Writing is a notoriously penny-pinching métier, unless you’re Canadian Nobel winner Alice Munro—whom the Canadian government has graced with a $5 commemorative coin of her very own. Don’t count on making literary purchases with the coin any time soon, though: the coin costs $69.95, which—granted, we aren’t mathematicians here at Asymptote—seems like a not-so-smart investment. READ MORE…
Posts by Patty Nash
Weekly News Roundup, 28th March 2014: Pretty literary pennies, Prison reading
This week's literary highlights from across the world
Weekly News Roundup, 21st March 2014: Welcome to Translationland
A look at some of the most important literary news of the past week
Spring has sprung today, but it’s more than likely the weather is still less-than-stellar, wherever you are. At the New York Review of Books, British novelist Zadie Smith eulogizes the seasons in the shadow of climate change. Elsewhere, watch a conversation between Smith and Nigerian-American author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on writing postcolonial literature, or read about Adichie’s literary Lagos.
Fellow Nigerian-American writer Teju Cole posted his essay A Piece of the Wall, on immigration, entirely on Twitter (here’s how the social media platform is changing the face of fiction, despite griping critics). Themes of diaspora and identity certainly resonate with readers: Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo has snagged the PEN/Hemingway Award for her novel We Need New Names, about a 10-year-old girl moving to the United States. But don’t make these mistakes when reading immigrant fiction: a view from Germany, via our friends at Words Without Borders.
Weekly News Roundup, 14th March 2014: BTBA (yay!), Illustrated texts
A look at some of the most important literary news of the past week
We report on book prize-awarding every week here at the Roundup, but it isn’t often that we’re so giddy to see some nominations: our friends at Three Percent have announced the longlist for the 2014 Best Translated Book Award, awarded in categories of both fiction and poetry. We’re especially happy to see the remarkably diverse longlist include several Asymptote alums, past and present: our very own Howard Goldblatt, Asymptote contributing editor, is up for his translation of Mo Yan’s Sandalwood Death (read Goldblatt’s recent essay about his relationship with author Huang Chunming here!), Mircea Cărtărescu, longlisted for Blinding (excerpted in our October 2013 issue), Arnon Grunberg for Tirza (Grunberg’s piece on J.M. Coetzee here), last year’s winner Lászlo Krasznahorkai for Seibobo Here Below (read his remarkable short prose in our July 2013 issue, translated by blog contributor Ottilie Mulzet), Javier Marías’ The Infatuations, translated by the venerable Margaret Jull Costa (interviewed here), Stig Sætterbakken’s Through the Night (don’t miss our review from our January issue), and many, many more—phew! One thing’s for sure: we don’t envy the difficult decisions those judges have got to make in the coming weeks.
Weekly News Roundup, 7th March 2014: March madness, Big lit bullies, Lit whizzing
A look at some of the most important literary news of the past week
It’s the first Friday of March, and the month’s madness is already underfoot. If you think we’re referring to the sort of lunacy of hoops, athleticism, and bouncing orange balls, don’t be fooled: in the wake of the madness that is AWP in Seattle, this March portends quite a bit for literary lunatics, as the finalists for several big-name prizes are announced… READ MORE…
Weekly Roundup, 28th February 2014: Asymptote in Seattle, Anti-Anachronism-Bot, Socrates or Seacrest?
A look at some of the most important literary news of the past week
If you are anywhere near the Pacific Northwest, head on over to Asymptote’s booth at the AWP, or the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in Seattle, Washington. Good news is that after widespread outcry, the conference is open to the bookish riffraff public, which means you should absolutely come check out the literati—including our managing editor Tara FitzGerald and Central Asia editor-at-large Alex Cigale! They’ll be answering your questions and raffling away translated goodies. READ MORE…
Weekly News Roundup, 21st February 2014: Translation is the prize!
A look at some of the most important literary news this past week
This week in literary prizewinning witnessed what seems like yet another entry in the Good, the Bad, and the downright Strange. While we can’t really complain about the fact that the Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists include more translations than the average translation-phobic English-language book prizes, the Times omitted to mention the translators’ names—or the fact that the books were translations themselves.
