Writers attack 'overrated' Anglo-American literature at Jaipur festival

Xiaolu Guo warns that English-language mainstream has warped a broader 'reading habit', on panel with Jhumpa Lahiri and Jonathan FranzenAmerican literature is "massively overrated", the award-winning author and film-maker Xiaolu Guo told the Jaipur literature festival – and fellow panellist and US novelist Jonathan Franzen – this weekend.A session on the global novel in Jaipur on Saturday saw the Chinese/British writer Guo, one of Granta's best of young British novelists who has also been shortlisted for the Orange prize, attack the way "our reading habit has totally been transformed by the mainstream"."Our reading habit has been stolen and changed" said Guo. "For example I think Asian literature is much less narrative … but our reading habit is more Anglo-Saxon, more American … Nowadays all this narrative [literature is] very similar, it's so realism, so story-telling driven … so all the poetry, all the alternative things, have been pushed away by mainstream society.""I love your work, Jonathan," she told Franzen, "but in a way you are smeared by English American literature … I think certain American literature is overrated, massively overrated, and I really hate to read them," she said.The Pulitzer-winning Indian/American Jhumpa Lahiri also laid into America's literary culture, saying that it was "shameful the lack of translation, the lack of energy put into translation in the American market". "It is embarrassing, to me, and I think just getting out of America for a... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #literary world #greater diversity

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Writers attack 'overrated' Anglo-American literature at Jaipur festival'


Going West festival is back with new books and writers for 2016

West Auckland's most well-attended literary festival back this year with a fresh line up of local and international writers. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2016-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #west auckland


Berlin’s International Literature Festival: Citywide Events, Worldwide Reading

More than 216 authors from more than 30 countries have been engaged for the 2016 edition of Internationales Literaturefestival Berlin, which opens September 7. By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson September 7 through 17 ith issues in freedom of expression driving much of its... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-08-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #post berlin #porter anderson


Writers Organizations Condemn Turkish Attacks on Free Speech

The Authors Guild and PEN America have condemned the actions of the Turkish government after the detaining of 61 journalists and the shuttering of 131 media organizations—including 29 publishing houses—in the wake of the attempted coup on July 15. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #free speech #authors guild #pen america #turkish government


Dawkins, McBride and Atwood star at Southbank Literature Festival

Richard Dawkins, Eimear McBride and Margaret Atwood are among the names featuring at Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #richard dawkins #eimear mcbride #margaret atwood #names featuring #southbank centre


McEwan, Faulks and Hussain to star at Cheltenham Literature Festival

High profile and prize-winning authors including Ian McEwan, Jonathan Safran Foer, Sebastian Faulks and children's author Jacqueline Wilson, have been unveiled for The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #sebastian faulks #high profile


English PEN launches Modern Literature Festival

English PEN has launched its first ever English PEN Modern Literature Festival which will see UK-based writers present new works in tribute to writers at risk around the world. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #english pen


The Haida's tale: Margaret Atwood helps bring Native American literature to the UK

Robert Bringhurst’s translations of Haida stories in A Story as Sharp as a Knife are published in the UK for the first time, thanks to the Booker winner’s championing of this ‘book of wonders’A book which preserves in print the almost lost oral literature of the Native American Haida people has... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #booker winner #british columbia #folk tales


Zimbabwe Writers Battle Disinterest With Literary Festival

Writers in Zimbabwe have created a traveling book fair and are marshaling social media to build direct bonds with impoverished readers. The post Zimbabwe Writers Battle Disinterest With Literary Festival appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literary festival


Mark Twain's turkey tale – perhaps the funniest in American literature

What Twain eventually learned, after an interminable time on the trail, is that turkeys have a genius for feigning injury. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-11-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #mark twain #american literature


American Writers Museum Settles in Chicago

The American Writers Museum, which has been in the planning stages for five years, has leased a space in Chicago and announced that it will open in early 2017. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


​This interactive map crams in American literature's greatest road trips

People love road trips. Some like 'em more than others. And some like them perhaps a little bit too much. This interactive map from Richard Kreitner and Steven Melendez crams the locations mentioned in twelve road-tripping books including Mark Twain... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2015-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #american literature #interactive map


Jane Furze to step down from Cheltenham Literature Festival role

Jane Furze is to step down as literature festival director for the Cheltenham Literature Festival after four years in the post. A statement from the board of Cheltenham Festivals said it was announcing the news “sadly”. Furze said she was leaving to “allow myself some time out”. She will step... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #cheltenham festivals #30th september #takes place #11th october #significant contribution


Southbank releases literature festival line up

A four-day live reading of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick featuring actors and writers including Liza Klaussmann, Chibundu Onuzo and A L Kennedy will be among the events at Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival. The festival, which takes place from 28th September to 12th October, will also... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #chibundu onuzo #southbank centre #takes place #28th september #12th october #world premiere #poetry readings #short film


How One Writer Cooked Her Way Through Great Literature

From Jane Austen's white soup to a liver mousse inspired by 'Silence of the Lambs,' butcher and writer Cara Nicoletti explores recipes inspired by classic and contemporary book. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #great literature #jane austen


Manchester Literature Festival 2014: Emma Jane Unsworth at Canongate Lates

No one chronicles a Manuncian night out like her, says Helen Pidd (who also enjoyed Zoe Pilger, Anneliese Mackintosh and Karima Francis at the book fest)I loved Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth so much that I read it twice in a week.Picking it up for the first time over the summer, I binged on it,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #anneliese mackintosh


Visiting the Tbilisi International Literature Festival

Literary agents Geraldine Rose and Sridhar Gowda of Kadalu recount their experience visiting the leading literary event in Georgia, which was full of surprises. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Texans Revive Classic Latin American Literature in Translation

The University of Texas Press has revived its translations of classic Latin American literature, bringing most of them into digital form for the first time. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #texas press #digital form


Central American Publishers, Writers to Appear at Frankfurt Book Fair

Publishers from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica will attend the Frankfurt Book Fair's International Rights Directors Meeting for the first time to showcase regional talent. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #costa rica


Man Booker Prize: Two American writers make the cut for the shortlist

In addition to the American contenders Karen Joy Fowler for 'We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves' and Joshua Ferris of 'To Rise Again at a Decent Hour,' other nominees include Richard Flanagan for 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' and Ali Smith for 'How to Be Both.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #joshua ferris #narrow road #deep north #ali smith


Are African Writers Trumping African-American Authors?

In the NYTimes, Felicia R. Lee asks if the 'new wave of African writers' with an international appeal are drawing attention away from African-American voices. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-07-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #african writers #international appeal #drawing attention #african-american voices