· July, 2010

Stories about Literature from July, 2010

Nigeria: Literary prize money that never comes

  29 July 2010

Jeremy Nigerian writers who never receive their prize money: “There is a general pattern emerging with the award of literary prizes in Nigeria. The delighted author or poet hears the good news and attends the award ceremony…And then the prize money never comes.”

Caribbean: New Memoirs

  28 July 2010

Repeating Islands blogs about the release of two memoirs: by editor Diana Athill, who worked with V.S. Naipaul and Jean Rhys, and by Fidel Castro.

Venezuela: Foundation for Urban Culture Shut Down

  26 July 2010

The Foundation for Urban Culture - a fund that promoted culture through books, photography, music and ideas - was recently shut down, allegedly due to financing from the brokerage firm Econoinvest which was raided by the government in May. Bloggers who support the Foundation, accuse the closing of being illegal and unrelated to the company.

Philippines: Oplan Bantay Laya and Counterinsurgency

  25 July 2010

Kapirasong Kritika writes a book review of Oplan Bantay Laya: The US-Arroyo Campaign of Terror and Counterinsurgency in the Philippines. Oplan Bantay Laya is a counterinsurgency program alleged by critics and human rights groups as the blueprint behind more than 1,000 extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations committed between...

Iran: Bloggers remember Shamlou

Several bloggers wrote about Ahmad Shamlou‘s 10th anniversary. Shamlou was probabaly the most influential poet in modern Iran. VatanParast, Iranian blogger, quotes [fa] Shamlou: “underdeveloped countries are like people who are sleeping.”

Bahamas: Forward poet

  22 July 2010

Geoffrey Philp shares the news that Bahamian poet Christian Campbell has been shortlisted for a Forward Prize, and the Caribbean Review of Books blog links to one of Campbell’s poems.

Guyana: Honey and Lime

  22 July 2010

Signifyin’ Woman offers her thoughts on Honey and Lime, a book of poems by the Guyanese writer Peggy Carr: “A poem is its own unique, economical world.”

Russia: Memorial memento

LJ user shoorman notes [RUS] that the liberal St. Petersburg Yabloko youth organization has beaten the region's communists to placing a memorial placard to a local communist on a building he used to live in. An adjoining photo illustrates that the functionary's key accomplishment – according to Yabloko youth –...

Bangladesh: Freedom Of Speech And Book Ban

  19 July 2010

Bangladeshi singer, songwriter, poet and blogger Maqsoodul Haque at The Bangladesh Poet of Impropriety discusses the politics behind and effectiveness of the recent banning of book of a controversial religious leader.

Nepal: Smallest Book

  17 July 2010

X Nepali Blog informs about the smallest published book in Nepal which measures 3 inches in length and 2.5 inches in width.

South Africa: Writers record their work for Internet

  14 July 2010

“Four South African writers recorded their prose stories for the internet during the National Arts Festival. This was the final part of the CityBooks project focussing on Grahamstown and organised by the Dutch/Flemish organisation deBuren,” cueTV blog reports from Grahamstown, South Africa.