Why All Americans Should Read “Celestial Bodies”

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi won the Man Booker International Prize this year for its beautifully rendered portrayal of a family’s tangled history in the village of al-Awafi in Oman. The novel was the first book translated from Arabic to win the prize, and more surprisingly, it was the first novel by an Omani woman […] The post Why All Americans Should Read “Celestial Bodies” appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2019-11-26 11:59:00 UTC ]

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“Imagining More Transgender Visibility in Translation”: A Conversation with Ari Larissa Heinrich, by Veronica Esposito

Interviews Ari Larissa Heinrich / Photo by Tara Pixley Ari Larissa Heinrich is the translator of Qiu Miaojin’s Last Words from Montmartre (New York Review Books) and Chi Ta-wei’s The Membranes (forthcoming from Columbia University Press). They... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-10-27 22:09:23 UTC ]
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Wole Soyinka is publishing his first novel in five decades.

This one goes out to all the writers in the Year of our Lord 2020, as we all worry that our total inability to put a sentence together could turn into a lifetime of non-production: It’s never too late. Wole Soyinka, who in 1986 became the first person from sub-Saharan Africa to win a Nobel... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-27 19:39:22 UTC ]
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Unsafe Harbors: A Conversation with Nadia Terranova

ON JULY 2 of this year, I interviewed the author Nadia Terranova at her mother’s house in Santa Marinella, Italy, on a Zoom call from my apartment in Santa Monica, California. Back in 2015, I’d written a review of her first novel ​Gli anni al contrario (​The Years in Reverse​) and we’d met for... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-27 17:00:01 UTC ]
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Where Is Hong Kong Literature When We Need It Most?

One of my most vivid childhood memories took place in an English bookshop in Causeway Bay, a short minibus ride from my family home in Hong Kong. I was a voracious reader growing up, eyes constantly trained on any printed text available, even during dinnertime and when brushing my teeth. Intent... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-22 11:00:06 UTC ]
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Margaret Busby: how Britain's first black female publisher revolutionised literature – and never gave up

In her 20s, she set up her own company, publishing everyone from James Ellroy to the Worst Witch series, and changing Britain for the better, book by book There is a revealing story Margaret Busby tells, about the first novel she published. A family friend had bumped into a former US serviceman... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-10-22 05:00:17 UTC ]
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A Definitive Ranking of Tana French Novels

In the thirteen years since Tana French published her first novel, she’s gained a rabid and dedicated readership (a friend of mine refers to herself as a Tanavangelist), a shelf’s worth of awards (Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Barry, and the Irish Book Award, among others), and countless places on... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-15 11:00:19 UTC ]
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How Much Does Your Job Shape Your Identity?

“You think you’ve known someone for a long time,” a character in one of Jenny Bhatt’s short stories says of her Indian colleague shortly after he’s shot dead by a white man in a bar. “Maybe he never really took to us. Never really became one of us.” Turn by turn, each of his white […] The post... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Banks' first novel in a decade to No Exit Press

No Exit Press will publish Russell Banks’ new novel Foregone as a lead fiction title in June 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-13 01:47:40 UTC ]
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Ethan Hawke's new novel on art, love and fame to William Heinemann

William Heinemann is publishing the first novel in almost 20 years from actor, writer and director Ethan Hawke: A Bright Ray of Darkness. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-05 04:15:41 UTC ]
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Are Frats and Sororities Really Just Cults?

What lengths will we go to in order to belong? To be part of something exclusive? To be part of a sisterhood or brotherhood? That’s the searing question that authors Benjamin Nugent and Genevieve Sly Crane try to answer in their books about college Greek life. Nugent’s Fraternity, a collection... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-02 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Here’s the shortlist for the Center for Fiction’s 2020 First Novel Prize.

Today the Center for Fiction announced the shortlist for its 2020 First Novel Prize. The prize, first awarded in 2006, recognizes the best debut fiction of the year, and it comes with $15,000; each finalist receives $1,000. Previous winners include De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Tommy Orange, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-01 15:05:06 UTC ]
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A Memoir About Growing Up Undocumented in America

In his memoir Children of the Land, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo tells the story of growing up undocumented in California and having to navigate the convoluted and dehumanizing American immigration system. Hernandez Castillo captures the emotional and psychological toll that being both invisible... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-01 11:00:54 UTC ]
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7 Translated Books About Queer Life in Taiwan and China

Before writing my debut novel Bestiary, I began a year-long process of translating letters written by my grandmother, many of which were addressed to people I didn’t know. While attempting these translations, I realized the impossibilities and possibilities of the task—the losses and gaps and... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Tell Us Your Favorite Fall Food and We’ll Tell You What National Book Award Nominee to Read

Autumn means changing leaves, apple-based baked goods, decorative gourds, pumpkin spice lattes—and an avalanche of literary award longlists. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the must-read National Book Award nominees you’re now realizing you didn’t read, why not base your TBR pile off of... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-25 11:00:06 UTC ]
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Why Aren’t There More Books About Asexuals?

Science journalist and debut author Angela Chen remembers the first time she saw the word “asexuality”—online, on the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN). I don’t remember the first time I saw the word, though I know I first used it in the negative—as in, I may have “weird” views on... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-21 11:00:38 UTC ]
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By Telling New Stories, We Build a New Future

In order to fit more texts into my Asian American literature course, I sometimes assign the play adaptation of Jessica Hagedorn’s novel Dogeaters. The novel is canonized within Asian American literature and features an imagined version of the Philippines made from film and radio tropes, found... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-17 11:00:54 UTC ]
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Sigrid Nunez’s ‘What Are You Going Through’ is an ambitious novel about the meaning of life and death

Nunez’s first novel since winning the National Book Award follows a woman and her terminally ill friend. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-16 16:32:08 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury wins auction for Lockwood's 'miraculous' debut novel

Bloomsbury is to publish Patricia Lockwood's first novel No One Is Talking About This, after winning a 10-way auction.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 02:57:52 UTC ]
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A Scientist Tries to Understand Her Family Problems Through Mice

Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel Homegoing told the story of two branches of a Ghanaian family, one descended from a woman who marries a white slave trader and whose line stays in Ghana, another descended from her half-sister who is captured and sent to America in bondage. Gyasi’s second novel... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-11 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Susanna Clarke’s First Novel in 16 Years Is a Wonder

The new book from the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell takes place in one house, but in it, she finds infinite space. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2020-09-10 18:15:39 UTC ]
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