Neustadt finalists, literary maps, and more

May 29, 2015

News, Reviews, and Interviews

The 2016 Neustadt International Prize for Literature finalists were announced tonight! Congrats to Can Xue, Caryl Churchill, Carolyn Forché, Aminatta Forna, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Guadalupe Nettel, Don Paterson, Dubravka Ugresic, and Ghassan Zaqtan! 

Jenny Erpenbeck’s The End of Days, translated by Susan Bernofsky, received the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. An excerpt of this novel was published in the WLT November 2014 magazine.

The Best Translated Book Award for fiction went to The Last Lover by Can Xue, translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen. Can Xue is also one of the finalists for the Neustadt Prize.

George Szirtes, the recipient of this year’s Man Booker International prize talks about how important it was in choosing the right translator for his work.

A Stanford literary scholar says current Latin American authors are reshaping world literature. He argues that Latin American literature “shows remarkable diversity and reveals trends in how people read and write in today’s globalized era.”

Nicola Griffith analyzed data from the last 15 years of prestigious literary awards and found that books written by women about women aren’t as likely to win. Griffith examined the Pulitzer Prize, the Man Booker Prize, the National Book Award, and others.

Fun Finds and Inspiration

A new Google Maps mashup combines literature and travel. Now you can scan the globe to see over 200 places where books were set to get inspired in choosing your next read.

Do you ever get discouraged because it takes so long to finish a book? Well, now there’s an infographic with books you can read in under an hour.