Stories from Quick Reads and Literature
Trinidad & Tobago: Hollick Arvon Prize Finalists
The Bocas Lit Fest Blog has announced that emerging writers from Jamaica, Grenada, St. Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago are the finalists for the much-coveted 2014 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize, now in its second year.
Activists Add Female Heroines to Wikipedia in Macedonian
The informal citizens’ group “Fight Like a Woman”, (@borisezenski), organized a mini marathon with the purpose of adding articles about notable women from Macedonia to Wikipedia in Macedonian to raise awareness about women's rights and gender equality. The campaign involved activists working within the site of International Women's Day celebrations...
11th Century Kannada Literature Available On Wikisource
Vachana Sahitya is a form of rhythmic writing in Kannada language that evolved in the 11th Century C.E. and flourished in the 12th century. Subhashish Panigrahi reports (co-authored by Pavithra Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash HI) in Wikimedia blog that Two Wikimedians along with a Kannada linguist have converted 21000 verses of...
Eritrean Literary Giant Talks About Tigrinya Oral Poetry
Blogger Issayas interviews Solomon Tsehaye, eritre's leading poet. after the release of his latest work on massé and melqes, oral poetry genres in Eritrea. Solomon Tsehaye is the man who wrote Eritrea's national anthem: Issayas: What is massé? Melqes? Solomon: Massé (awlo) and melqes are related art forms which constitute...
What Happened to Creative Writing in Malawi?
Steve Sharra discusses the reasons behind the fall of quality of creative writing in Malawi: Of the many private universities that are mushrooming across the country, very few offer humanities courses where people can study languages and literature, creative writing and literary criticism. The University of Malawi has been operating...
Nicaraguan Micro-Fiction by Alberto Sánchez Arguello
Blogger Mildred Largaespada of 1001 Trópicos [es] writes about Alberto Sánchez Arguello, a Nicaraguan writer who shares his micro-stories through his Twitter account @7tojil [es]. “He is definitely an outstanding representative of Central American writers 2.0 who use new formats and genres”, she writes. Mildred also shares two micro-stories written...
Vargas Llosa's ‘Conversation in The Cathedral’, 140 Characters at a Time
The anonymous Twitter user behind the handle @EnLaCatedral is determined to share [es] the whole content of “Conversation in the Cathedral“, a novel by Literature Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, 140 characters at a time. The novel by the Peruvian author begins with these words republished by @EnLaCatedral: DESDE LA...
Iran: Two Poets Arrested
Poets Mehdi Mousavi and Fatemeh Ekhtesari disappeared in Iran. News reported that the two have been detained since early December. More than two hundred people signed an online petition and called on the UN to take action about the situation of cultural activists particularly the case of these two young...
Blogging the Simple and Impossible Task of Literary Translation
British writer, editor and translator Daniel Hahn is blogging his progress as he translates Blue Flowers, a novel by Brazilian writer Carola Saavedra, from Portuguese into English, a process that “is both simple and impossible”: So over these next couple of months I’m going to try to articulate what for me are the delights...
The Caribbean Review of Books Reinvents Itself Online
Regional litbloggers will be glad to know that The Caribbean Review of Books is back in publication – online – with some help from Bocas Lit Fest.
Discovering the Bouquinistes of Colombo
Paris may be famous for its bouquinistes, stalls selling second hand and antiquarian books lining the banks of the River Seine, but Colombo also has them. They don’t line the banks of the Beira Lake and tourists seldom find them but they are invaluable for the traveller. In this lovely...
Book Highlights Women's Plight to Find the Disappeared in Chile's Desert
We dug in the desert and sometimes came across strange bones. We were so frightened during those years that we would bury them again. With this quote Ramona Wadi starts her review of the book titled “Flowers in the desert – the search for Chile’s disappeared”, by author Paula Allen....
Trinidad & Tobago: Creative Collaboration & Devious Download
The Caribbean Review of Books blogs about an exciting new project, Douen Islands, whose “first manifestation” is an e-book of eleven poems (one of which boasts a video adaptation) and brief Twitter texts. Bonus: Click on the downloadable link in the post.
16 Books on Latin American Street Art
In Latin America, street art is of major cultural relevance. The region’s traditions of social movements and revolution have allowed the form to give voice to otherwise unheard sectors of the population. Of course, not all street art is politically or socially-oriented in content, but it does often provide insight...
Dandin.me: Encompassing the Emerging Talent in the Middle East
October 10 saw the official launch of Dandin.me, a novel independent platform whose founders are based in Egypt. Abdel-Rahman Hussein, one of the people behind Dandin.me, explains what it aims to achieve: The rationale behind it was our desire to create an audio platform that would manage to encompass a...
#1book140: Twitter Book Chat on International Poetry
Join readers of The Atlantic and Global Voices for a live Twitter chat with Susan Harris, editor of The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry.
Peruvian Blogger with Parkinson's Disease Publishes Book
Peruvian blogger Cyrano, from the blog Columna 17 [es], has published his book “El párkinson y yo” (Parkinson's and me), where he shares his daily life as a patient with this medical condition, and he announced it [es] on his blog: Se trata de un relato desde mi experiencia como...
Peru: An Encounter with Mario Vargas Llosa
Peruvian blog Los mil rostros de la ciudad [es] tells about an encounter [es] its blogger had with writer Mario Vargas Llosa on a street in Miraflores, where many of Vargas Llosa's novels take place: I met Mario Vargas Llosa when Populibros published his book The time of the hero,...
Senegalese to France: Dignity Before Visa
I decided to decline using my entry visa to France [..] I am waiving it off on behalf of the thousands of Senegalese citizens who deserve respect, a respect that they are often denied at the French consulate. Those are the words written by Bousso Dramé in an open letter...
Mumbai's Newspaper Reading Centers Dwindle
Vachanalays (newspaper reading centres) are a familiar sight in most neighbourhoods in Bombay where locals read the papers and discuss the day’s news. Sans Serif reports how they are slowly going out of fashion. The blog also highlights photoblogger M.S. Gopal's excellent photo essay on the subject at Mumbai Paused.
Trinidad & Tobago Writer Wins Lit Prize
Trinidadian writer and blogger Sharon Millar is co-winner of the 2013 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, reports the Bocas Lit Fest Blog.
