opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 31 May 2025

21 May: International Booker Prize | il Premio Strega Europeo | Sami Rohr Prize | ny journal of books closes down | Sakina's Kiss review
22 May: Prix mondial Cino Del Duca | Turmoil at the Slovak Literary Centre | Tadeusz Bradecki Prize | Society of Authors shortlists | Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize shortlist
23 May: Dublin Literary Award | Wolff Translator's Prize | TransPort Literacki report | Enuma Elish review
24 May: Stella Prize
25 May: Schein Gábor Q & A | Euphrates Literary Festival | The Labyrinth of Fortune review
26 May: Literary street names in Romania | Rosa Mistika review
27 May: Prix Jean d'Ormesson | SWR Bestenliste at 50
28 May: Letterenfonds Vertaaltalent Prijs
29 May: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (1938-2025)
30 May: Shortlists: HKW International Literature Award - CWA Daggers
31 May: James Tait Memorial Black Prizes

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       James Tait Memorial Black Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's James Tait Memorial Black Prizes -- "presented by the University of Edinburgh since 1919" -- with both the fiction and the biography winner works in translation.
       The fiction prize went to My Heavenly Favourite by Lucas Rijneveld, in Michele Hutchison's translation; see also the publicity pages from Graywolf Press and Faber.

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

       Shortlist: HKW International Literature Award

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Haus der Kulturen der Welt Prize for Contemporary Literatures in Translation, a leading German prize for a work in translation.
       The six titles were selected from 118 submissions translated from 29 languages; two of the shortlisted titles are translations from the English: Sarah Bernstein's Study for Obedience and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend.
       The winner will be announced 17 July.

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

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       Shortlists: CWA Daggers

       The Crime Writers' Association has announced the shortlists for this year's CWA Daggers -- unfortunately not on one convenient single page at the official site (you have to click the various categories), but see, for example, the report at The Bookseller.
       The only title under review at the complete review is in the Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger-category: Sam Bett's translation of Otani Akira's The Night of Baby Yaga.
       The winners will be announced 3 July.

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

       Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (1938-2025)

       Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has passed away; see, for example, the obituaries in The Star, The Guardian, and at the BBC.

       I was a great admirer of much of his work -- and his dedication to African languages, including in writing most of his later work in Gĩkũyũ.

       Several of his works are under review at the complete review:

• Birth of a Dream Weaver
• Decolonising the Mind
• Dreams in a Time of War
• Globalectics
• Matigari
• The Perfect Nine
• Wizard of the Crow

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

       Letterenfonds Vertaaltalent Prijs

       They've announced the winner of the first Letterenfonds Vertaaltalent Prijs, a €10,000 early-career Dutch translation prize, and it is translator from the Romanian (and German) Charlotte van Rooden.

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

       Prix Jean d'Ormesson

       They've announced the winner of the prix Jean d'Ormesson, the French anything-goes prize for which the jurors can nominate any book from any time -- though this year's winner is a recent title, Olivier Guez's Gertrude Bell-novel, Mesopotamia; see, for example, the ActuaLitté report.
       See also the Grasset publicity page for Mesopotamia.

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

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       SWR Bestenliste at 50

       The German SWR Bestenliste, where thirty critics vote for the best new releases to recommend every month, turns fifty and at SWR Carsten Otte looks back at the history of the list, in Einigkeit gab es selten – Die SWR Bestenliste wird 50 Jahre alt.

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

       Literary street names in Romania

       An interesting article in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, where Mihai S. Rusu and Stefan Baghiu look at Letters of recognition: the spatial inscription of literature in the Romanian street nomenclature.
       Apparently:

Romania’s national urban street nomenclature consists of 49,469 names. Out of this total, about a third are named after people. There are thus 15,621 eponymous street names, representing 31.6% of the entire streetscape. Writers are commemorated in 4010 street names, which constitute 25.7% of the eponymous names (i.e., streets named after human persons).

       Mihai Eminescu is the writer with the most streets named after him -- and, rather sadly:

The highest ranked female in the hierarchy is Veronica Micle (1850–1889), position 42. A minor and unaccomplished poet, Micle is nevertheless celebrated as Mihai Eminescu’s lover, who committed suicide shortly after the latter’s untimely death.

       Also interesting to see what foreign writers made the cut: a group of Latin writers -- unsurprisingly led by Ovid -- have multiple streets named after them, and French authors are represented as well: "Victor Hugo (7 street names), Jules Verne (4), Anatole France (3), Voltaire (3), Émile Zola (2), Honouré De Balzac (2), and Molière (2)". Still:

Toponymic references to British and German literary cultures are almost missing from Romania’s streetscape. Universally acclaimed writers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and William Shakespeare are present in the national street nomenclature with only four and three names, respectively. Other canonical authors from world literature, like Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Petrarca, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and Mark Twain, barely feature once or twice.

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

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       Rosa Mistika review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Euphrase Kezilahabi's 1971 novel, Rosa Mistika, coming out in Yale University Press' The Margellos World Republic of Letters-series.

       As US/UK readers may have noticed, translations from Swahili -- as from all non-colonial African languages -- are few and far between, so it's great to see this coming out. (The Translation Database at Publishers Weekly lists all of ... two volumes translated from Swahili published in the US between 2008 and 2024 (and neither is a novel: one is a poetry collection -- also by Kezilahabi -- the other a collection of short stories).) But as I've mentioned the most exciting publishing news of the year so far is that the University of Georgia Press has announced a new African Language Literatures in Translation series, with the first five titles expected in spring, 2026 -- three translated from Kiswahili, and one each from Shona and Sesotho, so at least the situation is set to improve some in the coming years.

