opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 31 August 2026

21 August : Jack Galef Literary Arts Award | Rachel Cusk profile
22 August : Samanta Schweblin Q & A
23 August : جایزه ابوالحسن نجفی | Fall books
24 August : Literary ... buns ? | Mathias Ospelt Q & A
25 August : Translations from ... North Macedonia | Volodine x 11 | Crime fiction in ... Iceland | Headless in Kita review
26 August : World Literature Today - The Centennial Issue | Higashino Keigo in ... Vietnam | Kirkus Prize finalists
27 August : Nádas Péter (1942-2026) | Nigeria Prize for Literature shortlist | Caroline Wahl profile | Jérôme Lindon review
28 August : Translation Q & A | Jeanette Winterson in ... China
29 August : Re-translating The Odyssey | Publishing in (and outside) ... Russia | AI and translation
30 August : Titles submitted for Warwick Prize | Shanghai Literature Museum | Book-buying 'persuasion'
31 August : Publishing in ... the Philippines | Translating from ... Korean | Otley review

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       Publishing in ... the Philippines

       At Philstar.com Genory Vanz Alfasain looks Beyond Manila: How small presses are reshaping Philippine literature, as:

In the provinces, however, a quiet literary movement is reshaping the landscape. Independent small presses are emerging across Mindanao and beyond, serving not merely as alternatives to Manila’s established publishing houses, but as vital bridges connecting regional writers directly with readers.

       Sounds good.

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

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       Translating from ... Korean

       At The Korea Herald Hwang Dong-hee reports how 'Han Kang translator urges a look beyond contemporary trends and domestic hits', in Korean literature is going global. But don't leave its past behind, as Anders Karlsson gave a keynote address at the International Translators' Summit in Seoul on Friday, noting:

While we have seen a broadening of genres and authors being translated, we have also seen a shallowing time horizon when it comes to works selected for translation and a focus on works being successful on the Korean market

       Always good to be reminded that: "There is still so much from Korea's rich literary history that has not been introduced" -- as is also the case with so many other foreign literatures.

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       Otley review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Martin Waddell's 1966 novel, Otley.

       Waddell followed up with three more Otley-novels, before going (much more successfully) in a ... different direction. Still, this was also made into a film -- starring Tom Courtenay and Romy Schneider.

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

       Titles submitted for Warwick Prize

       The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation admirably always reveals all the eligible books that have been submitted -- and hence are under consideration -- for the prize, and they've now released the list (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) for this year's prize -- 164 titles from more or less 37 languages (I'd suggest 'Taiwanese Mandarin' might count as 'Chinese', and surely 'Farsi' and 'Persian' are the same ...).
       Translations from French and Spanish predictably lead the way, with 23 each, followed by Japanese (15) and Danish (!) (11). A disappointing only two from Arabic -- and a mere one from, for example, Polish .....

       As I've repeated many, many times: all literary prizes should do this: readers should know what books are actually being considered for the prize -- something that is especially important with, for example, the Booker Prize, where there are limits on how many books a publisher can submit.

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       Shanghai Literature Museum

       The Shanghai Literature Museum opened a few days ago; oddly, it does not seem to have its own website (yet ?), but the Xinhua not-quite-an-article at the People's Daily Online, Shanghai Literature Museum showcases the city's literary evolution, achievements, has lots of pictures.
       Apparently (as they repeat constantly on that page ...):

The museum consists of a main building and three historic buildings, featuring five permanent exhibition zones that reveal the history and character of Shanghai literature from different perspectives.

       Certainly looks worth a visit.

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       Book-buying 'persuasion'

       In The Guardian John Self looks at everything: 'From cover design to shelf placement and influencer partnerships ... how publishers will persuade you to buy their books this autumn', in How to make a bestseller: insiders reveal the tricks of the book trade.
       He suggests:

And who are the persuaders ? They’re the booksellers, the supermarket stock buyers, the publishing houses and their ranks of marketers and publicists. And, more recently, persuasion often comes from BookTokers and online influencers, social media videos, podcasts and Instagram posts.

       (Conspicuously absent from this list are good old book reviewers, with Self tweeting (at Bluesky): "Three different people I spoke to for this piece said "reviews don't sell books", a comment I omitted for reasons of professional pride." I note that most of my awareness of 'what's out there' and what might be of interest to me does come from review coverage -- not necessarily the reviews/opinions themselves, but in bringing to my attention the existence of these books, and raising my possible interest in them.)
       Depressing, too, to hear that:

“There has been a sense since the mid-2000s that popular fiction readers’ tastes have narrowed,” they continue, “following one or two big trends. That parallels [the rise of] social media. Romantasy and cosy crime are the main areas of current growth.”

