opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 30 September 2026

21 September: Amit Chaudhuri Q & A | 'Mausoleum of Poets' | Tanka
22 September: Reading in ... Kazakhstan | Preserving Sotim Ulughzoda
23 September: Booker Prize shortlist | French literary to-do
24 September: Orélien update | Writers' Trust Fiction Prize shortlist | Honeymoon to Nowhere review
25 September: Bulk AI buying of Japanese books ? | Bookselling in ... South Korea
26 September: Profiles: Helen DeWitt - Fitzcarraldo Editions | Orélien's book de-listed from prix Goncourt longlist
27 September: Writing in ... Nepal | AI and creative writing | Teaching Oulipian writing
28 September: More on The Camp of the Saints | Bedeutungswelten review
29 September: Peter May (1951-2026) | Neustadt Lit Fest
30 September: MacArthur Fellowships | Prix de la BnF | Prix de la Page 111 finalists | K.-H. Zillmer-Verlegerpreis

go to weblog

return to main archive

       MacArthur Fellowships

       The MacArthur Foundation has announced the latest batch of MacArthur Fellows -- twenty recipients of their "no-strings-attached fellowships" who will now receive US$800,000, "paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years".
       Unfortunately, the official site does not seem to have a simple, convenient press release with the winner-information, so turn instead to the npr report by Chloe Veltman, Meet the 20 scholars and artists who've just won MacArthur Fellowships.
       Three writeres are among the newly-named fellows: Maaza Mengiste, Bryan Washington, and Layli Long Soldier.

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

---

       Prix de la BnF

       The Bibliothèque nationale de France has been giving out the prix de la BnF since 2009, with a very impressive list of winners, and they've now announced who gets the prize this year: A Reading Diary-author Alberto Manguel, with a special jury prize going to Patti Smith. They haven't managed to update their site to reflect that yet, last I checked, or post a press release, -- hey, they warned of perturbations des services at the BnF yesterday, so I guess that's something of an excuse -- so see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The prize is for 'un auteur vivant de langue française pour l’ensemble de son œuvre', and all the previous winners have been French-writing authors (and, yes, living), but I guess Manguel qualifies as sufficiently Francophone, even if he usually doesn't write in French.

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

---

       Prix de la Page 111 finalists

       One of my favorite French literary prizes, the prix de la Page 111, has announced it finalists; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       Yes, this is a prize with finalists judged and selected on the basis of only page 111 of the various books; the winner will be selected -- in a 'délibération publique' ! -- and announced 11 November. (I like the effort, but, come on, if you're going to do it this way then go all the way and announce the winner on 11 January -- and at 1:11 AM (rather than 20:11, as they're planning to).

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

---

       K.-H. Zillmer-Verlegerpreis

       The K.-H. Zillmer-Verlegerpreis is a German publisher-prize, and the Karl-Heinz Zillmer-Stiftung at the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung has now announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) this year's winner -- worth a mention, first, because the payout is pretty good (€20,000) and, second, becuase the winner is Sebastian Guggolz, of the eponymous publishing house.
       Specializing in translations from northern and eastern Europe, he/they have a great list -- well worth checking out.

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

       Peter May (1951-2026)

       Scottish mystery writer Peter May has passed away; see, for example, the BBC obituary.

       I haven't read any of his books, but apparently: "He sold about 15 million copies of his books around the world", which seems like a pretty good number..

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

---

       Neustadt Lit Fest

       The Neustadt Lit Fest is on through tomorrow -- see the full programme -- with the announcement of the 2027 NSK Prize laureate scheduled for today and 2026 Neustadt Prize laureate Ibrahim Nasrallah delivering his Neustadt Prize Lecture tomorrow.

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

       More on The Camp of the Saints

       I'm always a bit reluctant to mention Jean Raspail's The Camp of the Saints -- surely the most awful, in every sense of the word, book under review at the complete review --, but its sadly enduring popularity and influence are hard to ignore. I don't know if Alexandra Minna Stern's new piece at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Demographic Fears and Far-Right Fantasies is helpfully corrective, but, hey, it's something, so (t)here you go. (Somewhat depressing also to see that this is their: "17th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present"; that's way more legacy than I am comfortable with.)

