David Foster Wallace, the Man Booker Prize, chocolate genius, and more
This week was full of exciting new discoveries and announcements. Below you'll find links to excerpts of 2012 Nobel Laureate Mo Yan's writing, a new short story from the archives of David Foster Wallace, and a profile of this year's Man Booker Prize winner, Hilary Mantel. Enjoy!
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Looking for more of Nobel Prizewinner Mo Yan's writing? Chinese Literature Today has an excerpt from Mo Yan's forthcoming book Sandalwood Death on its website, and Seagull Books has an excerpt from Change, published in 2010, at its blog.
Interested in the person behind the books? Read Granta's interview with Mo Yan, where he speaks about writing, translation, and censorship in China.
Is poetry really dead? The Rocky Mountain Collegian offers its opinion.
Did the Frankfurt Book Fair open up new opportunities for New Zealand publishers?
In a lecture from May, several authors discussed the following question: "Is nonfiction literature?" You can listen to or watch the lecture courtesy of the PEN American Center.
Sehba Sarwar recently posted an article at the Poets & Writers website about Voices Breaking Boundaries, a workshop exploring the subject of both local and global displacement.
An Israeli court recently ruled that Franz Kafka's papers are to be handed over to Israel's national library, where they will be available for public use.
Hilary Mantel won her second Man Booker prize this week. If you're curious about her writing, check out this profile the New Yorker composed after her big win.
For Your Calendar
The University of Oklahoma Press is now taking reserve orders for Mo Yan's Sandalwood Death, forthcoming next year.
2010 Puterbaugh Fellow Sherman Alexie's new book hit the markets last week, and now he's on tour. For our Portland readers, he's coming to a venue near you!
Fun Finds and Inspiration
Ever dreamed of jetting off to a place you read about in a book? Now you can! Just enter the contest for a chance to win a trip to France, courtesy of crime thriller Treachery in Bordeaux.
Is the secret to Nobel winners their level of chocolate consumption? NPR investigates.
Not all books are liked in their time. Here's a list of 15 scathing reviews of books we now consider "classics."
Ayapan is a language that might be dying out. There are only two living speakers, and they don't speak to each other because of a very drawn-out feud.
National Translation Day celebrations were held earlier this month in England. If you didn't have the chance to go, you can still witness the events through this Flickr album.
The New Yorker recently discovered a new David Foster Wallace short story about the Internet, now available on its website.
The New York Times paired poem "Hip-Hop Ghazal" by Patricia Smith with "Why Afghan Women Risk Death to Write Poetry," an article about a Kabul-based women's literary society.
Not sure where to start when it comes to reviewing translated literature? Susan Bernofsky blogs about some tips she learned at this year's ALTA conference.