       (I am afraid I haven't caught up with these trends yet; apologies to the readers of this site for not being au courant.)

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

       Re-translating The Odyssey

       Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey -- see the W.W.Norton publicity page -- came out nearly a decade ago and got a great deal of attention then, and it has recently been much-discussed again, as apparently a popular movie version of the epic recently came out (see also Wilson's review thereof) but now comes the fascinating news that she's having another go at it; see, for example Hillel Italie's AP report, Emily Wilson’s ‘Odyssey’ became a cultural flashpoint. Now, she’s retranslating the whole thing and Neil Vigdor reporting at The New York Times that The ‘Odyssey’ Scholar Emily Wilson, a Critic of the Movie, Is Redoing Her Translation (presumably paywalled).
       Italie reports:

“It’s a complete retranslation. It’s not a revision of the old version,” Wilson told The Associated Press during a recent Zoom interview from her home in Philadelphia, where she is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. “I’m about halfway through.”

       And at The New York Times she is also quoted:

Wilson said in a statement on Friday that her translation would benefit from not just revisions, but a fresh start.

“I’m now retranslating ‘The Odyssey’ from scratch, with an approach closer to that of my translation of ‘The Iliad,’ using somewhat more lines than the original, enabling more varied word-length and pacing,” she said in the statement. “Also, I’ll have much more extensive end notes.”

       [Personal aside: Yay, more extensive endnotes !]
       A fascinating project -- not entirely unheard of, but certainly very rare. At The New York Times they add:

Katrine Øgaard Jensen, executive director of the American Literary Translators Association, said in an email on Friday that Wilson was venturing into somewhat uncharted territory.

“While it is common to tweak or edit an earlier version of a translation for new editions, it is fairly uncommon to retranslate your own already-published books in translation completely from scratch,” Øgaard Jensen said.

       I am curious how W.W.Norton is going to present/market the translation(s) -- will there be a 'Version 1' and 'Version 2' on the cover to differentiate them ? Or maybe they'll go with a different title altogether for the second version ?
       (The New York Times article also mentions: "Wilson's translation has sold more than a million copies since it was published" -- impressive !)

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       Publishing in (and outside) ... Russia

       At Foreign Policy Sarah Chatta and Ksenia Mironova report 'Publishers in exile are supplying contraband books to help Russians evade censorship', in Notes From Russia's Literary Underground (presumably paywalled -- but see e.g. ...).
       As they note:

The Ukraine war has upended the near-total freedom that Russian book publishers enjoyed for the first two decades of President Vladimir Putin’s rule. Not long after the invasion began, Russia’s parliament passed laws outlawing broad categories of information: criticism of the army, texts that challenged “traditional values,” anything deemed “LGBT propaganda.”

The government escalated its efforts in 2024, forming an “expert center” to review published books that it suspects of non-compliance. The review process is intentionally opaque and likely to encourage self-censorship. The center has explicitly outlawed works by Russian and foreign authors alike, including those by Vladimir Sorokin, Hanya Yanagihara, Susan Sontag, and Stephen King. Police have raided bookstores and issued fines to those that display banned titles.

       You'd think they would have learnt some of the lessons from the *success* of the Soviet experiment, but apparently not .....

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       AI and translation

       Of course, the subject continues to be endlessly discussed; see now, for example, Aishwarya Khosla reporting in The Indian Express Are literary translators redundant in an age of AI ? Rita Kothari, Arunava Sinha answer while at The Korea Times Lee Hae-rin reports on a recent International Translators' Summit, in AI can translate words, but doesn't bear responsibility, experts say.
       Among the observations in The Indian Express piece:

(W)hile AI firms continue to scan unique books, a major data gap remains in India. “Especially for translations from Indian languages into English or between Indian languages, there are not enough texts for an AI agent to learn from. They need huge, humongous amounts of text… so that their mathematical probabilistic analysis gets sharper and better defined.”

       Sinha also notes: "We do not have enough people who can translate between the non-English Indian languages" -- as/so: "Currently, most translation between Indian languages happens through a bridge language, usually English or Hindi", which is certainly not ideal.

       Meanwhile, in The Korea Times piece, one of the panelists suggests:

“Human translation’s value is not in perfection, but in being able to explain why one translated something in a way and bear the consequences of that choice,” Moon [Ji-hyuk] said. “A good translation is not about producing the correct answer. It is closer to choosing one responsible failure among countless impossible choices.”

