opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 17 January 2025

11 January: de Boon shortlists | Prix Naissance d'une œuvre finalists | Book cafes in ... Riyadh
12 January: Alexis Wright profile | Surendra Mohan Pathak Q & A | Strange Pictures review
13 January: Ballerina review
14 January: Nobel nominees in 1974 | T.S. Eliot Prize | £2 George Orwell
15 January: Dublin Literary Award longlist | American creative writing and translation fellowships | Wortmeldungen finalists
16 January: Japanese literary prizes | Republic of Consciousness Prize (US+) longlist
17 January: Most anticipated in 2025 lists | DNA book

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       Most anticipated in 2025 lists

       Quite a few most-anticipated-in-2025 lists are out, including:

• Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025 - 291 books, covering the first half of the year
  
  
• Most Anticipated: The Great Winter 2025 Preview at The Millions -- nearly 100 titles
  
  
• 30 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2025 at Vulture
  
  
• The most anticipated books of 2025 at the AV Club
  
  
• The Most Anticipated Books of 2025 at Foreign Affairs -- "The biggest releases in foreign affairs, history, and economics."

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       DNA book

       As Emily Mullin reports at Wired, An Entire Book Was Written in DNA -- and You Can Buy It for $60; see also the Asimov Press information page.
       Apparently:

Each capsule was sealed under an inert atmosphere — meaning there is no oxygen or moisture inside the capsule — preserving the DNA inside for tens of thousands of years.

       Not the most convenient format for reading, however.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Japanese literary prizes

       They've announced the latest batch of winners of the prestigious Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes; see, for example, Alyssa I. Smith's report in The Japan Times, Japan's most prestigious literary awards go to a trio of contemporary voices.

       The Akutagawa Prize was shared by Ando Jose's DTOPIA -- see the Kawade publicity page -- and Suzuki Yui's ゲーテはすべてを言った ('Goethe Said It All') -- see the Asahi publicity page; I look forward to seeing the latter.

       The Naoki Prize went to 藍を継ぐ海 ('The Sea Inherits Indigo') by Iyohara Shin; see the Shinchosha publicity page.

       That DTOPIA cover is ... interesting:



(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Republic of Consciousness Prize (US+) longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Republic of Consciousness Prize for Independent Presses in United States and Canada (the press release is misdated '2024'; it was released yesterday).
       The only longlisted title under review at the complete review is Overstaying, by Ariane Koch.
       The shortlist will be announced 27 February and the winner on 12 March.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Dublin Literary Award longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Dublin Literary Award -- unfortunately so far only in this cumbersome (if well-illustrated, with all the covers ...) overview. (A simple list, folks; a simple text list will do -- indeed will do much better.)
       This is the prize where participating libraries -- 83 this year -- nominate the books for consideration -- the 71 that now make up the longlist -- before the panel of judges whittles it down to a shortlist ("of no more than ten titles") and then a winner.
       Of the 71 titles in the running, 26 are in translation, from 15 languages.
       Disappointingly, only three of the titles are under review at the complete review -- oddly, all translations from the French:

• Beyond the Door of No Return, by David Diop
• The Most Secret Memory of Men, by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
• Vladivostok Circus, by Elisa Shua Dusapin

       I do have a few more of these, but I haven't seen the vast majority of these titles.

       The shortlist will be announced 25 March, and the winner on 22 May.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       American creative writing and translation fellowships

       The (American) National Endowment for the Arts has announced a whole pile of grants -- "1,474 awards totaling $36,790,500 to support the arts" -- including 35 Creative Writing Fellowships (they're all for poetry this year) and 22 Translation Fellowships, for translation projects for "works from 17 languages and 21 countries into English" (unfortunately, you have to click on to each translator to learn about these projects -- god forbid they'd provide a simple text list with the basic information on one (web-)page ...).
       Good to see the translation support -- and I look forward to seeing some of these when they are published.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Wortmeldungen finalists

       They've announced the five finalists for this year's Wortmeldungen Ulrike Crespo Literaturpreis für kritische Kurztexte, a prize for critical, short texts that pays out an impressive €35,000; you can read the texts via the links on that shortlist page.
       Among the authors of the shortlisted texts is one by Clemens J. Setz.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Nobel nominees in 1974

       The Swedish Academy opens up the archives regarding Nobel nominations and deliberations fifty years after the fact, and so they've now opened up the archives for the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature, (in)famously shared by the Swedish Academy's own Eyvind Johnson and Aniara-author Harry Martinson.
       Kaj Schueler has published his annual look at the prize-selection in Svenska Dagbladet but it is, alas, paywalled, but the Swedish Academy has released the list (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) of nominations and nominators.
       First-time nominees include: Ralph Ellison, Uwe Johnson, Herbert Marcuse, 1980 laureate Czesław Miłosz, R.K.Narayan, 1994 laureate Ōe Kenzaburō, and 2005 laureate Harold Pinter.
       Elie Wiesel got a lot of nomination-support in 1974 -- but Borges, Nabokov, and Malraux didn't do too badly either. Not that that helped.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       T.S. Eliot Prize

       They've announced the winner of the 2024 T.S. Eliot Prize and it is Fierce Elegy, by Peter Gizzi; see also the publicity pages from Wesleyan University Press and Penguin, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       £2 George Orwell

       The British Royal Mint will start selling a George Orwell-commemorating £2 coin tomorrow.
       It certainly looks ... nice, and creepy:



       It even comes in a limited gold edition -- though the ostensibly £2-coin sets you back £1,515.00 here ..... But even the standard issue apparently isn't really meant to circulate. A shame: it might send a ... message.

       See also the AP article, ‘Big Brother is watching you': Collector’s coin marks George Orwell’s death 75 years ago.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Ballerina review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the latest by Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano, Ballerina, coming out from Yale University Press in their Margellos World Republic of Letters-series.

       (This is the sixteenth Modiano title under review at the site -- but I'm still way behind .....)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Alexis Wright profile

       At The Guardian Sian Cain profiles the author, in ‘I didn’t want to fit in a box of what an Aboriginal person should write’: how Alexis Wright found her voice.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Surendra Mohan Pathak Q & A

       In the Financial Express Garima Sadhwani has a Q & A with the The 65 Lakh Heist-author, in ‘Despite selling well, crime literature has been looked down upon’: Writer Surendra Mohan Pathak.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Strange Pictures review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Uketsu's novel, Strange Pictures.

       This was a huge bestseller in Japan, and is now appearing in English (and many, many other languages); I'm curious to see how well it does abroad. (The appeal should translate fairly well, even if Uketsu doesn't have the same YouTube-reach in foreign markets as he does in his domestic one.)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       de Boon shortlists

       They've announced the shortlists for this year's de Boon Prize -- a Flemish prize for Dutch-language literature and, at €50,000 for the winner in each of the two categories -- fiction/non and children's/YA literature -- one of the top three Dutch-language book prizes.
       The winners will be announced 25 March.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Prix Naissance d'une œuvre finalists

       They've announced the seven authors for this year's prix Naissance d'une œuvre, a French award for the best fourth, fifth, or sixth novel by an author.
       The winner of this €20,000 prize will be announced 21 May.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Book cafes in ... Riyadh

       At Arab News Waad Hussain reports on Riyadh's literary havens: Where coffee meets the love of books,
       These look pretty nice -- but not necessarily what I would have expected/hoped to find in Saudi Arabia.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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