Magnesia Litera
I missed this a couple of weeks back, but they've announced the winners of this year's Magnesia Litera awards, the leading Czech literary prize.
Hella, by Alena Machoninová, won book of the year; see also the maraton publicity page.
The Czech translation of Szilasi László's A harmadik hídwon for best translation; see the publicity pages from Protimluv (Czech) and Magvető (Hungarian). (This was also reviewed in World Literature Today in 2014 -- unfortunately, paywalled.)
At EFE Rita Cardeira looks at the ‘Modi-fied Narrative:’ India’s literary landscape reflects ‘saffron’ shift, as: "Indian bookstores currently reflect a shift in the concept of the new India, rewriting history to align with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist ideology as he gears up for a third consecutive term".
Sigh.
At The Guardian Lisa Allardice profiles the author, in ‘I can say things other people are afraid to’: Margaret Atwood on censorship, literary feuds and Trump
'Me, me, me' reviewing
The new -- 23 May -- issue of The New York Review of Books offers the usual interesting mix, and I'm looking forward to making my way through it. However, upon my initial leaf-through when my print copy arrived yesterday I couldn't help but notice that in four (out of thirteen) reviews the reviewer begins personally, mentioning themselves in the opening sentence:
- Martin Filler: "In the pre-Trump, prepandemic paradise of 2015, when I first wrote in these pages about [...]"
- Joanna Biggs: "I was eight, and I wore a black tulle petticoat from Marks and Spencer."
- Pamela Druckerman: "When I was a child, my grandmother used to tell me [...]"
- Clair Wills: "If it is true, as Saint Augustine says, that the dead aren’t absent but merely invisible, then somewhere round about, as I write about her and you read about her, Hilary Mantel is present."
One almost has to admire Matthew Aucoin's restraint -- he waits until the second sentence to introduce himself ("For most composers, the only way to learn how to write operas is to write operas. I may not love every one of the works that W.A. Mozart dashed off [...]":) .....
(Two more pieces also have an "I" in the opening sentence, but Catherine Lacey certainly gets a pass -- she's quoting from the book under review ("“I was wrong to buy this notebook, very wrong,” writes Valeria Cossati [...]") -- and Stephen Breyer's piece is adapted from a lecture he gave, so the personal mention seems more reasonable ("For more than forty years I served as a federal judge").)
The success of 'BookTok' certainly suggests that the personal approach -- the reviewer front and center -- appeals to audiences, and certainly the reviewer putting themselves out there is ... honest -- after all, there is a person, an individual, behind the review --, but I have to say, I long for the days of the (more or less) invisibility of the reviewer (even if that is entirely artificial); indeed, I'd love to see a whole lot less 'personal' writing in non-fiction generally .....
Stella Prize
They have announced the winner of this year's Stella Prize, an Australian prize awarded: "to one outstanding book deemed to be original, excellent, and engaging" and written by a woman or non-binary author, and it is Praiseworthy, by Alexis Wright.
See also the publicity pages from Giramondo, New Directions, and And Other Stories, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.
Politicians can use social media ads to buy votes for €4 per person New Scientist
Boris Johnson barred from voting under his own voter ID rules Politico
Steel plant falls in West Virginia, but no one hears a sound Washington Examiner. Wierton.
We can have a different web Citation Needed. Well worth a read.