       I mention it also because I learn there that there is not just a new edition of this abomination out, but that it is a new translation ..... (See also the Vauban Books publicity page.)
       In The American Conservative Michael O'Shea has a Q & A with the translator of the new version, Ethan Rundell -- titled, *sigh*: Saving Camp of the Saints -- in which he addresses the previous translation and asks, for example: "Would the controversy be lessened if Norman Shapiro hadn’t used the name “Turd-Eater” in his 1975 translation ?" (My take: the list of issues with this novel goes way beyond the occasional word-choice.)
       Still, interesting to hear Rundell's take on the previous translation:

Norman Shapiro, throughout his translation, opted for the demotic turn. He made things cruder than they were in Raspail. He substituted for Raspail's humor what I must suppose was Shapiro’s humor. He translated the book, in my view, very deliberately for the American readership of his time. I like to joke that, reading Shapiro, you get the impression that when he was tasked with translating this book, he said, “Okay, this is too French. I want this book to be serialized in Playboy magazine. I’m going to translate it for the sort of modal Playboy reader.”

       Sadly, the book is impossible to ignore, given its influence in certain (or rather: the) currently influential circles wielding political power, especially in the United States; Rundell mentions that, when the Democratic Party (re)gains power (as both he and O'Shea seem to think is likely, sooner or later): "I would not in the least be surprised that when that day comes, Camp has disappeared down the memory hole"; one can always hope.

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

---

       Bedeutungswelten review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Giwi Margwelaschwili in conversation with Jörg Sundermeier, in Bedeutungswelten.

       Margwelaschwili's centenary is next year, and I wonder whether that will be a nudge for the next semi-revival of his work -- and maybe see some of it appear in translation ?

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

       Writing in ... Nepal

       In The Kathmandu Post Abhi Subedi finds: 'Contemporary Nepali literature does not overtly reflect the chaotic nature of today’s political climate' in exploring How Nepali literature should respond to political changes.

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

---

       AI and creative writing

       It's a subject that will be discussed pretty much endlessly for the foreseeable future -- and it's already interesting to see some of the different takes.
       In Dawn Nasir Abbas Nayyar considers The Novel in the Age of AI -- with a local focus, noting, for example, that:

In the first 26 years of the 21st century, hundreds of Urdu novels have appeared, yet it is difficult to identify a single work that has achieved uncontested, global canonical stature.

       (A pretty high bar -- 'uncontested, global canonical stature' --, which not too many novels written in any language have cleared, I'd suggest .....)
       Nayyar argues:

Surrounded by abundance, writers may find it increasingly difficult to sustain the impulse to create works intended to outlive their moment. They are tempted to produce works that are immediately received and consumed. Yet, the desire for literary immortality relates to the human instinct for survival. Writers seek survival in the contemporary literary world through attention, popularity, prizes and awards -- they seek survival in history by attempting to defeat time. The two forms of survival are rarely achieved together.

       There are some interesting points and arguments in this essay, and the 'abundance'-aspect is certainly something to consider, but I find the insistence on writers being so concerned with 'survival' of this sort -- through 'literary immortality' (good luck with that ...) and with works that 'outlive their moment', or 'through attention, popularity, prizes and awards' -- problematic. Surely, much -- and many of the best novels -- are *produced* by authors who focus on the thing at hand (the novel) and don't worry about (potential) readers, posterity, or acclaim -- all nice if you can get them (as is cash, if your book sells), but ultimately incidental.

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

---

       Teaching Oulipian writing

       In The Oberlin Review Taylor Lindsley writes about how professor Emily Barton Exercises the Unconventional in Course The OuLiPo & Constraint -- Creative Writing course CRWR 291: The OuLiPo & Constraint. (There doesn't appear to be a page simply with the course description, but if you click on the link in the catalogue here you can find it -- learning also that: "Readings in English translation, though students with working knowledge of French, Italian, or Arabic can also read texts in the original languages".)
       As Lindsley explains:

The course structure builds itself upon trial and error; one of Barton’s course goals listed in the syllabus is to move beyond a “first thought, best thought” mentality. By workshopping a variety of texts with other students under the influence of Oulipian constraints, students are able to express themselves in ways that might be unexplored through other creative writing workshop courses.

       And see, of course, the OuLiPo-works under review at the complete review.

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

       Profile: Helen DeWitt

       At El País Rodrigo Naredo profiles the Your Name Here co-author, in Helen DeWitt: ‘Publishers treat authors like outcasts until it’s time to go out and sell books’, as they've released a Spanish-language collection of some of her shorter works, including the excellent The English Understand Wool -- see (or try to see; the Spanish-language pick-your-country-come-on-pick-your-country Penguin site(s) is an abomination) the publicity page.
       About that she notes:

“Don’t ask me how the stories were selected,” she shrugs. “I don’t know. I wasn’t part of that decision. When I sent them to the American publisher to see if they would buy them, they made a list that perhaps didn’t make much sense... but I didn’t have the strength to nitpick and argue.”

