opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 April 2026

11 April: Books in Translation in Europe | Book references in political science journals | Kindle bricking
12 April: Seized books in Sri Lanka | If This Be Magic review
13 April: Amitav Ghosh Q & A | AI and book promotion | Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay profile | Sherborne Prize
14 April: Helen DeWitt gets her 175K after all | Premio de la Crítica | Fiction (not) in India | Xingyun Awards finalists
15 April: Guggenheim Fellows | On the Calculation of Volume (Book IV) review
16 April: Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards | Europese Literatuurprijs longlist | Irish Novel of the Year shortlist | Han Kang Q & A
17 April: Grasset exodus | Walter Scott Prize shortlist | Hans Ulrich Obrist Q & A
18 April: Kurt & Helen Wolff Translator's Prize shortlist | CWA Daggers longlists | Monsters in the Archives review
19 April: L.A. Times Book Prizes | Writing in ... South Korea | Gratiaen Prize longlist
20 April: Magnesia Litera | Louise Erdrich profile

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       Magnesia Litera

       They've announced the winners of this year's Magnesia Litera awards, the leading Czech literary prize, with Mariborská hypnóza by Dora Kaprálová taking both the prose-category award as well as being named book of the year; see also the Czech Literary Centre information page and the Větrné mlýny publicity page.
       The Czech translation of NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory won in the translation category.

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

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       Louise Erdrich profile

       At El País Iker Seisdedos profiles Louise Erdrich, Native American writer: ‘No one is illegal; we all have the same right to exist’.

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

       L.A. Times Book Prizes

       Friday night they announced the L.A. Times Book Prize; see, for example, Malia Mendez's report in ... The Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Book Prize honorees toast to writing’s political power: ‘When people rise, empires always fall’.
       The fiction award went to Palaver, by Bryan Washington.

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       Writing in ... South Korea

       At the BBC Leehyun Choi reports on The South Korean authors rising above a tide of hate to become bestsellers.

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       Gratiaen Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Gratiaen Prize, "awarded for the best work of creative writing in English by a Sri Lankan citizen resident in Sri Lanka" -- not yet at the official site, last I checked, but see, for example, the report in The Sunday Times.
       The shortlist will be announced 4 May and the winner on 6 June.

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

       Kurt & Helen Wolff Translator's Prize shortlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Kurt & Helen Wolff Translator's Prize, honoring: "an outstanding literary translation from German into English published in the USA the previous year" -- five titles selected from twenty-six submissions. (Admirably, this prize reveals all the submitted titles -- as every prize should.)
       Two (more or less) of the finalists are under review at the complete review: Gabriele Tergit's Effingers, in Sophie Duvernoy's translation, and Peter Weiss' The Aesthetics of Resistance (though I reviewed the German original, and haven't seen Joel Scott's shortlisted translation of volume three).

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       CWA Daggers longlists

       The Crime Writers' Association has announced the longlists for its thirteen Dagger awards; see also the more convenient overview in Erin Mitchell's report at Crimespree.
       One of the titles -- in the Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation-category -- is under review at the complete review: Uketsu's Strange Pictures.

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       Monsters in the Archives review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Caroline Bicks on My Year of Fear with Stephen King, in Monsters in the Archives.

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

       Grasset exodus

       After the ousting of longtime Grasset editor Olivier Nora the authors have revolted: see, for example Angelique Chrisafis' report in The Guardian -- More than 100 writers quit French publisher in protest against rightwing owner Vincent Bolloré -- and at France24 -- Turmoil at publisher owned by French billionaire Bolloré sparks exodus of top authors; at LivresHebdo they quote from the letter sent by the authors, as well as offering a list of all those who signed on.
       The authors stated, among other things:

Aujourd'hui, nous avons un point commun : nous refusons d'être les otages d'une guerre idéologique visant à imposer l’autoritarisme partout dans la culture et les médias

       The latter part is translated at The Guardian as:

We refuse to be hostages in an ideological war that seeks to impose authoritarianism everywhere in culture and the media

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

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       Walter Scott Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction -- five titles.
       The winner will be announced 11 June.

