Stories about Literature from May, 2006
Caribbean: Lists
On his freshly launched blog, Jamaican novelist Marlon James weighs in on the New York Times “Top Twenty-Five American Books”. Barbadian blogger Titilayo singles out a few notables from TIME magazine's “list of “100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world”.
China: Don't learn Chinese for business opps, learn it for this book
For unavoidable reasons known to all, or at least presumed, Lifeweek editor Wang Xiaofeng, one of China's most entertaining bloggers—known to many for a hoax [#026] pulled in March this year which brought many bloggers’ scorn—mysteriously killed off his widely-read Massage Milk (also known as Wears Three Watches) in early...
Russia: Bibliography on Russian-Germans
J. Otto Pohl posts a list of English-language publications on Russian-Germans, one of the many nations deported by Stalin during WWII.
Demystifying Tamil as a language and a person
What is Tamil? For some it's a language, for some it's a religion, for the uninitiated, wikipedia to the rescue. There is of course also the the Wikipedia in Tamil. For those who don't like reading pages and pages, google current has it all. From “what is Tamil” to “the...
Slovenia: President's Book Review
AlesS of A Little Blog For a Restless Mind reviews a book written by Janez Drnovsek, Slovenia's president: Thoughts on Life and Awareness. “To me the president with this book seems like a freshman that hasn't even yet passed the first grade of buddhism, yet already wants to teach (preach...
Estonia: “The Hole” Review
David McDuff of A Step At A Time reviews The Hole, a study on the sinking of Estonia, “a giant passenger and car ferry in the Baltic Sea in September 1994 which involved the deaths of nearly 1,000 people in the space of 35 minutes.”
Togo: Books by Blogger's Friends
Kangni Alem directs us (Fr) to novels recently released by his friends Sara Vidal, Amba Till and Adelaide Fassinou on topics such as love and the border between Benin and Togo.
Ukraine: Books on Ukraine
Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine has started a Ukrainian book section of his blog: “[…] a list of good (or at least popular) reading material about Ukraine or involving Ukraine. The section includes a number of useful links and things for each book, and categorizes the books a number of...
Argentina: More on Borges
The 20th anniversary of the death of Jorge Luis Borges continues to leave its mark in Argentina-based weblogs. Roberto Bobrow cites an allusion made to Borges by Italian intellectual Umberto Eco. Jeff Barry, meanwhile, is already on day five of an ambitious series called “30 Days with Borges.” It seems...
Russia: Translating Joseph Brodsky
David McDuff of A Step At A Time has posted an interview with himself, in which he talks about what it was like to work with Joseph Brodsky on his poetry and prose translations: “I think it needs to be remembered that for Joseph the process of translating his own...
“Twas an action-packed week for Indian bloggers: financial meltdown, reservation quota and the Da Vinci Code controversy etc. etc.
Bloggers penned their thoughts on a whole range of subjects from the stock market crash to Sherlock Holmes...
The Global Voices Show #1
Global Voices is pleased to announce the first of our new magazine-style podcasts, which aim to do for online audio what the Global Voices web site does for text blogs — introduce listeners to some of the exciting offerings from podcasters around the world. In this episode we feature the...
Jamaica: Mango season
It's mango season in Jamaica (and the rest of the Caribbean), and Geoffrey Philp rhapsodises his four favourite mango varieties: Bombay, Number 11, East Indian, and Julie. He even writes a mango poem.
Ukraine: Books on Crimean Tatars
Otto Pohl posts a list of English-language publications on Crimean Tatars.
Hong Kong: Literary history
On the latest episode of Danwei TV we see EastSouthWestNorth blogger Roland Soong take Danwei‘s Jeremy Goldkorn around Hong Kong in search of landmarks featured in Eileen Chang‘s (张爱铃) novel Love in a Fallen City (顷城之恋).
Camoes Literature Prize goes to Angolan writer Luandino Vieira
Luandino Vieira, from Angola, has been chosen for the 2006 Edition of Camões Prize
Venezuela: Poet Elizabeth Schön
Guillermo Parra features Venezuelan poet Elizabeth Schön who he describes as “a writer who has often been overlooked in Venezuela, but whose work has maintained a consistent philosophical and technical rigor throughout her long career.”
China: Pinyin's persecuted past
Pinyin, the alphabetized version of simplified Chinese which today makes learning of the language so much easier was not, as noted by Pinyin.info blogger Mark Swofford, embraced during the Cultural Revolution as a communication tool, but rather attacked as ideologically incorrect with all traces burnt in the street.
The Kannada Context: Exclusive Identity and Other Stories
A round up of the Kannada blog world.
Trinidad and Tobago: Happy birthday, Sam Selvon
Geoffrey Philp writes a birthday tribute to the late Trinidadian writer Samuel Selvon, one of the major figures in West Indian literature. “Comedy is a subversive art form. And comedy in the hands of Selvon obliterates class, color, and creed.”
Argentina: El Buenos Aires de Borges
Professor Julián Gallo was happy to see Borges and Buenos Aires mentioned in the New York Times, but he says [ES] Larry Rohter was mistaken when he wrote that an audio guide of Borges’ city is only available in Spanish. “The audio guide is also available in English and Portuguese,...