       Among her other observations:

“When I was younger, I imagined that one of the things that people in the publishing world would enjoy most was interacting with brilliant writers. I didn’t realize that people went to great lengths to avoid discussing texts with an author,” she sighs.

       (Updated - 29 September): Note that DeWitt takes issue with how this piece turned out (i.e what the interviewer and editors made of it) -- with Joyce Carol Oates commiserating; see their Twitter-exchange.
       For what it's worth: this is why I try to -- and much prefer -- linking to Q & As, where it's much harder (though far from impossible ...) to mess with the subject's actual thoughts and opinions. That's why I also always refer to such pieces as 'profiles', to at least try to remind readers that they are subjective pieces (rather than the just-(and-true-to-)the-words implication of 'interview').
       [Updated]: DeWitt also notes the difference between profiles and interviews.

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

---

       Profile: Fitzcarraldo Editions

       Publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions gets another nice, big write-up, this time in the Financial Times, where Helen Bain finds that: 'Jacques Testard is transforming our reading habits, one blue book at a time', and reports on Fitzcarraldo - inside the chicest publisher on earth (presumably paywalled).
       Among the interesting bits:

American writer Joshua Cohen had published three novels with Penguin Random House, but in 2020 the publisher turned down his latest. Cohen’s editor had left, and the sales of his previous novel hadn’t been strong enough to automatically take on the next book. His agent submitted it to 12 or so other US publishing houses; they all passed. Testard -- who had published Cohen at The White Review -- acquired the novel, sold the American rights and The Netanyahus subsequently won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. How could a Pulitzer winner be turned down by so many publishers? “It was an odd moment,” says Testard diplomatically.

       Also: always great to see some numbers:

The average print run has risen from 1,500 copies to a minimum of 4,000; only one book has sold fewer than 1,000 copies (Testard adds with pride that in the UK the average novel sells around 300)

       Very disappointing, however, that the name of the dud is not revealed .....

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

---

       Orélien's book de-listed from prix Goncourt longlist

       I've mentioned the to-do about Thélyson Orélien's C'était ça ou mourir -- with Orélien accused of having used the help of AI to write generate the book -- here and here, and it looks like we're reaching the death-spiral stage, as the Académie Goncourt has announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) that they've axed the title from the longlist for the prix Goncourt. (It has also been longlisted for other prominent prizes, including the Renaudot, and already won the Fnac Novel Prize, so it will be interesting to see how these other prizes react and play this.)
       There's more English-language coverage of this now, too; see, for example:

• Novelist accused of using AI to write book removed from French prize list by Philip Oltermann in The Guardian
  
  
• His Novel Had a Shot at a Top Book Prize. Then Someone Ran an A.I. Test. (presumably paywalled) by Catherine Porter, Ségolène Le Stradic, and Tiffany Hsu in The New York Times
  
  
• Canadian-Haitian writer Thélyson Orélien stripped from Prix Goncourt longlist after AI claims at France24
  
  
• Was this award-winning book written by AI ? Scandal deepens skepticism in literary world by Cassandra Yanez-Leyton at CBC News

       I'm curious how it all plays out, but at least it raises some significant questions -- though muddied some by the fact that Orélien seems also to have engaged in plagiarism elsewhere ... --, not least: why does it matter whether or not AI was used in generating the text ? (The easier issue is, of course, that it is bad form (meaning: unacceptable) to lie about doing so -- if Orélien did, in fact, rely on AI --; if he did (or rather: is continuing to) lie about that he can and should certainly be condemned for that.)
       Stay tuned; I'm sure there will be a lot more to come .....

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

       Bulk AI buying of Japanese books ?

       At Tom's Hardware Mark Tyson reports Japanese used bookstores see 5x sales surge as books are being bought by the ton, one 50-ton order sent to the US for AI scanning and destruction -- multitude of suspicious bulk buys thought to end up in foreign AI scan and shred facilities.
       The headline pretty much covers it all -- though interesting to hear (though I haven't checked into the specifics of this):

Another moral question concerns the use of copyrighted works for AI learning. This is still legal in Japan, unless it can be demonstrated that the scanning unfairly harms the interests of the copyright holder.

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

---

       Bookselling in ... South Korea

       Some fairly extensive coverage of the local scene, as Anastasia Traynin reports in The Korea Times that Incheon's Baedari Secondhand Bookstore Alley bridges history, welcomes the world.
       It's not quite book-central like it apparently once was, down to eight stores now, while:

At its peak throughout the 1970s to 1990s, Baedari counted up to 50 used bookshops, but that number began to decline during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.

