RIP: David Ireland

         To the Young Who Want to Die: Roxane Gay Reads Gwendolyn Brooks’s Lifeline of a Poem.

       David Ireland (1927-2022) 

       Australian author David Ireland -- a three-time Miles Franklin Award-winner in the 1970s -- has passed away; see, for example, Jason Steger's obituary in The Age. 
       Text Publishing has four of his titles in print, but you don't see much by him outside Australia. 

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       Literary estates 

       At The Bookseller Rod Smith writes on one of my favorite subjects -- literary estates and executors --, in Whose legacy is it anyway ? 
       Not sure I agree that:

The candidate for the role of literary executor must understand your wishes in the form of the guidelines. They should positively challenge you on them where necessary. Most of all they need to be alive to the opportunities and be prepared where necessary to interpret your wishes in the light of the prevailing circumstances, circumstances which might not have been in your contemplation at the time of setting down the guidelines.

       I worry a great deal when executors (or pretty much anyone ...) start 'interpreting' -- but, certainly, authors should make as clear as possible how they want their (literary) legacies handled. 
       (See also me on Weighing Words Over Last Wishes, from way back when.)

       Yuri Andrukhovych Q & A 

       At the Los Angeles Review of Books Kate Tsurkan has a Q & A with the Perverzion-author, in “Writers Are the Middlemen Between the Human Race and Immortality”: A Conversation with Yuri Andrukhovych. 
       They mainly talk about Radio Nights -- not yet available in English, but see, for example, the Suhrkamp foreign rights page. 

       The July issue of Asymptote is now online -- more than enough reading material for the weekend. 

       Tomb of Sand complaint 

       So, as for example the PTI report has it, Booker winner Geetanjali Shree's event cancelled in Agra after complaint against her, as some self-important bozo: "has filed the complaint against the writer. In the complaint, he has blamed Geetanjali Shree for alleged objectionable comments on Lord Shiva and mother Parvati" in her novel, Tomb of Sand . 
       Apparently even just a complaint -- very late in the day, no less; the novel has been out in Hindi since 2018 ... -- is enough to scare everyone into silence. Frustrating. 
       Abhik Deb's Scroll.in report reports: 

The police said that they will read the book before deciding on whether to file a FIR [first information report].

       So at least more people will be reading the novel. 

St. Louis Literary Award 

       They've announced that Neil Gaiman will receive the 2023 St. Louis Literary Award, a leading American author prize that: "recognizes a living writer with a substantial body of work that has enriched our literary heritage by deepening our insight into the human condition and by expanding the scope of our compassion". 
       It's been awarded since 1967 -- as the Messing Award through 1981 -- and has a solid list of previous winners. 
       Gaiman gets to pick up the prize on 13 April 2023

       Crime fiction favorites 

       The Observer has The joy of crime fiction: authors from Lee Child to Paula Hawkins pick their favourite books, asking each: What makes a great thriller/crime novel ? What's your favourite thriller of all time ? and: What's the best one you've read recently ? 

       Bullet Train - the movie 

       The movie version of Isaka Kōtarō's Bullet Train will be out (in the US) later this week -- see, for example, the official site -- and in The New York Times Motoko Rich profiles The Japanese Author Behind ‘Bullet Train’ Is OK That the Film Isn’t So Japanese. (I'm not sure why he wouldn't be; I assume he was remunerated well and, hey, they got Brad Pitt to be in it; yes, "the movie bears little resemblance to real life" but, come on, neither does the book.) 
       Among the interesting bits from the piece:

With Isaka’s work all but unknown to English-language readers, Yuma Terada and Ryosuke Saegusa, the founders of CTB, a film production and literary agency that represents Isaka, consolidated the copyrights to his novels and commissioned translations of a handful of them, hoping to pitch him as a literary cousin to Murakami

       (All but unknown, maybe -- but readers of the complete review have been aware of his Remote Control since 2011, when I reviewed it .....) 
       I'm looking forward to seeing his Three Assassins, already out in the UK and coming to the US later this year.