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

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       Hans Ulrich Obrist Q & A

       Cultured has a hard-to-resist Q & A with the curator, given the headline: Hans Ulrich Obrist Owns More Than 40,000 Books. Here Are a Few of His Favorites.
       Among his admirable routines: "I have a ritual where I buy a book every day". As everyone should.

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       Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards -- "the nation’s only endowed juried prize dedicated to literature that contributes to our understanding of race and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures" -- in its four categories.
       The winner in the fiction category is Make Your Way Home, by Carrie R. Moore.

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       Europese Literatuurprijs longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Europese Literatuurprijs, a Dutch prize for the best contemporary European novel in Dutch translation -- 19 titles selected from 123 submitted titles.
       Two of the titles are under review at the complete review: Natural Novel by Georgi Gospodinov and and What We Can Know by Ian McEwan. .

       Also among the longlisted titles is the fourth in Antonio Scurati's Mussolini-series -- which reminds me: why has only the first 'M.'-novel been published in English (with the second finally due in September ...) ?

       The shortlist will be announced 17 June and the winner on 2 September.

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       Irish Novel of the Year shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award.
       The winner will be announced 27 May.

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       Han Kang Q & A

       At Vogue Nick Hilden has ... A Rare Interview With Nobel-Winning Author Han Kang.

       Among her responses:

Why do you think The Vegetarian resonated with readers so strongly ?

The book layers rejection of violence, despair over being human, and women’s silent screams. And that’s also a reflection of us living in this world.

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

       Guggenheim Fellows

       The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced its most recent batch of fellows, 223 of them, selected from "a pool of nearly 5,000 applicants".
       Quite a few writers are among the winners, but only one fellowship was awarded for translation -- to Heather Cleary.

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

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       On the Calculation of Volume (Book IV) review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the fourth in Solvej Balle's planned seven-volume series, On the Calculation of Volume (Book IV) -- just published in English yesterday.

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

       Helen DeWitt gets her 175K after all

       Last week I mentioned that they had announced the winners (and recipients of US$175,000 each) of this year's Windham-Campbell Prizes -- and that The English Understand Wool-author Helen DeWitt was originally slated to be one of the winners but that .... fell through.
       Now the Mercatus Center has announced that DeWitt will be the first recipient of a new Emergent Ventures Arts Patronage award -- paying out a not in the least coïncidental US$175,000; see also Tyler Cowen's mention at Marginal Revolution, where he notes that:

This is a new tranche of ad hoc awards, given out more like prizes, without applications, to writers, creatives, and intellectuals who are not supported by the current system of awards and grants, or who have been failed by such systems.

       Yes, a not-so-subtle dig at the Windham-Campbell folk.

       See also DeWitt's tweets acknowledging the grant.

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

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       Premio de la Crítica

       In Spain, they've announced the Premio de la Crítica, with Marcos Giralt Torrente taking the Spanish-language fiction prize for Los ilusionistas -- see also the Anagrama publicity page -- and Death and the Gardener by Georgi Gospodinov (well, Gueorgui Gospodínov in Spain) winning the award for the best foreign work; see also the El País report.
       The other fiction winners are: L'anell del Nibelung by Amadeu Fabregat (Catalan); see also the Proa publicity page; O lanzador de coitelos by Fernando Castro Paredes (Galician); see also the Editorial Galaxia publicity page; and Dena zulo bera zen by Eider Rodríguez (Basque); see also the Susa publicity page.

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       Fiction (not) in India

       At Times Now Girish Shukla wonders Why Almost Every Major Indian Writer Lives Abroad and What It Has Done to Indian Fiction ?
       I'd suggest that a big part of the problem is that it's just so much harder for 'homegrown' literature to get published and distributed outside of India; I suspect there are quite a few 'major' writers who we are just not seeing much of .....

