Stories about Literature from September, 2009
Oman: Lost in The Lost Symbol
Omanizer was away from blogging for a few days and she has an excuse. She couldn't put Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol down.
CEE: History, Nationalism and Identity
Marietta Le of Remainder of Budapest writes about issues of history, nationalism and identity in Hungary and other states of Central and Eastern Europe.
Guyana: Thanks, But No Thanks
Guyana-Gyal turns down a publishing “deal”.
Middle East: Arabisk, Blog Competition and Debate
Newly launched Arabisk is an annual competition to select the best Arabic blogs. First welcomed by bloggers, Egyptian bloggers are now complaining that they have been sidelined from the contest. Here is round up of their reactions.
Russia: Ulitskaya-Khodorkovsky Correspondence
Robert Amsterdam's Blog links to OpenDemocracy.net's translation of correspondence between writer Ludmila Ulitskaya and former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, published (RUS) in Novaya Gazeta earlier this month.
Haiti, USA: MacArthur award for Danticat
Repeating Islands reports that Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat has won a prestigious “genius award” from the MacArthur Foundation.
Suriname: R.I.P. Henk Tjon
Celebrated Surinamese playwright and theatre director Henk Tjon died in Paramaribo on 18 September, 2009. The Bahamas-based Ringplay Productions blog remembers “his passion and his eloquence on the subject of the role of the arts in Caribbean society.”
Puerto Rico: Debate on Censorship
The Department of Education of the government of Puerto Rico recently eliminated five books from the eleventh grade curriculum of the public school system. Numerous writers and artists in Puerto Rico publicly voiced their concerns and described the government's action as censorship. The Puerto Rican blogosphere reacts to the controversy.
Dominican Republic: three poets
Repeating Islands features a new bilingual edition of poems by three women writers from the Dominican Republic: Aída Cartagena Portalatín, Angela Hernández Núñez, and Ylonka Nacidit-Perdomo. “Each of them addresses shared political and cultural issues, illuminating what it means to be a woman living in the modern day Dominican Republic.”
Trinidad and Tobago: a tribute to Wayne Brown
B.C. Pires writes an eloquent tribute to the Trinidadian writer Wayne Brown, who died on 14 September, 2009. “Wayne’s greatest gift … was the illustration of the relationship between the artist and his work.”
Botswana: What Botswana Creative Writers Need
Lauri writes about creative writing and writers in Botswana: “I was told once that when the English Department at the University of Botswana suggested they start a creative writing programme there the vice chancellor asked – what for?”
Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago: literary obituaries
Litblogger Geoffrey Philp posts short tributes to two Caribbean writers who have died within 24 hours of each other: Trinidadian Wayne Brown (1944-2009) and Jamaican Trevor Rhone (1940-2009).
Trinidad and Tobago: Anton Nimblett's stories
gspottt posts a review of a new book of short stories by US-based Trinidadian writer Anton Nimblett: “Sections of an Orange is … perhaps the first work of literature to portray Trinidadian men who both love other men and are not psychologically conflicted or destroyed by their sexuality.”
Estonia: Haapsalu
Itching for Eestimaa is musing on Haapsalu and other Estonian towns, history, politics and life in general.
Jamaica: Truth & Laughter
“If death is the closing parenthesis on the fiction of every human life, then humor is the asterisk that proclaims the dignity of human life despite the many absurdities”: Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp explains.
Jamaica, Barbados: Sandiford Speaks
Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp features writer Robert Sandiford in his own words.
Bahamas: International Literacy Day
Bahamian bloggers Womanish Words and tings mash dedicate their posts to the marking of UNESCO’s International Literacy Day.
Philippines: Covering Books with Plastic
The KyusiReader looks at why Filipinos love to cover books with plastic.
Suriname: On “Someni Tongo”
“I think art is exactly and only about this: the need to create and express what is uniquely inside you, and to do so because you have no choice”: Chandra van Binnendijk, guest blogging at Paramaribo SPAN, shares her impressions of Dutch artist Arnold Schalks's Someni Tongo project, “which examined...
Bahamas: The Play's The Thing
Ward Minnis continues his series of posts on Bahamian art, saying: “If you want to be a professional creative writer in the Bahamas you are going to have to be some kind of playwright. It really is that simple.”
Japan: How to make a business book
Mrs. Yumiko Oshiba (干場弓子), President Director of Discover [ja], describes [ja] how is the workflow like in a publish company specialized in business books. Five seem to be the most decisive phases: 1) finding an author and/or a project, 2) deciding how to structure the book and writing coaching, 3)...
