Stories about Literature from February, 2010
Ghanaian students contribute to virtual media library
We are interviewing Jonathan Thurston who carried out a book-making project with students in Elmina, in the Central Region of Ghana using simple, portable technology to inspire creativity and social media tools to network with like-minded individuals and organisations.
Nigeria: Nigerian author nominated for Commonwealth Writers Prize
A Nigerian author published by a Kenyan has been nominated for Best Book in the 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize.
Sri Lanka: Interview With Ameena Hussein
Sanjana Hattotuwa at Groundviews posts an interview with Ameena Hussein, one of Sri Lanka’s best known English authors.
Ukraine, Russia: The Plight of Chekhov's Yalta Museum
Rosamund Bartlett, Anton Chekhov's English biographer and director of the Anton Chekhov Foundation, writes about the plight of Chekhov's house-museum in Yalta, Crimea, at OpenDemocracy.net.
India: Twitter In Social Activism
Pratham Books, a non-profit trust engaged in publishing of children books, informs in their blog how Twitter helped them to reach books of a mobile van to a number of children in Kolkata, India.
Ada Lovelace Day 2010
Ada Lovelace Day is an international initiative striving to increase content about achievements of women in technology and science, named after the world's first programmer Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), Lord Byron‘s daughter, also famous as a character in the seminal steampunk novel The Difference Engine by Gibson...
Africa: Is Anglophone African Literature foreign?
“Is Anglophone African Literature foreign literature?,” Kenyan blogger Keguro asks: “What makes literature “foreign”? And how does the designation “African” function?”
Russia: Bloggers Remember Rock Legend
In February, Russian bloggers celebrated a sad date. Ilya Kormiltsev, one of Russia’s most talented and controversial poets and songwriters, died of spine cancer three years ago. Kormiltsev’s death became the first and the most publicized death on the Russian Internet.
Russia: Bloggers Discuss Utilization of Old Books
Libraries are throwing away old books due to old age and lack of readership, literary critic Alexander Zhitinski reported [RUS]. A library in Saint-Petersburg had to throw away all the books published before 1999. Mistreatment of books provoked a heated discussion online [RUS] while mainstream media ignored the subject.
Video: Mobile Libraries of the World
The mobile library has become a staple in many library systems, bringing books to those who cannot access the libraries themselves. However, in many places due to bad road conditions or lack of funding, the traditional system of rigging a bus or truck as a library is not possible. Thus, library trains, donkey libraries and motorcycle libraries have come to stay as viable options to bring books to the communities.
Trinidad & Tobago: Poetry in the Mas’
Trinidad & Tobago Carnival inspires a poem by blogger Andre Bagoo.
Azerbaijan: Book review
Scary Azeri in Suburbs comments on Artush and Zaur, a homo-erotic novel telling the love story between an Armenian and Azerbaijani man. The blogger says that while the book is a brave attempt to overcome taboos, she found it more funny than touching in its depiction of various sexual encounters.
India: The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival Blog
An interesting panel discussion on the delicious variety of ‘Food Writing’ took place at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai, India. Read this and much more in The Kala Ghoda Gazette, the official blog of the festival.
St. Lucia, Jamaica, Haiti: Words Can Help
Want to write in solidarity for Haiti? St. Lucia-based Caribbean Book Blog and Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp have details.
Russia: Turgenev and the Viardots
St Petersblurb writes about the relationship of Ivan Turgenev, Pauline Viardot, and her husband.
Jamaica, U.S.A.: Wisdom of Children
“I learned that children are naturally giving and spontaneous and if we are not willing to accept some of the ‘wild energy’ of our children and if we continue to treat our schools as warehouses, then we should be prepared to accept the death of their imagination”: Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey...
Digital library of Lao manuscripts
Digital library of Lao manuscripts features 86,000 texts from 800 monasteries in Laos. The web project aims to preserve historic Lao literary texts.
Haiti: Russian Interpol Officer Blogs About Disaster
A Russian Interpol officer in Haiti shares his accounts of the disaster and its aftermath on his blog.
Russia: “Most Influential Intellectual” Online Vote
At OpenDemocracy.net, Lyubov Borusyak writes that “a recent internet vote on the [Russia's] most influential intellectual saw instead postmodern ambiguity emerge victorious.”
St. Lucia, Jamaica: Commonwealth Writers
“The race to win the coveted titles of Best Book and Best First Book in the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize has begun”: St. Lucia's Caribbean Book Blog reports, while Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp is excited about the 2010 Commonwealth Short Story Competition.
Dominican Republic: Mateo Morrison Wins National Literature Prize
The poet Mateo Morrison was recently awarded the 2010 National Literature Prize [es] in the Dominican Republic writes blogger Pedro Genaro.