Weekly news Roundup, 14th February 2014: NASA fiction, Vietnamese pioneering, The (funny) Hummus
A look at some of the most important literary news this past week
We’ve got an ambiguous relationship with today’s rosy-hued holiday. If you choose to partake without requisite romantic partner, express self-love by treating yourself to books! There’s nothing dreamier than cozying up with a reading list inspired by former Asymptote contributor and (according to Susan Sontag) “master of the apocalypse” Hungarian László Krasznahorkai. If a trip down memory lane with the likes of Kafka, Krudy, and Bernhard doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, don’t fret: you could catch up on Norwegian memoirist Karl Ove Knaussgaard’s musings anticipating the English-language release of the third installment to his epic autobiographical novel, My Struggle (and read a sneak peek here). Austrian author Stefan Zweig’s work has been largely overlooked, but that may change soon thanks to hipster filmmaker Wes Anderson’s upcoming The Grand Budapest Hotel. If none of these options sound sufficiently enticing, go on a literary date with nostalgia: before he was a big-name writer, Japanese author Haruki Murakami was proprietor of a swanky jazz club. READ MORE…
Arash Allahverdi’s “Shitkilling,” translated from the Farsi by Thade Correa and Alireza Taheri Araghi, is a powerful poetry standout in Asymptote’s Winter Issue. It’s seductive: inviting its readers to read, “to come and do drugs,” to submit to the poem’s provocations—and “as if semen drink the water”—the poem is a one-of-a-kind experience of the high and low, of the routine and the extraordinary. READ MORE…
Weekly News Roundup, 7th February 2014: Sochi scandals, Library changes, Humans and their hometowns
A look at some of the most important literary news this past week
The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi blast off in just a few short hours—but despite transcontinental fanfare, Russia’s severe censorship and anti-homosexuality laws have already (rather predictably) overshadowed this year’s Games. Over 200 authors have signed a petition with the international PEN Center, including the likes of Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, and Günter Grass, in an open letter condemning Putin’s recently passed gay propaganda and blasphemy laws. In Guernica, an interview with investigative journalist Masha Gessen on Russia’s shrinking public space and the “personal catastrophe” of self-imposed exile. Masha Gessen edited OR Books’ recently published Gay Propaganda: Russian love Stories, putting faces to those affected by the oppression (read excerpts here). Amid political controversy, the PEN Center brings light to an often-overlooked element of contemporary Russia: what’s the literary scene like today? We’ll give you a primer: check out three contemporary Russian women poets or ten wonderful Russian novels you probably haven’t read yet.
On January 22, translator Lucas Klein posted Translation & Translation Studies as a Social Movement, responding to a LARB review of Mo Yan’s Sandlewood Death that only fleetingly mentioned its translator, Howard Goldblatt. The post went viral, and rightly so: Xiao Jiwei’s unfortunate review was symptomatic of the predominant tendency to make translators invisible—a tendency that hurts not only the translators themselves, Klein argues, but the quality of translations and literary criticism as a whole. The solution? Translators must organize—demanding respect commensurate with their role in shaping the world. An interview with Asymptote. READ MORE…
Weekly News Roundup, 24th January 2014: Overrating American literature, Libraries in flux, Ironical semicolons
A look at some of the most important literary news this past week
Xiaolu Guo’s got a bone to pick with American publishers. At a panel called “the Global Novel” at the Jaipur International Literary Festival, she (now-famously) remarked, “American literature is massively overrated,” and it was this week’s grumble heard ‘round the literary world. She has got some very good points—here’s the discussion in full—but that’s not the whole story. Via Three Percent, a rant in response. READ MORE…
Weekly News Roundup, 17th January 2014: Twitter’s Beowulf, Net neutrality, Woof woof poetry
A look at some of the most important literary news this past week
First things first: if Asymptote’s third anniversary January Issue—featuring the likes of J.M. Coetzee, Victor Rodriguez Núñez, and the winners of our Close Approximations contest— isn’t on your radar, you’re seriously missing out. Check it out now! If you like the issue so much you feel like celebrating, join the fête in London, Zagreb, Buenos Aires, Philadelphia, Sydney, Berlin, New York, or Boston! READ MORE…
Weekly News Roundup, 10th January 2014: Looking ahead, Literary algorithms, Standard English’s imminent death
A look at some of the most important literary news of the past week
Hindsight is 20/20. Only one-and-a-half weeks into the new year, here at Asymptote we’re still mulling on what the past year means for the one to come. 2014 promises to be a good year for new translations, highlighted in part by the English PEN center’s most-anticipated in 2014 compilation, or Publishers Weekly’s take on graphic novels in translation.
Weekly News Roundup, 20th December 2013: Copyright struggles, BTBA speculation, Kafka-esque video games
A look at some of the most important literary news of the past week
2013 isn’t over yet, which means ‘tis (still) the season for awards and year-end lists. Of course, at Asymptote we’re partial to translated literature (you could say we’re number three on this list), which means we’re especially excited about Three Percent’s upcoming Best Translated Book Award. Over at Three Percent, our very own editor-at-large Daniel Medin reflects on his personal favorites for this year’s award—and some Asymptote appearances, like Mircea Cărtărescu’s Blinding, are in the mix. The head of the Complete Review Michael Orthofer first reflects on this year’s translated Dutch fiction in the running, then on the Best Translated Book Award’s treatment of that ever-snubbed category, genre fiction.