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

       Orélien update

       As expected, this French did he-use-AI-? story I mentioned yesterday has quickly spread across the channel, with lots of UK coverage (though, surprisingly, practically none in the US press so far (though it's surely coming)).
       For English-language coverage see now, for example:

• Uproar in France over award-winning author accused of using AI by Hugh Schofield at the BBC
  
  
• Canadian and French publishers stand by author accused of using AI for prize-winning novel by Gabriel Stargardter and Maria Cheng at Reuters
  
  
• Why AI allegations risk turning a Canadian literary sensation into a French book scandal by Allan Woods in the Toronto Star
  
  
• French literary sensation accused of using AI to write prize-winning novel (presumably paywalled) by Henry Samuel in The Telegraph
  
  
• Did AI write the French book of the year ? (presumably paywalled) by Sean Thomas in The Spectator
  
  
• France's literary sensation accused of penning migration story with AI (presumably paywalled) in The Times
  
  
• A breakout star author is accused of using AI in his prize-contending debut (presumably paywalled) by Olivier Clairouin, Florian Reynaud, Nicolas Six and Michaël Szadkowski in Le Monde

       Meanwhile, more significantly, the French and Canadian press have been looking into this guy's other published writing and, *sigh*, are finding what look like clear-cut examples of wholesale plagiarism; see, for example, the La Presse report by Charles-Éric Blais-Poulin and Ulysse Bergeron, Thélyson Orélien rattrapé par un passé de plagiaire and the fact-check at Libération, «Prix du public» de Radio Canada : le texte soumis par Thélyson Orélien, lauréat de l’édition 2012, était un plagiat de Louis Pauwels (presumably paywalled).
       As noted, I have far too little information (or interest) to judge at this point, but it looks like Orélien is cooked and done, and now the interesting question is how this all plays out. (I'm disappointed -- but I guess not surprised -- by the apparent plagiarism, since that reframes the debate, shiftng it away from simply being a question about the validity of the possible use of AI in the creation of literary texts; if true, it seems Orélien is simply an attention-seeker who wants to be seen as a *writer* and is willing to take whatever shortcuts to that status that he ... thought he could get away with.)

       (Updated - 25 September): At ActuaLitté Hocine Bouhadjera has a thorough, in-depth (French) overview of various reports and findings (not just the one in the headline), in Thélyson Orélien a-t-il oublié un prompt ChatGPT sur son site internet ? By now this is probably yesterday's news, as who knows what else they'll have uncovered, but it is a useful overview -- as is the CBC report by Cassandra Yanez-Leyton, Was this award-winning book written by AI ? Scandal deepens skepticism in literary world
       US coverage has been lagging, but the Wall Street Journal has picked up the story, with Anna Silman and Matthew Dalton exploring His Debut Novel Was a Literary Triumph. Was It Actually Written by AI ? (presumably paywalled).

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

---

       Writers' Trust Fiction Prize shortlist

       The Writers' Trust of Canada has announed the shortlist for this year's Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, "Awarding the best Canadian novel or short story collection of the year", with five works left in the running for the C$70,000 prize, selected from 118 submitted titles. For a better overview than what's available at the official site, see Talia Kliot's CBC Books report, 5 Canadian writers shortlisted for $70K Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
       I actually even have one of these !
       The winner will be announced 10 November.

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

---

       Honeymoon to Nowhere review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Takagi Akimitsu's Honeymoon to Nowhere -- the fourth of Takagi's novels covered at the site.

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

       Booker Prize shortlist

       They've announced the six titles to make the shortlist for this year's Booker Prize -- "the world's most significant award for a single work of fiction", apparently.
       The winner will be announced on 9 November.

