Interviews Carlos Manuel Álvarez’s debut novel, The Fallen—a withering portrait of a Cuban family with conflicting visions of their country and their roles within it—was published in June 2020 and has helped establish Álvarez as one of the leading writers of Cuba’s new generation. The book’s schisms reflect deeper rifts within the country today. Armando, a diehard Marxist, clings to his idea of the sanctity of the Cuban Revolution, even as he becomes the pawn of a corrupt bureaucracy. Meanwhile, his son, Diego, disillusioned and distraught, chafes under the demands of enforced military duty. Mariana, the mother, is prone to mysterious dizzy spells and is slowly losing her grip on reality; while their daughter, Maria, finds herself entangled in a web of betrayals in the black market of the island’s tourist economy. Revolutionary idealism has run up against the harsh realities of modern life. The deprivations of the “special period” of the 1990s, in fact, still loom over the present. “Now, thinking back, all we can remember is a cycle of hunger, a state of siege in which there was nothing,” Mariana recalls, “an emptiness in every plate, an emptiness in the shops, an emptiness in the freezer compartment of the fridge, an emptiness in the fields and in the factories, and an emptiness, larger than all the rest, in our hearts and in our stomachs.” This past December, Álvarez came under fire from Cuban authorities for his support of the... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-03-29 21:52:25 UTC ]
Essay Para on Lake Baikal in southern Siberia / Photo courtesy of the author Editorial note: “Siberian Romance,” a suite of Para’s poems, accompanies this introductory essay. Born in 1956, Jean-Baptiste Para is a poet, art critic, essayist,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-03-08 19:30:36 UTC ]
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The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. It is from Story Club with George Saunders, a Substack publication and literary community where Saunders offers weekly discussions of the craft of the short story. Both free and paid subscriptions are... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-25 09:51:07 UTC ]
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On November 17, Nancy Pearl was honored with the 2021 National Book Foundation Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community by the National Book Foundation. It is a lifetime honor richly deserved. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-12-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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It’s safe to say that in general, 2021 was an improvement on 2020—but that doesn’t mean it was a big one. Among the many disappointments of this year was the fact that we lost far too many members of the literary community, from poets to novelists to editors to critics to publishers. To them, we […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-12-15 09:49:46 UTC ]
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Dear Readers, In what feels like a never ending cycle of disappointing media news, last week we in the literary community were astonished to learn that after two decades The Believer magazine will discontinue publication. (Since 2017, The Believer has been published by the Black Mountain... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-10-28 11:05:00 UTC ]
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News and Events (c) Rama, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr NORMAN, OKLA. – World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, announced late Tuesday evening that Boubacar Boris Diop is the 27th... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-26 21:56:54 UTC ]
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News and Events World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, will host the 2021 Neustadt Lit Festival on Zoom from Oct. 25–27. The festival features numerous panels exploring the... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-11 18:55:28 UTC ]
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Four publishing houses were merged by Walter De Gruyter in 1923. The new digitization brought 10,000 out-of-print titles back into availability. The post Germany’s De Gruyter Completes Archive Digitization: 53,000 Titles appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-09-28 16:29:01 UTC ]
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The flash fiction literary community is like an extended family. If you are a writer and reader of flash, it is in all likelihood that your inner circle of literary peeps are other flash fiction folks or, you at least, know of one another. Six degrees is more like one or two in this community.... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-09-17 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Reissued tales of classic journeys are being snapped up as Britons long for escape while having to stay at homeSome will go on a “great trudge” from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul. Others will explore the canyonlands of Utah or the mountains of Iran. But there is one idiosyncrasy they will all... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-04 07:30:15 UTC ]
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Publishing houses in Romania are working together to produce the Echo audiobook subscription platform, a first in its market. The post Beat Technology Is Developing Romania’s First Audiobook Program appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-06-14 04:05:13 UTC ]
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Every time a Democratic president is in office, conservative publishing houses rush to capitalize on the opportunity, publishing political screeds against the president in the hopes of a best-seller. It’s a rule of thumb at this point—at least, until this year. According to The Atlantic,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-06-04 17:03:56 UTC ]
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Neither authors nor publishing houses have figured out how to turn the new president into a compelling villain. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2021-06-02 09:00:00 UTC ]
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Along the coast of California, a vibrant literary community came together, but its many styles could not be defined together. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2021-05-24 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Shola von Reinhold wins the award for small publishing houses with their novel LOTE, but financial reward split among 10 publishersThe Scottish author Shola von Reinhold has won the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses for their “dazzling” queer debut novel LOTE. But the £20,000... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-05-19 12:17:35 UTC ]
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A new survey examining the impact of the pandemic on New York City’s literary community found that 75% of the city’s literary organizations reported some financial loss over the last year, with some organizations reporting losses as high as $100,000. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Interviews Photo © Matika Wilbur For the 44th Annual Writers Week, the University of California, Riverside Department of Creative Writing, in partnership with the LA Review of Books, honored three US Poets Laureate with Lifetime Achievement... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-04-21 15:11:24 UTC ]
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Interviews Carlos Manuel Álvarez’s debut novel, The Fallen—a withering portrait of a Cuban family with conflicting visions of their country and their roles within it—was published in June 2020 and has helped establish Álvarez as one of the leading... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-03-29 21:52:25 UTC ]
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Interviews Michael Berry is a professor of Asian languages and cultures and director of the Center for Chinese Studies at UCLA. He has published extensive works on addressing the richness and diversity of Chinese art and culture in sinophone... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-02-24 15:28:04 UTC ]
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Essay Photo by Tyler Quiring / Unsplash Ismail Kadare has a remarkable quality of saying a great deal and with much clarity, but in an elusive, oblique, and allegorical way. Peter Constantine situates Kadare’s work in the long history of the... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-02-18 14:09:58 UTC ]
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