Diverse books, translation, and more

June 5, 2015

News, Reviews, and Interviews

We Need Diverse Books has stirred up debate on featuring more minorities in literature, specifically children’s literature. Bustle highlights 8 reasons why diverse books are powerful.

Time Magazine is jumping in on the debate about the underrepresentation of women in literature, this time as it applies to the gender of protagonists in prize-winning novels. The Neustadt International Prize for Literature recently announced its list of finalists for the 2016 prize, and 7 of the 9 finalists are women.

This Dialogue of One: Essays on Poets from John Donne to Joan Murray by Mark Ford received the 2015 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism. The Poetry Foundation annually honors the best book-length works of criticism devoted to poetry or poets. This year, Eyewear Publishing, an independent publisher, produced the award-winning collection.

This article from the New Yorker aims to shed light on the challenges of French-Canadian literature and how it has slowly changed over the past 60 years.

Chinese writers call for a better exchange of literature between China and the Western world. Literary critic and poet Zhao Lihong noted that China has translated thousands of Western writers’ works, but that number has not been reciprocated for contemporary Chinese literature.

Ooi Kok Hin writes about the instilled love of a country’s literature and how he feels Malaysian literature isn’t as well-known by its citizens or around the world.

Marina Warner, judge for the Man Booker International, calls for more literary translations from India, China, and the Arab world. Warner notes that only three percent of books published in the UK were translations.

Fun Finds and Inspiration

Literature and design collide in this visual guide featuring over 100 illustrated portraits of poets, authors, and writers. Created by John O’Sullivan, Literalogue highlights 40 major literary movements with a clever color-coded system of noses. Flip the card around to get more facts, reading lists, and similar authors.