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

---

       French literary to-do

       Thélyson Orélien's C'était ça ou mourir -- see the Grasset publicity page -- can rightly be considered the 'literary sensation' of the season in France; the author's first novel, it just was awarded the Fnac Novel Prize and, longlisted for seemingly all the more prestigious literary prizes still to come this fall, beginning with the Goncourt and Renaudot, looks to be one of the fall's big(gest) books, in every sense. Rights have also been sold in some two dozen markets, including to Summit in the UK and Scribner in the US; see the Les Éditions du Boréal publicity page where, if you click 'Droits cédés', you can find the full list; and in The New York Times Norimitsu Onishi even profiled the author and wrote about the book back in May already, in Quebec Novelist Shines a Harsh Spotlight on Migration, and on Trump’s America (presumably paywalled).
       Something of a spanner has now been thrown into the works here, as apparently someone on Twitter (yes, yes, whatever it's now called ...) made the claim that the book was written with the use of AI, an accusation that has blown up and received wide (French-language) coverage; see for example, Chantal Guy's useful overview of the whole 'affair' at LaPresse, Tirs groupés sur Thélyson Orélien. Meanwhile, the author completely denies the claims; his publishers are standing by him as well.
       I hesitate to report on this kind of stuff; I have no idea about the basis of the claims (and little interest in pursuing these) and would rather wait until things are more settled, but the story -- and name of the author and title of the book -- are so out there and widely reported on that I figure you'll hear about it and come across coverage soon enough anyway.
       The accusation may, of course, prove to be completely unsubstantiated -- in which case the really interesting and uncomfortable discussion should be about how and why it was picked up and spread so quickly and widely (presumably with more than a whiff of racism and xenophobia playing a significant role).
       (More interesting and explosive would be if the claims do turn out to be true, leading to a different kind of discussion which few people seem prepared to have. (That discussion -- about how books are increasingly going to be written with more and more AI-'assistance', and that they are going to get published, nominated for prizes, and be widely bought -- is coming sooner or later, whether about this book or the next case; it's already overdue, with few people -- especially readers, as well as publishing 'professionals' -- willing to acknowledge or confront (or able to wrap their heads around) the inevitability of it.))

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

       Reading in ... Kazakhstan

       Like many countries these days, Kazakhstan is reacting to their recently released PISA results; we'll see how much comes of it but still, good to hear that, as Ayana Birbayeva reports at The Astana Times, Kazakhstan Steps up Literary Outreach as Reading Culture Becomes Policy Priority
       Sounds like a good policy priority -- and, in fact, they already got started with it before the scores came out, with the 16 May decree, Кітап оқу мәдениетін дамыту және зерделі ұлт қалыптастыру жөніндегі шаралар туралы. .

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

---

       Preserving Sotim Ulughzoda

       Sotim Ulughzoda does not appear to be well-known abroad, but he's one of Tajikistan's most renowned authors (and translators) -- they even, sort of, re-named a university after him, the Tajik International University of Foreign Languages named after Sotim Ulughzoda (yes, that's the official name, even in Tajik (Донишгоҳи байналмилалии забонҳои хориҷии Тоҷикистон ба номи Сотим Улуғзода)).
       Now, as Mehrofarin Najibi reports at asia+: Hero title, museum and 20 volumes: Tajikistan proposes new ways to preserve Sotim Ulughzoda’s legacy.
       Well, it's easy to propose, and we'll see what comes of all this; as to the chances of seeing some of his work in translation ... those are probably not too great. (As I've long complained, far too little is translated from the Central Asian languages -- but, yes, if we get some translations from Tajik, he probably wouldn't be first choice (and something more contemporary would probably be of greater interest, in any case).)

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

       Amit Chaudhuri Q & A

       At Scroll.in Aishani Misra has a Q & A with the author, in ‘The act of writing is un-citizenly’: Amit Chaudhuri talks about his new novel, ‘Château Rouge’.
       Among his observations:

For me, it is important to embrace this seemingly boring part of fiction writing in order to play with all kinds of other meanings that would not be available to me in an essay.

       Several of Chuadhuri's works are under review at the complete review -- Sojourn, etc. -- but I only have an e-copy of this one; see also the publicity pages for the book from New York Review Books and Faber.

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

---

       'Mausoleum of Poets'

       Sort of impressed, given how things are going, that at Press TV Humaira Ahad encourages readers to: Discover Iran: Tabriz’s iconic ‘Mausoleum of Poets,’ where centuries of Persian literary history lives on.
       Kind of a neat idea, though the design of this latest structure doesn't seem that ... poetic.
       (As to the 'Discover Iran'-campaign as a whole -- well, they do have a F*c*book page (though with only 1.5K followers), but I'm afraid they're going to have some trouble convincing folks that now is the time .....)

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

---

       Tanka

       At nippon.com Yoshino Taichirō profiles Kang Han-na: A South Korean Poet Finds Her Voice in Japan’s Tanka.
       Kang explains:

Through the refined expression of tanka, I’ve come to learn about Japanese people’s way of thinking, their connection to others, feelings, life wisdom, and philosophy -- in other words, what they hold dear as human beings. Even if you translate a tanka simply, you break the 7-5 rhythm and it’s difficult to convey the poem’s characteristic quality, which is frustrating, but I think that like Zen philosophy, tanka can become fascinating to people in other countries.

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

previous entries (11 - 20 September 2026)

archive index

- search the site -

- return to top of the page -

© 2026 the complete review


Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links