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

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       Xingyun Awards finalists

       At Locus they publish the list of finalists in the various categories of the Xingyun Awards for Chinese science fiction.
       The translated category includes a work by Stanisław Lem and an Arthur C. Clarke-biogrpahy (though I note it's listed under 'Best Translated Fiction' ...).

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

       Amitav Ghosh Q & A

       At The Observer Jeevan Vasagar has a Q & A with The Calcutta Chromosome-author -- though mainly about his Ghost-Eye and Wild Fictions -- in Amitav Ghosh: ‘It’s a fool’s errand to imagine the future’.

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

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       AI and book promotion

       In the Global Times Ji Yuqiao finds that AI can extend a book’s reach, but not at the expense of its essence -- exploring:

Could AI-powered video storytelling rejuvenate how publishers connect with younger audiences, or does the trend risk flattening the rich complexity of literature to mere visual spectacle ?

       Not my kind of thing, but as Ji points out:

The fact is, traditional book promotion methods, such as book reviews, author events, static posts on social media platforms, barely make a dent among younger digital-native readers.

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

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       Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay profile

       At Scroll.in Ankush Pal profiles Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay at 150: The rebel novelist whose words can still ignite fires.
       He suggests:

Devdas mirrors the ache of his emotional genius, and it is this novel that has arguably done more than any other single work to cement his immortality in the popular imagination.

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

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       Sherborne Prize

       They've announced the winner of the Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing -- awarded for the first time this year -- and it is Lone Wolf by Adam Weymouth.
       See also the publicity pages for Lone Wolf from Hutchinson Heinemann and Crown.

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

       Seized books in Sri Lanka

       360 copies of novels by Theepachelvan Piratheepan have been 'detained' in Sri Lanka, withheld: "on the grounds that they may be “damaging to national harmony”".
       Methmalie Dissanayake has the story, in considerable detail, in The Sunday Morning, in Literature vetting: Detained novels expose regulatory grey area.

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

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       If This Be Magic review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Daniel Hahn on The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation, in If This Be Magic.

       (Yes, the title is also a nod to that of Gregory Rabassa's translation memoir, If This Be Treason -- while the full quote from The Winter's Tale is: "If this be magic, let it be an art".)

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

       Books in Translation in Europe

       Via (where they summarize the report) I am pointed to the recent report on 'Trends and Transformations in the European Publishing Market', in Books in Translation (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) -- 141 pages, which should keep you covered for the weekend.
       Lots of numbers and statistics of interest.

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

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       Book references in political science journals

       Via I am pointed to Alixandra B. Yanus and Phillip J. Ardoin's article from last fall, From Bookworm to Browser: The Decline of Books in Political Science Scholarship.
       Fascinating to see that:

By analyzing references in leading political science journals from 1990 to 2024, we reveal a notable shift: a decline in book references (52% to 28%) and a corresponding increase in journal article references (40% to 65%).

       Also of interest/concern:

Moreover, whereas it is suggested that eBooks could mitigate these concerns, user tests reveal that readers consume eBooks differently than physical materials. Specifically, eBook readers rely on keyword searches to find “specific information,” spending an average of only 10 minutes engaging with a digital book

       Not great, I think.

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

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       Kindle bricking

       As widely reported, Amazon is making older-model 'Kindles' ... less useful. See, for example, Michael Kozlowski's report at Good E-Reader, You can no longer buy e-books on Amazon Kindle made in 2012 or earlier, which prints the Amazon e-mail announcing that they are "discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier".
       As longtime readers know, I am no fan of e-reading generally, but I steer particularly clear of Kindle e-books, as 'buyers' don't actually purchase the text but rather only license it. Now Amazon gives us another reason to steer entirely clear .....
       The internet age has has given us its fair share of technological obsolescence, but this seems like a particularly unnecessary low.

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

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