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

       Schein Gábor Q & A

       At hlo Owen Good has a Q & A with Gábor Schein: I cannot separate the outside from the inside and the translators of the recent collection of his poetry, Beyond the Cordons, Ottilie Mulzet and Erika Mihálycsa; see also the Contra Mundum publicity page for the book.

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

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       Euphrates Literary Festival

       This seems like a good sign: they're holding a literary festival in Syria ! As ANHA reports: 1st Euphrates Literary Festival kicks off
       It's set to last three days, too.

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

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       The Labyrinth of Fortune review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Juan de Mena's fifteenth-century epic, The Labyrinth of Fortune, now in English -- for the first time ! -- in Harvard University Press' Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library-series.

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

       Stella Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Stella Prize, an Australian prize for the best book written by a woman, selected from 180 submissions, and it is Theory & Practice, by Michelle de Kretser; see also her acceptance speech.

       I haven't seen this one yet, but hope to; meanwhile, see the publicity pages from Text Publishing, Catapult, and Sort Of, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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

       Dublin Literary Award

       They've announced the winner of this year's Dublin Literary Award -- which touts itself as: "one of the most significant literature prizes in the world, worth €100,000 for a single work of fiction in original English or translated into English" --, and it is The Adversary, by Michael Crummey.
       See also the publicity pages from Vintage Canada and Vintage, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, Amazon.ca, or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Wolff Translator's Prize

       They announced the winner of this year's Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize last week (sorry, I only learned about it now ...), awarded for a work translated from the German and published in the US or Canada, and it is Paul Reitter's translation of Karl Marx's Capital (I); see also the Princeton University Press publicity page.

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

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       TransPort Literacki report

       At Notes from Poland James Jackson reports on the recent TransPort Literacki festival, in More than Mickiewicz and Miłosz: Polish poetry continues to evolve at oldest literary festival.

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

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       Enuma Elish review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of a new translation and edition of The Babylonian Epic of Creation, Enuma Elish -- the first in the promising-sounding new The Library of Babylonian Literature-series from Bloomsbury Academic.

       I have a pile of Gilgamesh editions I've long been planning on getting to, but this is now the first translation from Akkadian under review at the site; it's also the most ancient work currently under review.

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

       Prix mondial Cino Del Duca

       They've announced the winner of this year's prix mondial Cino Del Duca -- not yet at the official site, because apparently a prize that pays out €200,000 (!) can't be bothered to keep its pages up to date ... -- but see, for example, the ActuaLitté report: it is 2084-author Boualem Sansal.
       This well-paying prize has a very solid list of previous winners.

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

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       Turmoil at the Slovak Literary Centre

       Like many national book organizations, the Slovak Literary Centre does good and useful work -- so it's disappointing to hear that there is apparently trouble at the top: as Michal Dudoň reports at The Slovak Spectator, 'Calls for Gustáv Murín's dismissal grow' as Slovak Literary Centre director declared persona non grata at Czech book fair.
       Yes:

Unrest is mounting over the leadership of Gustáv Murín, director of the Slovak Literary Centre (SLC), amid accusations of unprofessional conduct, ties to conspiracy platforms, and behaviour that has damaged Slovakia’s cultural reputation abroad.

       See also Murín's CV at the SLC site.

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

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       Tadeusz Bradecki Prize

       They've announced the winner of the inaugural Tadeusz Bradecki Prize, "awarded annually for a book in which fiction and non-fiction writing combine in an original and exciting way", and it is The Modern Fairies by Clare Pollard; see the official press release (warning ! dreaded pdf format !).

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

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       Society of Authors shortlists

       The Society of Authors has announced the shortlists for its seven prizes.
       The winners will be announced 18 June.

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

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       Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, awarded for: "book-length literary translations into English from any living European language" -- not yet at the official site(s), last I checked, but see for example their tweet.
       Only one of the shortlisted titles is under review at the complete review: Megan McDowell's translation of Alejandro Zambra's Childish Literature.

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

       International Booker Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's International Booker Prize, and it is Deepa Bhasthi's translation of Banu Mushtaq's Heart Lamp.
       I have a copy of this, but haven't gotten to it yet (it's a story-collection ....) but this does help push it up some on the to-read pile; meanwhile, see the And Other Stories publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       il Premio Strega Europeo

       They've announced the winner of this year's il Premio Strega Europeo, an Italian prize for the best European work to appear in translation, and it is The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray.

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

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       Sami Rohr Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature -- a US$100,000 prize --, and it is Your Presence is Mandatory, by Sasha Vasilyuk.

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

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       ny journal of books closes down

       As Publishers Weekly reports, the new york journal of books, which came online in 2010, has closed shop -- indeed, the site already seems to be gone in its entirety, leaving only the Internet Archive-d pages, the most recent one being from 23 April. (So, yeah, sorry about all those now-dead links to reviews that you'll find on the complete review's review-pages; there are quite a few that were to nyjb reviews .....)
       Publishers Weekly reports site founder Ted Sturtz as saying: ""Our actual undoing was not publishing industry conditions," Sturtz stressed. "It was the current tariff war"", as:

The NYJB, which was free to the public, relied on Amazon commissions and Google Adsense for revenue, Sturtz said. The wide-ranging tariffs imposed by the Trump administration last month, he explained, "transform[ed] consumer behavior so that these revenues entirely collapsed. This was so quick and breathtaking that we in a very short we time saw our revenues sink from a surplus to a fraction of our costs."

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

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       Sakina's Kiss review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Vivek Shanbhag's Sakina's Kiss, now also out in editions in the US (from McNally Editions) and the UK (from Faber).

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

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