· December, 2007

Stories about Literature from December, 2007

New Bloggers Use Poetry to Describe Their Communities, Feelings, Friends

The new bloggers of Rising Voices outreach projects in Colombia, Bolivia, and Bangladesh are more than just up-and-coming citizen journalists. They have also discovered the power of prose to reveal glimpses of the human emotions that bring us together and the local differences that make each of our communities unique.

31 December 2007

Ethiopia: Queen of Sheba, Now Available in French

Francophone music blog Roots and Culture interviews Samuel Malher, a religious scholar from Strasbourg who has written the first unabridged French translation of the Kebra Negast, a sacred Ethiopian text. It describes the heritage of the Ethiopian monarchs, who trace their lineage to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and how the Ethiopians became God's new chosen people when the Ark of the Covenant was taken from Israel to Ethiopia.

30 December 2007

Romania: Dracula

Csíkszereda Musings re-reads Bram Stoker's ‘Dracula’ and writes about his surprising ethnic origins as well as Romania's flourishing Dracula-centered tourism industry.

26 December 2007

Armenia: Robinson Crusoe in Kurdish

Kurdistan and Hayastan — Hand in Hand posts a scan of the front page of the Kurdish translation of Daniel Dafoe's classic book, Robinson Crusoe. The book was translated and...

20 December 2007

Russia: Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Russian Blog writes about Lyudmila Ulitskaya's latest – and, possibly, her last – novel, “Daniel Stein, translator”: “After being such a prolific writer for many years, and after the huge...

20 December 2007

Russia: “Don Putin”

Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog is reminded of Godfather as he reads about “Putin’s acceptance to be Prime Minister if his protege Dima becomes President.”

19 December 2007

Bahrain: A tenfold increase in population?!

This time the roundup from Bahrain covers three weeks. We have frustration on every front, unfortunately: frustration with being surrounded by apathy and ignorance, with being a teenager, and with a ludicrous criminal charge. One blogger is considering leaving the Gulf for a better life back in India, another admits he rarely reads, and a number of others are debating the merits of secularism.

15 December 2007

Barbados: BIM Magazine

Gallimaufry is “really excited to hear…about the relaunch of Bim magazine”, a publication that was instrumental in the development of West Indian literature.

12 December 2007

Jamaica: Christmas Poem

“It's time; time to wash away the smoke of the year's turmoil, to put aside profits, gains, losses–the familiar ache that brings tears in the bathroom mirror–it’s time”: Geoffrey Philp...

10 December 2007