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 ]
THESE TIMES: How to support your local bookstores during the coronavirus pandemic · What China’s literary community is reading during the pandemic · The first lines of 10 classic novels rewritten for social distancing · Can’t decide what to read? Tell us your favorites and we’ll recommend a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-17 10:30:26 UTC ]
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I had a fight with my mother the other day. In the past we had argued on many things but never politics, because we’d seldom talked about it. The video call, which started with her asking me about the outbreak in the US, ended up opening my eyes to the chasm between me and the […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-17 08:49:21 UTC ]
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We are at the beginning of a frightening and difficult time in America. Though we glimpse—in the overflowing hospitals of Milan, the shuttered plazas of Madrid—that which may come to pass, it is impossible to know just how hard hit the United States will be by the novel coronavirus. This nation... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-16 14:00:35 UTC ]
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Interviews Veronica Esposito Ottilie Mulzet is the principal English-language translator of Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, winner of numerous international honors. Together, they received the 2019 National Book Award in Translation for Mulzet’s... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-02-20 14:05:36 UTC ]
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It’s an exciting year for the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes! This will be its 40th year of celebrating the literary community. The Times announced their 2019 Book Prize finalists today; the winners will be announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles on April 17th. Additionally, bestselling crime... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-19 17:41:26 UTC ]
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The smoke has been spotted at the corner of Broadway and 56th Street, and Reagan Arthur has been announced as the new publisher of Knopf. Amazingly, Arthur is only the fourth person to helm one of the most important publishing houses in America in its 105-year history, following an impressive... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-23 16:20:54 UTC ]
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Seven publishers had sued the audiobook giant last July, claiming that its audio-to-text service Captions was unauthorisedAfter months of back and forth, Audible has settled in a copyright lawsuit with major publishers over its plan to introduce captions to their recordings, a proposal that the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-01-15 14:00:06 UTC ]
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Essay John Weir Adapted from a photo by Jake weirick on Unsplash Like a dead pop star, Susan Sontag left behind a lot of fans who claim they knew her. After the release last September of Benjamin Moser’s new biography, Susan Sontag: Her Life and Work,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-01-07 22:09:56 UTC ]
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Cultural Cross Sections Will Hagle Photo courtesy of the author Following decades of British colonial rule to the rapidly tightening grip of mainland China and all the stories told about that chunk of land along the way, Hong Kong has grown accustomed... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2019-12-17 15:28:20 UTC ]
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On November 12, at the Pen Parentis Literary Salon in Lower Manhattan, I hear author Jimin Han say something I’ve never heard a writer admit before. “I didn’t really commit to being a writer until I had children,” Han says to a room of 20 or so writers, all of whom are parents. There is […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-06 09:47:14 UTC ]
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News and Events WLT Photo by J. Foley Opale World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, announced late Wednesday evening that Ismail Kadare is the 26th laureate of the renowned... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2019-10-16 22:21:35 UTC ]
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Affordable rents and the ever-burgeoning Brooklyn literary community have drawn indie presses to the Old American Can Factory in Gowanus. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin group rejects claim of censorship after halting publication of Simon Akam’s The Changing of the GuardAfter beating four other publishing houses in an auction, William Heinemann was in no doubt that The Changing of the Guard would more than reward the five-figure advance it paid to its... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-18 06:59:05 UTC ]
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One of the most interesting things about book publishing, as an industry, is the way imprints and publishing houses develop over time—shifting focus to keep up with public interest, taking on personalities along with personnel, changing hands ad nauseam and merging like no one’s watching.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-08-15 09:36:09 UTC ]
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This morning, the Whiting Foundation has announced the winners of the second annual Literary Magazine Prizes, which are given “for superb publishing, advocating for writers, and strengthening the literary community.” This year, the number of awards was increased from three to five, with two new... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-18 13:00:28 UTC ]
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As America marks this July 4th holiday, an outcry on immigration is leading to national headlines, including from a congressional delegation that visited an immigration detention center in El Paso, Texas, this week. PEN America has gathered a series of statements from a number of writers and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-03 08:48:26 UTC ]
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They turned down Ulysses and Animal Farm, but still shaped 20th‑century literatureAll publishing houses have archives, but for anyone interested in 20th-century literature the archive of Faber & Faber is a fabled treasure house. This is the firm that was, as Toby Faber puts it, “midwife at... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-06-20 11:00:08 UTC ]
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Michelle Lewy, who held executive spots at a number of publishing houses, died May 7. She was 62. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The news that J.D. Salinger's family is preparing to publish the late author's previously unseen works has left some literary observers excited and some unsettled. On Friday, the Guardian reported that Matt Salinger, the son of the legendary author of "The Catcher in the Rye," is working to... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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