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

       Translation Q & A

       Publisher Grove Atlantic has a Q & A with a trio of translators, Found in Translation: A Q&A with Translators Ginny Tapley Takemori, Diane Oatley, and Bruna Dantas Lobato

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       Jeanette Winterson in ... China

       Art and Lies-author Jeanette Winterson was among the guests at the recent Shanghai Book Fair, and at China Daily Zhang Kun reports on her apearance there, in Literary icon launches the Chinese edition of her latest work.
       Interesting to see the popularity of her Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit there: published in translation in 2010, it has apparently: "sold more than 1 million copies".

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

       Nádas Péter (1942-2026)

       Hungarian author Nádas Péter has passed aways; see, for example, Peter Nadas, Author of ‘the Greatest Novel Written in Our Time,’ Dies at 83 (presumably paywalled) by Alex Marshall at The New York Times, The memory keeper: Hungary loses its ‘surveyor of the European interior’ at The Budapest Times, and the AFP report, Reclusive Hungarian author Peter Nadas dies aged 83.

       A major author; I am surprised that none of his works are under review at the complete review.

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       Nigeria Prize for Literature shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Nigeria Prize for Literature -- awarded for a work of poetry this year, with three titles left in the running; for more details see, for example, coverage at The Nation.

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

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       Caroline Wahl profile

       At Deutsche Welle Katharina Abel reports that This extremely successful author polarizes German readers -- this author being Caroline Wahl (who is apparently: "topping Germany's bestseller lists with her novels", though I'm afraid I am unfamiliar with her work)
       Wahl has a new novel coming out tomorrow, which Abel describes as: "one of the most anticipated new books of the summer in Germany"; see also the Rowohlt foreign rights page.
       None of her work appears to be available in English yet, but it's surely only a matter of time.

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       Jérôme Lindon review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jean Echenoz's nice little tribute to his longtime publisher, Les Éditions de Minuit's Jérôme Lindon.

       (Lots of well-worthwhile other books by Echenoz are also under review -- my favorite still being the underappreciated gem that is Piano.)

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

       World Literature Today - The Centennial Issue

       The September-October-issue of World Literature Today is out, and it's: 'The Centennial Issue' -- a hundred years of this amazing institution (which started off as, and for its first fifty years was, Books Abroad), well worth celebrating.
       As always, lots of interesting content -- and, of course, the useful book review section (with none of the books covered in this issue ones that I have seen ...).

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       Higashino Keigo in ... Vietnam

       Japanese author Higashino Keigo passed away last month -- see my mention -- and, as I noted then, while his books have done well in the US and UK, they are really popular in South Korea and China -- and, as it turns out, Vietnam, as Thanh Ha and Thien Dieu now report at Tuổi Trẻ, in Which foreign author has had the most books published in Vietnam ?
       (Yes, that doesn't translate into most books sold -- indeed: "they initially sold poorly in Vietnam" -- but obviously there is some interest in his work. It also raises the question of why so few (relatively speaking) of his works have been translated into English .....)

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       Kirkus Prize finalists

       Kirkus has announced the finalists for its Kirkus Prizes, awarded in three categories (Fiction, Non, and Young Readers' Literature) and paying out an impressive US$50,000 to each winner.
       "Books are eligible for the prizes if they have received a rare starred review from Kirkus" .....
       The winners will be announced 7 October.

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

       Translations from ... North Macedonia

       At BalkanInsight Elena Gagovska reports that Translation Cutbacks Limit International Access to North Macedonia's Literature.
       As is the case in many European countries (and a few others, such as South Korea and Japan), North Macedonia had a: "government programme that provided grants to foreign publishers willing to translate and publish Macedonian books", and:

The Ministry says it typically allocated between one to four million denars [16,000- 65,000 euros] a year for the programme. In 2024, around 84,000 euros was distributed through 31 contracts with foreign publishers.

       Apparently, however, it was suspended in 2024 -- concerning, of course, to Macedonian authors, though even when it was running:

But writers and publishers say the programme had serious shortcomings even before it was discontinued. Communication with the Ministry was often difficult, they say. Payments were delayed and, in some cases, never made.

Buzharovska recalls several occasions when foreign publishers seeking funding for her books received no response from the Ministry for months.

