Stories about Literature from May, 2006
Cambodia: Is the world getting Flat?
Kalyan in Cambodia is reading Thomas Freidman's “The World is Flat“. Kalyan is asking the visitors to her blog “Do you believe that the world is or is going to be flat?”
Argentina: More Borges in Buenos Aires
Brandán adds a few more literary landmarks to Larry Rohter’s travel piece on “Borges’s Buenos Aires” that appeared in this weekend's New York Times.
Estonia: ‘War in the Woods’
Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa reviews a book on Estonian resistance to Soviet rule in the war years (War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, by Mart Laar).
Ahmadinejad's Letter & Tehran Book Fair
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter to his US counterpart, George Bush, has attracted a lot of attention in international media. Several leading journals such as Washington Post or Le Monde, in France, published letter and tried to analyze that. This 18 pages letter has been a hot topic among Iranian...
China: Writers of Vernacular
Friend Gram at Holidarity blogs on the increase of media time given to “Chinese authors that don't much tie in to the images of Chinese out there in the global vernacular” in ‘No Joy Luck Club Crap Here.’
Nigeria: Literature
Molara Wood publishes an interview with Nigerian author, Sefi Atta who wrote “Everything Good Will Come”.
Bruna Little Surfer: blog turns into book, call girl turns into writer
Bruna Little Surfer is how she became known, the Brazilian blogger named Rachel Pacheco turned celebrity while posting in her online diary details about her job as a call girl. The mainstream media is emphasizing the "tramp-to-celebrity" phenomenon more than the blogosphere which is providing some very interesting discussion.
Barbados: Kamau Braithwaite
Geoffrey Philp pays tribute to Edward Kamau Braithwaite on the occasion of the Barbadian poet's birthday.
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Study on Karadzic Poetry
Balkan Ghost of Finding Karadzic quotes from a research paper by Jay Surdukowski, a lawyer, scholar and poet, on “how poetry can be used to prove genocidal intent.”
Puerto Rico: Young novelist and domestic violence
Tinta Digital attends a conference (ES) entitled “Domestic violence in modern communications media” at the University of Puerto Rico where one of the speakers is 19 year-old Ada Alvarez, Puerto Rico's youngest ever novelist, author of Lo que no dije (What isn't said). Alvarez also maintains a blog (ES) by...
Blogging about India: bio-fuels, mangoes, bananas, chick-lit and Bollywood
Blogging about India: bio-fuels, mangoes, bananas, chick-lit and Bollywood
Argentina: The Tango Singer
Jeff Barry, who is writing his own novel set in Buenos Aires, mentions the newest work by famed Argentine novelist Tomás Eloy Martínez. “The Tango Singer is about an American graduate student who travels to Buenos Aires to research Borges’ writings on tango.”
The week that was, in the Moroccan blogosphere
Once again, an Egyptian blogger is detained. I'll start today by urging the Egyptian Government to release Alaa and the other activists detained for having expressed their political opinion. I don't know yet why no one can access M.S Hjiouj‘s blog(Ar) since last week, and I sincerely hope it has...
South Africa: Black South Africa do read
Being told that Black South Africans dont read set Lavina Live on a search through South Africa's rich literary history. …”This post is a tribute to the great South African writers of my generation, and generations past, black, white and all in between. This is also a wake-up call to...
Haiti: Presses Nationales Relaunches Lit Classics
The Presses Nationales celebrated 170 years of Haitian literature from May 3 to 6, says (FR) Alterpresse. “34 titles [of poetry, spoken word, fiction and non-fiction] were published or republished.” There were “16 conferences in different parts of Port-au-Prince, talks and readings as well as 8 book signings.” The Presses’...
Iran: Books & Iranians
Abtahi, cleric blogger, says in International Tehran Book Fair, he talked with several editors and writers. Blogger writes, it seems previous years psychological books were the best sellers. This year, “how to become successful” books are on the top of the list (Persian).
El Salvador, Argentina: On Book Fairs
Soy Salvadoreño was impressed with the low prices (ES) at the Universidad Centroamericana book fair in San Salvador. Jeff Barry went to the Book Fair at La Rural in Buenos Aires where he observed that the media company Grupo Clarín “obviously hired models to work the Clarín booths, which seemed...
Haiti: New Haiti-Based Haitian Blog
Parlons Peu uses the blog medium to publish (FR) his father Marcel Salnave's journalistic works from the 40s and 50s. Recent posts include a raving review of Haitian musical prodigy Ernst Lamy written in 1940 and reflections on the Haitian National Bank written in 1946.
Albania: Agron Tufa's Poetry
Traveller One of Stepping Stones posts a translation of Agron Tufa's poem about Albania.
Jamaica: Writer's books on Caribbean lit. syllabus
Writer Geoffrey Philp is delighted to see his books beginning to appear on the Caribbean literature syllabuses at various institutions, including the University of Iowa.
Ukraine: Irene Zabytko's Stories
Greg of Reflections on Ukraine shares his impressions of a book of stories by a Ukrainian author Irene Zabytko: “All of the stories are narrated by the central character, Luba, a Ukrainian in her early twenties of the post-WWII displaced persons (DP) group of immigrants who lives with her parents...