Choosing the Nobel, farewell Tadeusz Różewicz, and more
It was another great week, filled with announcements from various literary prizes. Below, we’ve provided links to announcements about the Best Translated Book Awards, the Lambda Literary Prize, and Orion Book Awards. Our Neustadt lit links also contain information on the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, so make sure to head there as well!
News, Reviews, and Interviews
How can a single person read the entire world in just one year? Ann Morgan, author of the blog Reading the World, shares how she was able to do it in a new interview.
Translators reflect on their first encounters with Gabriel García Márquez’s work in a new tribute piece for Words Without Borders.
This week, we said farewell to Tadeusz Różewicz, one of Poland’s and the world’s best poets, who passed away at the age of 92. His latest memoir, Mother Departs, published by Stork Press Books, was listed on our 75 Notable Translations of 2013 reading list.
What is it like to be part of the group of scholars who chooses the world’s most prestigious literary prize? Speaking at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, professor Kjell Espmark gives us an insider view into the workings of the Nobel Prize Committee.
Unnamed Press, a small, independent literary publisher based in Los Angeles, talked translation, international culture, and their publishing future with the Los Angeles Times this week.
The wait is over! The 2014 Best Translated Book Awards for fiction and poetry have been announced, including the excellent books that also made runners-up.
Every year, the Orion Book Award honors books that “deepen the reader’s knowledge of the natural world.” This year’s fiction finalists are perfect for nature lovers the world over. (For more eco-lit, don’t miss the May/June 2014 issue of World Literature Today!)
The Lambda Literary Awards highlight rising and emerging LGBT voices. This year, the Independent asked the nominees to choose one poem to share. (Interested in more LGBT lit? See the special section from the September 2013 issue.)
The PEN World Voices Festival is in full swing in NYC. If you’d like to follow along with the discussion, our friends at the Mantle are regularly blogging about the topics, speakers, and sights and sounds found at this year’s event.
For Your Calendar
The application period for the Charles Wallace India Trust is officially open! Awarded annually, this fellowship program provides residency at the University of East Anglia to translators from India.
Fun Finds and Inspiration
Our fearless editor in chief, Daniel Simon, recorded and uploaded a reading of Boris Pasternak’s poem “A Wedding” for the Poetry Foundation’s Record-a-Poem program and Poem in Your Pocket Day.
BuzzFeed has an interactive quiz for just about anything and everything, including this fun literary one: How Many Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novels Have You Read?
