opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 30 June 2026

21 June: Kundera in Brno | Slavenka Drakulić (1949-2026) | Kein Platz mehr review
22 June: Nizami in Chinese | M. John Harrison profile | Phrontisterion
23 June: Lotus Prize for Literature | Reading in ... Tehran
24 June: Miles Franklin shortlist | World Literature Today profile | 'Mario Vargas Llosa in Cairo' | Judy Blume Q & A
25 June: Ingeborg Bachmann at 100 | Literary criticism in ... Africa | Papal address | Shift review
26 June: Orwell Prizes | Peace Prize of the German Book Trade | The impact of literature in ... Edinburgh
27 June: Book sales in France in 2025 | Claire Fuller Q & A
28 June: Writers' Union of Moldova awards | Emily Wilson Q & A
29 June: Krasznahorkai László Q & A | Ingeborg Bachmann Preis | Прэмія Гедройця longlist | Canadian literary posthumity
30 June: Ursula K. Le Guin Prize shortlist | Translating ... Korean into Chinese

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       Ursula K. Le Guin Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, a US$25,000 prize for "a single work of imaginative fiction". Translations are eligible, and one of the nine shortlisted titles is a translated work.
       The winner will be announced 21 October.

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

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       Translating ... Korean into Chinese

       At The Chosun Daily Hwang Ji-yoon looks at some length at how Korean Literature Workshop Targets Chinese Market's 10 Million Potential.
       The 'potential'-number comes from the fact that, apparently: "Chinese bestsellers often exceed 10 million copies, a scale far beyond that of other markets".
       Poet Son Taek-su and Blowfish-author Jo Kyung-ran participated in the workshop.
       Interesting to see Son's response to one question:

While a free translation might make the message more accessible, a literal translation, though slightly unhelpful, could spark new imagination in readers.

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

       Krasznahorkai László Q & A

       At The New Yorker Merv Emre has a Q & A with the Satantango-author and Nobel laureate, in László Krasznahorkai Writes Because He Fails (presumably paywalled, but see e.g.) -- where he admits: "I am not a reader of my own books. I would never voluntarily reread any of them.".
       Among his other observations:

When I was young, when I thought about the future, I naturally concluded that the world was unacceptable. The only possible solution was to rebel against it. There is a saying which I would like to slightly modify, or add my own interpretation to: The young person who does not rebel has no heart. And the old person who rebels is ridiculous. Although I do not consider the viewpoint that I am espousing ridiculous, it does mean that one has to rebel for the sake of the clarity of ideas. Somehow, we have to get back the definitions of what is what. We have to once again decide what evolution means, what is God, and so on.

If we do not look at these concepts anew and from a different perspective, then we don’t really have much of a chance, because wherever we end up we will simply be moving while standing in place, and only moving as much as the Earth moves with us.

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

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       Ingeborg Bachmann Preis

       They held the read-aloud-and-be judged-to-your-face Ingeborg Bachmann Prize over the weekend, and Lena Schätte won the main prize, for her text 'Was wir tragen'; you can read it here (warning ! dreaded pdf format !).

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

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       Прэмія Гедройця longlist

       Pen Belarus has announced the longlist for its Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Award; see also the Naša Nìva report, Longlist of nominees for Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Award for the best Belarusian book of 2025 announced.
       As publishing freely is ... difficult in Belarus at the moment, submissions tend to be published abroad -- or, as is the case with several of the longlisted titles, theirs is 'encrypted participation'.

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

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       Canadian literary posthumity

       Carole Gerson has recently published a book on Literary Life After Death: Commemorations of Writers in English-Speaking Canada -- see the Concordia University Press publicity page -- and at The Conversation she offers an overview of her findings, in Literary life after death: How authors are remembered across Canada -- with titbits such as that: "L.M. Montgomery enjoys the greatest number of memorial sites".

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

       Writers' Union of Moldova awards

       The Writers' Union of Moldova handed out their annual awards; see, for example, the Radio Moldova report, Literary elite awarded at Moldova Writers' Union Gala 2026.
       Val Butnaru won the prose award, apparently for his novel Insomnia; see also the Editura ARC publicity page.

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

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       Emily Wilson Q & A

       Emily Wilson Q & A has a new book out -- Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature; see the publicity pages from Liveright and Profile Books -- and at Publishers Weekly Henry Carrigan now has What Do Cardi B and Aristophanes Have in Common ? PW Talks with Emily Wilson.
       Among her responses:

Translators really care about truth. I want to give someone a very authentic experience that is very much like being immersed in the original. So, what is fidelity to the original ? Playing it safe isn’t always fidelity if the original isn’t playing it safe.

