Stories about Literature from January, 2007
Egypt: January Bookfair
Blogger Baheya is back from the Book Fair, with three books in tow. “I’ve plucked only three of the most prominent features this year, two worthwhile new novels and a...
Venzuela: Translations from Spanish
Guillermo Parra of Venepoetics has published a slew of recent translations including Eduardo Vásquez's “Postmodernity Once Again,” which proposes two distinct foundations for Chavez's so-called “21st Century Socialism.” Parra also...
Arabisc: Egyptian Bloggers Tie the Knot
Like in Egyptian movies, there is a thin line between imagination and reality in Egypt, where two politically active bloggers get close to each other at an anti-government rally, then...
Kuwait: What is a Muhajababe?
K the Kuwaiti has just come across an interesting book, which he has ordered online, provided, of course, it gets past the Kuwaiti customs! The book is entitled Muhajababes: Meet...
Puerto Rico: Two poems
Puerto Rican writer Elidio La Torre-Lagares posts two interesting poems in English.
South Asia: Human rights, blogosphere, traditions, democracy, discrimination, travel and festivals
Picks from different blogs from the following South Asian Countries: Bangladesh: After 5 years detention in Guantanamo, one Bangladeshi (Mobarak) was recently released by the US authorities. However he was...
Brazil: Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist
“By all rights, Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist should have single-handedly delivered a knock-out blow to any popular conception that Latin American literature is ‘good’ literature. The novel is, simply put,...
Jamaica, St. Lucia, Barbados: Post-independence
Geoffrey Philp takes on the subject of post-Independence literature in the Caribbean, noting the particular significance of the work of poets Kamau Braithwaite, Derek Walcott and Mervyn Morris.
China: statement on banned book
ESWN translated Zhang Yihe's statement and position towards the list of 2006 banned books in China. “This book (Past Histories of Peking Opera Stars)is banned because of that person.” That...
Nepal: Inheritance of Loss
Deepak Adhikari on Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss. “It was nice to read the story of Gorkhaland movement at a time when the demand is resurfacing. …I was in this...
India: The Big Book and Reviews
Amardeep Singh writes on a rather long book that has reviewers writing the review without finishing it. “There seems to be something about Vikram Chandra's heavily-hyped, 900 page Bombay gangster...
Lebanon: A Bouquet of Topics
A variety of subjects were brought up in the Lebanese blogosphere this week. Following are some of the topics with links to selected posts about each. Hope you enjoy reading...
Ukraine: Diaspora Illustrator
Ukraine List writes about Yaroslava Surmach-Mills, a Ukrainian-American illustrator.
South Korea: textbook debate
Robert Koehler from Marmot's Hole puts together debate related to a novel used as an English text in U.S. middle schools which contains description of abuse and rape of Japanese...
Chile: Isabel Allende: What's in a Cover
Don't judge a book by its cover. That is, unless you want insight into how major publishing houses try to market the translations of foreign writers. Noting the difference between...
Haiti: 10 essential writers
Baturrico posts a photo of a street side bookseller in Haiti and a list (ES) and a hyperlinked list of the “10 essential figures of Haitian literature”.
Iran:There is money for Lebanese People not for Iranians
Ghomar Asheghaneh criticised Iranian government financial's support regarding Lebanese publishers.He says Lebanese publishers got a lot of financial support to participate in International Book Fair in Iran but Iranian editors...
Puerto Rico: Writers who blog
Eugenio Martínez Rodríguez is pleased (ES) to see that at least one Puerto Rican writer has a blog (or two), which doesn't prevent him from offering the writer a bit...
China: Return of the Wang
Or King, according to the title of Wang Xiaofeng‘s January 10 post which brings with it the news that the eighties and nineties badboy of Chinese literature and one-time “spiritual...
Jamaica: 30 years on, critique still holds water
The latest installment in Geoffrey Philp's “In My Own Words” series, which focuses on Caribbean writers, is a critique of the Caribbean's failure to give recognition to the arts written...
Haiti: Commemorating Novelist Jaques Roumain
Reacting to news that this year will be the 100th anniversary of novelist Jacques Roumain‘s birth, Collectif Haiti de Provence asks (Fr): “Will Haitians do the comemoration of the author...
