identity.
Birds in an Aquarium is, Jankovski writes, “a comprehensive… overview of the genesis, development, theory, themes, techniques, mythology, and phenomena of Surrealism”, notable for its rigor and diversity. This study does not stop at the usual, West-Eurocentric survey of the Surrealist movement. Aside from its well-known French representatives, it also has a strong regional emphasis, centering Serbian surrealist works. Although it does feature “the English, Spanish, German, American, Italian, Czech, Romanian, Belgian and other European literatures,” Urošević and Kapuševska-Drakulevska’s study extends its panoramic view to include “the literatures of Latin and Central American countries and Japan.” Importantly, the authors also consider Surrealism’s strong political undercurrents—especially its call to deconstruct the status quo—and combine “a rigorous theoretical approach” with “a strong affection and passion” for the primary texts in their analysis.
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