       [When looking into this story I of course tried to access the official Ministry of Culture and Tourism site but it wouldn't load .....]
       Sadly, this story is yet another reminder of how what gets translated depends in no small part of who can afford (and is willing to) to subsidize it. So also, for example, enviously:

Several writers interviewed for this story pointed to neighbouring Slovenia as an example of how a small country can effectively promote its literature abroad.

Slovenia, with a population comparable to North Macedonia’s, operates its translation programme through the country’s Public Book Agency. Foreign publishers can apply for support not just for translation but also printing. North Macedonia’s programme covered translation costs only.

       Quite a few other countries have such agencies -- see, e.g. NORLA, LTI Korea, or the Icelandic Literature Center -- but some smaller nations/languages struggle to keep them up (see, sigh, the much-missed Georgian National Book Center (hey, at least the site is still up)).

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       Volodine x 11

       The French rentrée littéraire is the annual flood-the-market event that's just started up, with 461 novels coming out in the next weeks -- and eleven of those will be by Radiant Terminus-author Antoine Volodine, with The Times now reporting on that, in Cult writer's 11 books in a week: ego trip or literary milestone ? (paywalled, so I have no idea what they have to say about the project).
       Eleven books -- and published by eleven different publishers ! The collective name of the project is 'Retour au goudron', and there's even a convenient dedicated site.
       It's been widely reported on in the French press -- see, for example, the ActuaLitté report by Clotilde Martin, Un auteur, 11 éditeurs : le pari fou d’Antoine Volodine -- and I hope to be able to dig a bit deeper into it as well.

       Volodine has been quite extensively translated into English-- and by quite a few different publishers, so the big question is whether they will/can get eleven different US publishers to bring these out in translation (though I'd be fine with a one-volume collected edition ...).

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       Crime fiction in ... Iceland

       It's been widely noted over the now many years that 'Nordic noir' has been popular that local crime fiction presents many more murders than any of these Scandinavian nations actually have, and at The New York Times Amelia Nierenberg revisits the phenomenon -- and the difficulties it poses for writers -- in Iceland's Murder Rate Is Off the Charts (in Its Books, at Least) (presumably paywalled).

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

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       Headless in Kita review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Moussa Konaté's Headless in Kita -- crime fiction from Mali ! now in English, from Dedalus.

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       Literary ... buns ?

       In The Korea Times Lee Hae-rin reports that Book lovers flock to buy cover art, collectibles, literary buns, as:

On Friday, GS25 launched literary-themed breads in collaboration with Minumsa and Today’s Cuteness.

The first two products -- a custard mocha bun inspired by Anton Chekhov’s “About Love” and a salty-milk chewy bread based on the Korean poetry collection “I Wanted to Cry Fresh Like a Wolf” -- come with one of 20 random transparent bookmarks. Two more versions, including one based on “Pride and Prejudice,” are scheduled for release Tuesday.

Priced at 3,700 won for the mocha buns and 2,700 won for the chewy breads, the products transform book covers into snack packaging and a bookmark into the surprise inside.

       (One does have to be sort of impressed by whoever came up with this, and the combinations they are choosing; I wonder how broad a selection there ultimately will be.)
       As Lee notes:

The scene captures a growing publishing trend in Korea: books are no longer purchased only to be read. They are photographed, displayed, customized, carried and collected -- a development tied to the so-called “text hip” movement, which frames reading and writing as markers of taste and personal identity.

       I am unfamiliar with -- and hoping to avoid -- the 'text hip'-movement, but apparently it's Han Kang's fault.

       (Updated - 31 August): See now also Lee Yoon-Jeong reporting on the success of this at 경향신문, Is this a book or bread ? A bookmark is tucked ‘snugly’ inside...The ‘Minumsa bread’ craze sold 200,000 units in one week.

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       Mathias Ospelt Q & A

       I am unfamiliar with the works of Mathias Ospelt, but one doesn't often see coverage of any writing from Liechtenstein, so it's good to see Nesrein El-Bakhshawangy has a Q & A with the author at Al Majalla, Mathias Ospelt: crime fiction offers refuge in an unjust world..
       (Not sure, however, what the locals will have to say about him admitting "my favourite football team" is from Scotland rather than FC Vaduz ..... (Though given that FC Vaduz have started the season 0-4 and are dead last in the Super League .....))

