Stories about Literature from April, 2006
India: Kaavya Tales
The issue of author Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarising has prompted quite a few posts in the Indian Blogosphere. Among others Flotsam, India Uncut, Falstaff and Sepia Mutiny have a say.
Sri Lanka: Sri Lankan fiction
Tiny Little Fractures reads The Kite Runner and compares the book to Monsoon Dream, contextualizing the gaps in contemporary Sri Lankan fiction.
West Indian literature online
One of the crucial elements in the rapid development of the literature of the Anglophone Caribbean in the 1940s and 50s was a weekly radio programme called Caribbean Voices, broadcast from London on the BBC's Caribbean Service and produced by Henry Swanzy. Caribbean Voices featured stories and poems by West...
Jamaica: A writer's development
On his personal blog, Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philps reproduces a lecture he delivered recently in which he discusses his development as a writer and also raises the question: “What is the mission of my generation?”
India: Poetry and Blogging
Reflections on poetry and blogging at River's Blue Elephants. River talks about identities of poets, the world of hypertextuality and “the permeable boundary between selves and machines”.
DRC: “A Poem From My Heart”
Lines from a poem posted (FR) by Prince du Fleuve du Congo: “Son of this Sacred Land, I cry for your misfortune/Yet for your salvation, I fight with fortitude.”
Dominican Republic: Book Fair
DR1 – Daily Dominican Republic News posts a brief report on the opening of the 9th International Santo Domingo Book Fair on April 24. Among the themes of this year's festival are the 45th anniversary of dictator Rafael Trujillo's assassination and the 500th anniversary of the death of Columbus.
South Africa: Writing in indigenous language
Singing SouthAfricaness discusses African writers writing in their indigenous languages…”The idea that African writers should write in native African languages, therefore, is linked to the idea of the tyrany of the trace, as discussed above. Ngugi suggests that African writers should be enriching their own languages through producing work in...
Guyana: Playwright
Guyana Diaspora profiles Britain-based playright Michael Abbensetts.
In love with the little prince
Asri tells us why she likes Antoine de Saint-Exupery's book The Little Prince. The author's simple style has Asri smitten and has a lesson for her own writing style.
African women this week.
Congratulations to Kenyan women bloggers who have won Kenya Unlimited Kaybee awards 2006. Mshairi for best poetry blog; Gussaurus for best new blog and most interactive blog; Mama's Junkyard for best design; Au Lait for blogger one would most like to meet; and Kenyan Pundit for best political blog. Nigerian...
India: Reviewing books
There's an ongoing debate in the Indian Blogosphere about doing book reviews. Amardeep collates various opinions on the issue and presents his own take on the case.
Guyana: Imaginary roads
Nicholas Laughlin posts the seventh instalment of Imaginary Roads, a series of writings on Guyana.
Haiku competition in the Philippines
Kurokuroatbp pens a haiku in Tagalog and provides details of a Pinoy Haiku competition organised by the Japanese Embassy in Philippines.
Ukraine, Belarus: Interview With Translator of “Voices of Chernobyl”
Languor Management links to Maud Newton's short email interview with Keith Gessen, English translator of Svetlana's Alexievich's Voices of Chernobyl, which won this year's National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction.”
China: The Art of Sublety
The Sun Bin blogger takes issue with Chinese president Hu Jintao's choice of gift for George W. Bush: Sun Tzu's The Art of War. “This is the best choice of gift by a Chinese leader. ‘I am not your enemy. I want you to win. I am sure I would...
Caribbean: Towards a West Indian canon
At the Caribbean Beat Blog, Nicholas Laughlin solicits suggestions for inclusions in a West Indian literary canon.
China: Taoist scripture
The Useless Tree blogger posts a pacifist poem from the ancient Taoist scripture Tao Te Ching and dedicates it to Iranian and American presidents Ahmadinejad and Bush.
Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere
It had been a relatively quiet week in the Saudi blogosphere this week. However, several good posts can be found by bloggers from inside the country, and also by those who live abroad. So, let's get it started… A new community website for Saudi bloggers has been causing much controversy,...
Nigeria: New Books
Musings of a Naijaman publishes a list of new Nigerian must reads – Chris Abani “Becomming Abigail” Segun Afolab “A Life Elsewhere” and Chimamanda Adichie ” Half of a Yellow Sun“.
Ukraine: Taras Shevchenko
Aussiegirl of Ultima Thule writes about her maternal great-grandfather's extraordinary reverence for Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian national poet, the man who “was born a serf” and whose “freedom was purchased by the sale of an auctioned portrait by some noblemen and artists who recognized his talent.”
