· February, 2009

Stories about Literature from February, 2009

Jamaica: Passion

  27 February 2009

Jamaican diaspora blogger Geoffrey Phlip republishes text from a lecture he gave about the importance of pursuing your passions.

Costa Rica: Creativity Through Collectivity

  23 February 2009

Like a delicious recipe, artistic, musical and visual talents are placed together as ingredients in a functional and creative tendency: collectives. Across Costa Rica, many creative groups and collectives are using social media to showcase their work and connect with like-minded enthusiasts. These are some examples of collectives in the fields of film, music and the visual arts.

Zimbabwe: Marechera's Love Sonnets

  22 February 2009

EShuneutics discusses Marechera's Love Sonnets. Dambudzo was a Zimbabwean writer and poet, “Poem III in the Amelia Sonnets, is titled “Her hand my eyes closes”. The closing of the eyes is a familiar image of death, one of the final acts offered to the corpse. The irony here, however, is...

Arab World: Mourning Tayeb Salih

  21 February 2009

The Arab literary world is mourning the death of Sudanese novelist Al Tayeb Salih. The 80-year-old writer, who died in London, was best known for his novel Season of Migration to the North, which was selected by the Damascus-based Arab Literary Academy as the most important Arab novel of the 20th century. Al Tayeb was buried in Om Durman, Sudan, in a state ceremony, attended by the Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir.

Cuba: “Boring Home”

  18 February 2009

The book Boring Home, which was banned at the 2009 Havana International Book Fair, is now available on the Internet. Cuban bloggers talk about it here, here and here.

Sri Lanka: Blog Posts In A Book

  17 February 2009

Cerno announces an idea of publishing Sri Lanka’s top 100 blog posts in a book. In a followup post the blogger explains how people can contribute to the project.

Bangladesh: Ekushey Boi Mela

  17 February 2009

Dhaka Dweller posts some pictures of this year's Ekushey Book Fair, popularly known as Ekushey Boi Mela, the national book fair of Bangladesh.

Blogging Gives Kenyan Poetry Larger Meaning And Exposure

  17 February 2009

Njeri Wangare is a Kenyan poet and blogger based in Nairobi, Kenya. I recently interviewed her at Nairobi Java House in downtown Nairobi and later continued the interview via email. In this interview, Njeri discusses how she has been using her blog, Kenya Poet, to promote artists and art scene in Kenya. Through her blog, she says, she has given Kenyan poetry a larger meaning and exposure.

Japan: Jerusalem Prize to writer Haruki Murakami

  17 February 2009

Mojimoji praises [jp] a speech given by writer Haruki Murakami (村上春樹), who received the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society on Sunday Feb. 15th. The blogger also remarks on how, in his opinion, Japanese media intentionally avoided giving weight to Murakami's words, which should be read...

Jamaica: Sex vs. Erotica

  16 February 2009

“I have no problem whatsoever with sex in fiction. But I do have a problem with erotica”: Jamaican author and blogger Marlon James explains.

East Timor: Suai Media Space Challenges the Digital Divide

  15 February 2009

In this second post of a series to celebrate the 9th anniversary of the arrival of the Internet in East Timor, Sara Moreira interviews Australian documentary-maker Jen Hughes - founder of Suai Media Space, whose main objective is to make the voices of Suai youth heard all over the world - and discusses the fight to minimize the digital divide even without broadband connection in Suai.

Bahamas: Artistic Tourism

  14 February 2009

“All studies about the creative industries…and tourist development indicate that a failsure way of driving tourists to a destination is by creating a purpose for them to visit…but a word of caution to those…who think that they can develop such festivals without the participation and buy-in of the cultural community:...

Bangladesh: Books By Bloggers

  13 February 2009

The history of Bangla blogging is relatively short. It was December 2005 when the first Bangla blogging platform was born. But soon more platforms came up and open source development in Bangla input systems eased Bangla computing across the globe and brought more people in blogging. The most encouraging aspect...