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       جایزه ابوالحسن نجفی

       At ibna.ir they report on this year's Abolhassan Najafi Award, the leading Iranian award for a work in translation; this year's winner was the translation of Erich Kästner's Fabian. (New York Review Books re-issued Cyrus Brooks' English translation of this, re-titled Going to the Dogs, in 2012; see their publicity page.)
       There were 160 submissions for the Abolhassan Najafi Award; the IBNA article also reveals all eleven finalists, which include The Fawn by Szabó Magda (also published in English by New York Review Books !), Thomas Bernhard's Frost, Shehan Karunatilaka's The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, and books by Miguel Delibes, Yusuf Idris, and Alberto Moravia.
       Always fascinating to see what (still) gets translated in Iran (and also that, despite the current situation and conditions, there still is such an active book-industry scene (publishing, awards, etc.) there).

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       Fall books

       At The Guardian they offer a fall preview of UK books, in From Booker-listed Marlon James to a memoir by Michael Douglas -- the biggest books this autumn.
       Not sure we have to focus on (or even how to define) 'biggest', but it gives you some idea of the titles that will at least be getting media-attention in the coming months.

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

       Samanta Schweblin Q & A

       At El País Álex Vicente has a lengthy Q & A with Samanta Schweblin, writer: ‘Paying attention is the greatest superpower. Not everyone is still capable of it’.
       Among her responses:

Q. In 2018, you said that technology had transformed all of the arts, save for literature. Does artificial intelligence change that assessment?

A. No, I still think that. Technology changed film, theater, dance, music. Up to this point, it has only changed literature in terms of digital support. It hasn’t undergone any radical shift. Artificial intelligence could do that in future; it would be naive to think it couldn’t. But it hasn’t yet taken that step.

       Schweblin has apparently lived in Berlin since 2012 and explains: "The primary reason why I stayed is not very romantic: buying that time to write in Latin America would have cost me three or four times as much as in Berlin".

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

       Jack Galef Literary Arts Award

       The University of Iowa has announced the winner of the inaugural Jack Galef Literary Arts Award -- which is from now on to be: "presented every two years to support a younger writer who has demonstrated great talent or to recognize the work of a more established writer who has been underrecognized" -- and it is Tony Tulathimutte.
       As they also note: "At $150,000, it is one of the largest literary prizes awarded in the United States" -- quite the prize, indeed. (The estate has been admirably arts-supporting recently: just last year they announced the Jack Galef Visual Arts Award, another biennial prize, this one recognizing: "outstanding achievement and originality in contemporary visual art" (though it pays out only US$50,000).)
       Jack L. Galef II was himself a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop (which administers this prize) and apparently: "his poems have been published in The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Paris Review"; he certainly seems to have done well for himself, financially speaking -- though I suspect he did not make his fortune with his poetry.

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       Rachel Cusk profile

       Rachel Cusk's new novel, Life of M -- see the publicity pages at Faber and Farrar, Straus and Giroux --, has been getting an awful lot of attention, mainly because apparently it features a writer writing about a prominent actress who bears a strong resemblance to real-life actress Natalie Portman, whom Cusk is acquainted with. For an overview of the whole to-do see, for example, Gary Baum explaining How Natalie Portman Got Caught in Novelist Rachel Cusk's Autofiction Trap -- but note also articles such as Hillary Busis', arguing The Supposed Natalie Portman Novel Isn't That. So What Is It ? (presumably paywalled ?) at Vanity Fair and Laura Miller similarly finding: 'The acclaimed novelist's new book is supposedly about her famous friend. I've read it. It's something else entirely.' in Is Rachel Cusk's Life of M Actually About Natalie Portman ? at Slate.
       Now, Alexandra Alter actually speaks with Cusk about the novel, in How a Highbrow Novel Became Celebrity Gossip (presumably paywalled) at The New York Times -- though:

Cusk wouldn’t comment on whether she has had any conversations about the novel with Portman, whom she has met. She also wouldn’t discuss the speculation that Portman dislikes the book, as M does in the story. She insisted that whether M is based on a real celebrity “is not really the point.”

       Also, disappointingly: "Portman's representatives declined to comment for this article".
       I haven't seen the book (sigh), but this seems an interesting take:

The writer Sheila Heti, a friend of Cusk’s who read an early draft of “Life of M,” said the controversy that has erupted over M’s resemblance to Portman only proves Cusk’s point about how the public feels entitled to access the inner lives of celebrities, and then imposes false story lines.

“Everyone who is projecting onto Natalie Portman a sense of betrayal over her alleged appearance in the book is in fact enacting the very projection and storytelling that the book is thinking about, and is critiquing as kind of dehumanizing,” she said.

       In any case, I assume the whole fuss is doing wonders for the book's sales, so at least there's also that.

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

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