Landays in Afghanistan, German’s longest word, and the Gezi Park library
This week’s links take us around the world to see poetry in Afghanistan, a new library amid the protests in Turkey, and the longest word in German language history finally being retired. Enjoy!
News, Reviews, and Interviews
Many young black poets find it more difficult to get published than their white peers, so Charles Henry Rowell is ready to fight for their success with a new anthology.
For many women in Afghanistan, poetry is the only means of education. These poems, called landays, are the subject of the Poetry Foundation’s powerful new article.
Europa Editions’ editor in chief, Michael Reynolds, recently sat down to an interview with Other People where he talked about the Europa’s work in translation.
Couldn’t make it to this year’s Palestine Festival of Literature? Arabic Literature (in English) has everything you missed.
Relive this year’s London Literature Festival celebration of poet Tadeusz Różewicz with a podcast of the event.
Sherman Alexie was interviewed by Bill Moyers last month about negotiating identity while living in two distinct cultures at one time.
Protesters in Turkey’s Gezi Park can now bide their time by reading a book borrowed from the park’s newly constructed microlibrary. Read more in Turkish or in English.
Is every act of writing a translation of some sort? Kurdish poet Golan Haji says it is, in a recent interview at Prairie Schooner.
In a recent and unexpected announcement, Salt Publishing declared it would no longer publish single-author poetry collections. In a response to the announcement, American poet Robert Peake gives hope to poets feeling “dispossesed.”
For Your Calendar
You have until June 8 to enter for a chance to win the Jean-Claude Izzo trilogy from Stop, You're Killing Me!
Fun Finds and Inspiration
In the war for precise punctuation, it seems that apostrophes might be losing, at least in England.
What’s more important to you, the music itself or the lyrics that adorn it?
Several new public domain titles will be getting new cover designs very soon thanks to a collaboration between DailyLit, the Harvard Bookstore, and the team behind Design for Obama.
World Lit Up is a round-the-world venture in literature, and Holly Kuehlwein, the site’s blogger, could use some help picking titles!
We know WLT readers can probably mark off a good portion of the points on the 25 Signs You're Addicted to Books list as being completely true.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has been a popular subject for films over the years. In fact, it has inspired five full-length features.
German’s longest word is 63 letters long and will soon be retired from common use.
