National Book Award finalists, Canada’s literary confidence, and groundbreaking female authors
After Alice Munro and Eleanor Catton were announced as the Nobel Prize and Man Booker Prize winners, respectively, new questions have arisen about women in publishing. In the links below, you’ll find articles wondering about what’s next for women, as well as articles celebrating the triumphs of past prolific female writers. Enjoy!
News, Reviews, and Interviews
The National Book Award finalists were announced this week, with five great authors chosen for each category.
Poet Tade Ipadeola won this year’s Nigeria Prize for Literature.
In France, independent bookstores are taking e-commerce giant Amazon to task by banning the company from offering free shipping in France. But, wonders the New Yorker, will this work for other bookstores in other countries as well?
The Dayton Literary Peace Prizes were also announced this week. The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson and Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon were the big winners.
With two Canadian authors emerging as the big literary prize winners this year, is Canada now a confident literary country?
This week, the very first U.S.-based 24-hour automated library was installed in Norman, OK—WLT's home city.
As women writers come to light after the Nobel and Man Booker prize announcements, the New York Times wonders, where is the great American novel written by a woman?
The Minister of Culture in Iran has promised to re-investigate the reasons behind several of the country’s recent banned books.
When looking for a quality modern translation, what do you look for?
This week, the city of Kraków was announced as the seventh UNESCO City of Literature.
For Your Calendar
The Mantle is looking for help with its newest book, Gambit: An Anthology of New African Writing, and could use your support on Indiegogo.
The Modern Language Association (MLA) recently issued a call for papers on the subject of “Teaching Modern Arabic Literature in Translation.” Proposals are due by November 15.
If you live in or near London, don’t miss this upcoming opportunity to meet and chat with Ramsey Nasr, former Poet Laureate of the Netherlands.
Fun Finds and Inspiration
After two women won two very prestigious literary prizes last week, the Scottish Book Trust celebrated with a list of five other groundbreaking female authors.
With Halloween just around the corner, it’s time to fill your reading list with some spooky reads!
If you want to improve your interpersonal skills, a new study suggests you start reading literary fiction.
Peirene Press is hosting a literary treasure hunt all month long. If you find one of their books in the window of a UK-based independent bookstore, you could win a subscription to their 2014 Coming of Age book series.
Is poetry best read and understood in the original language? Linguists recently decoded how Shakespeare’s works would have sounded in Shakespeare’s time.