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

       Book sales in France in 2025

       The French publishers' association, the Syndicat national de l'édition, has reported on the French book market for 2025 and the numbers aren't great; see their summary (you can also download the full report here).
       While fiction sales were up slightly, overall volume was down, to 419.6 million -- and the start of 2026 has apparently continued the downward trend ("Les premiers mois de 2026 accentuent encore davantage la tendance du secteur, affichant une baisse en valeur et en volume qui n’épargne aucun segment, pas même la littérature", and see also the recent Le Monde article (presumably paywalled), where they note: "Book sales have fallen by an average of 8% since January 1, with a disastrous May").
       For all the worry about there being too many books, the number of new titles published -- 36,119 -- is down considerably from the 2019 peak (44,660).
       Translation-rights-sales are also down, to 13,517 (down 5.3 per cent compared to 2024) -- with Italian (12%), Spanish (10%), and Chinese (9%) the biggest markets (ahead of English, with 7% -- pretty much the same as German and Dutch).

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

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       Claire Fuller Q & A

       This week's 'The books of my life'-column at The Guardian features Claire Fuller.
       Among her responses:

The book I could never read again

Last year I read and loved Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry but I’d never read it again because it’s 843 pages and there are too many other books I want to read.

       She also admits: "I missed out on nearly all the classics when I was younger so last year I decided to read one a year". Admirable that she's looking to the classics -- but at one a year she's not going to be getting to too many .....

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

       Orwell Prizes

       The Orwell Foundation has apparently announced the winners of this year's Orwell Prizes -- though not yet at the official site, last I checked ...; see, for example, Ella Creamer's report at The Guardian, Transcription by Ben Lerner wins Orwell prize for political fiction.

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

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       Peace Prize of the German Book Trade

       They've announced that Lawless World-author Philippe Sands will receive this year's Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.
       He will receive it 11 October, at the close of the Frankfurt Book Fair.

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

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       The impact of literature in ... Edinburgh

       They've published a new study Assessing the cultural, social and economic impact of literature: a study of Edinburgh (warning ! dreaded pdf format !).
       Among the findings the one that has gotten the most attention is that:

This report finds that the sector contributes £50.9 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the city’s economy, with publishing alone accounting for £19.3 million. In parallel, literature attracts highvalue tourism, contributing spend across accommodation, hospitality and retail.

       That actually doesn't seem like very much ..... Still, interesting that of that "translation and interpretation" contributes £5.2 million -- not much behind bookstore-sales (£6.4 million).

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

       Ingeborg Bachmann at 100

       Ingeborg Bachmann would have turned one hundred today, and she's getting lots of centenary-attention; see, for example, Elizabeth Grenier at DeutscheWelle on Why Ingeborg Bachmann remains a literary icon.

       The fiftieth 'Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur' also opened yesterday -- read Helga Schubert's opening speech, Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) --, centered around the (in)famous Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, where authors read their texts out loud and are criticized live by the jury; see this year's competing authors.

       I am somewhat intrigued by Regina Schilling's semi-documentary film, Ingeborg Bachmann -- Jemand, der einmal ich war, out today -- see the pages from navigator film and IMDb -- but .....

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

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       Literary criticism in ... Africa

       At afrocritik Chimezie Chika wonders Is the African Literary Critic and the Institution of Criticism Under Attack ? as he finds: "Today, the critic and the institution of criticism have come under intense attack from a mainly internet-based mob".

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

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       Papal address

       Pope Leo XIV addressed a group of writers yesterday, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Vatican's publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana (leaving me also surprised that the Vatican only set up a publishing house a hundred years ago ...).
       He found it: "an opportune moment to reflect on the importance of books and of writing", and it's good to see him do so.
       In what is presumably a dig at the rise of LLM-based and similar computer-generated writing he also said:

Furthermore, writing is an act of humanity. As the ancient author Terrence observed, "I am a human being, and I do not regard anything human as alien to me"

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

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       Shift review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Cho Yeeun's Shift, recently out in English, from Honford Star.

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

       Miles Franklin shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award, the leading Australian novel prize.
       University of Queensland Press is the only publisher with more than one title to make the list, having published two of the final six.
       The winner will be announced 5 August.

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

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       World Literature Today profile

       At Sooner Robert Reid profiles the magazine, in A Century of Vision.
       World Literature Today -- Books Abroad until 1977 -- is certainly a great institution (and I still often consult those Books Abroad reviews from way back when), and it's good to see they are going strong.
       (The new issue should be out any day now.)

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

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       'Mario Vargas Llosa in Cairo'

       At ahram online Reham El-Adawi reports on an evening dedicated to the author at the Cervantes Institute in Cairo, in Mario Vargas Llosa in Cairo.
       Among those participating was Red April-author Santiago Roncagliolo, who: "acknowledged that being constantly compared to Llosa represented a challenge for writers from Peru, given Llosa's immense influence" -- and:

Roncagliolo also revealed a more personal side of Llosa, recalling that the author once confessed that receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature had filled him with anxiety rather than relief. “He feared that the prize would become a burden that restricted his creative freedom or imposed expectations that might prevent him from experimenting and making mistakes, which are an essential part of the writing process,” Roncagliolo said.

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

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       Judy Blume Q & A

       At npr they have excerpts from a conversation Scott Simon had with Judy Blume at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival last month, in Judy Blume says she's done writing: '50 years is enough !'
       Nice to see how real her characters were to her:

I mean, I had kids, and I would sit down at the dinner table and I would say, like, "You will never believe what Tony did today." Because they're real. They're real to you. And you're living with them for months, sometimes years. And you're locked up in a little room all day with them. That's why 50 years is enough. I was ready to come out into the world.

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

       Lotus Prize for Literature

       At Cairo Scene Serag Heiba looks back to When Cairo was Home to the ‘Nobel Prize’ of the Global South -- the Lotus Prize for Literature that was first awarded in 1969 but closed up shop in 1988.
       A complicated history, but overall it seems to have been a worthy endeavor, with a very solid list of winners -- and useful counterpart to otherwise-limited author prizes such as the Austrian State Prize for European Literature (also with an excellent list of winners, but of course limited to European authors).

       (A note at the end of the article mentions that: "This article was informed by Revolutionary Papers", and the site and specifically the Teaching Lotus-pages there are certainly recommended.)

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

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       Reading in ... Tehran

       In the Tehran Times Hanie Shahrabi wanders down Enghelab Street and considers How war is reshaping Iranian readers' literary tastes ?
       Book-buying, too:

A shop owner who had worked on the street for over two decades described the change in simpler pattern. He explained that foot traffic had not disappeared, but it had become less decisive. Customers browsed longer, asked more questions, and often left without purchasing. Many now prefer to order online or by phone, avoiding cost, danger and uncertainty.

       (Iranian publisher- and book-selling sites have long been very impressive.)

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

       Nizami in Chinese

       At the Tehran Times they report that Chinese translation of Nizami’s “Khamsa” unveiled at 32nd Beijing International Book Fair -- "The complete Chinese translation of “Khamsa” (The Five Treasures), the most renowned work of Nizami Ganjavi"..
       I haven't been able to find out more about the set but it looks like a pretty neat edition, all in one set; English translations of the different volumes are ... rather all over the place; see reviews of the parts under review at the complete review:

• Haft Paykar
• Khosrow and Shirin
• Layli and Majnun
• Sikandar Nama, e bara

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

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       M. John Harrison profile

       At The Guardian Chris Power has a profile of M John Harrison: ‘If we met a real alien we’d have no clue what they thought’.

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

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       Phrontisterion

       They've opened a rather spectacular-looking library at the Hobart (Tasmania) Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), Phrontisterion.
       Check out the overview-articles at Pulse Tasmania (Phrontisterion: Mona opens $100 million library where books have no fixed shelf) and The Guardian (Sarah Aitken on From a Shakespeare First Folio to Bowie’s handwriting: inside Mona’s new $100m library of 30,000 books), especially for the photographs.
       Also: an interesting system:

Thirty-thousand books in total -- and none of them are labelled. There are no library cards. The books must stay in the room but, beyond that, there are few rules. They don’t even need to be put back in their original spot: if you think a book belongs elsewhere, file it there.

For the visitor looking for a particular title, The O will track it down; cameras repeatedly take images of certain shelves and the spines therein over the course of a day, which they use to locate your target.

       Looks like it would be well worth a visit !

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

       Kundera in Brno

       The ashes of Milan Kundera (The Curtain, etc.) and his wife have been laid to rest in a tomb in Brno -- taking: "the last vacant spot in the circle of honor at Brno’s Central Cemetery" --; see, for example, Jack Stephens' report at Brno Daily, Milan Kundera and His Wife Laid To Rest In Brno's Central Cemetery or the official Brno city press release.

       Lots of pictures in the official photo gallery, including of the top of the "levitating" lid of the tomb designed by Johannes Paar being lowered -- as well as the two urns in place before they were covered up:



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

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       Slavenka Drakulić (1949-2026)

       Croatian author Slavenka Drakulić has passed away; see, for example, the report at Vijesti.

       Quite a few of her works have been translated into English; see, for example, her author page at Penguin Random House, or the Harper Perennial publicity page for How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed.

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

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       Kein Platz mehr review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Margit Schreiner's 2018 novel, Kein Platz mehr.

       (I have to admit that I couldn't resist this one because of the promise of its premise -- Schreiner writing about all the (physical) stuff that accumulates over a lifetime and the problem of living-spaces over-filled with it (though the novel goes considerably beyond that as well). I've been clearing out stuff -- and also failing to, with many, many boxes of books soon to fill my apartment, making for a very crowded space .....)

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

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