The Neustadt jurors, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and a poetry drone program
What an exciting week for WLT! As you know (or will find in the links below), we recently announced the jurors of the 2014 Neustadt Festival. You can expect the Neustadt Prize finalists announcement in late July, and the jurors will choose a winner in the fall. Other links this week include more lit prize winners and several new fundraising projects that approach literature and poetry in all new ways. Enjoy!
News, Reviews, and Interviews
In case you didn't hear, we’ve announced the jurors who will be charged with choosing the 2014 Neustadt Prize winner this fall.
The Times Literary Supplement has a new poem by 2004 Neustadt Laureate Adam Zagajewski up, called “In Strange Towns.”
In a recent interview, Edith Grossman revealed all (okay, maybe not all) her secrets and passions about the art of translation.
The Poetry International Festival wrapped up last week; in case you missed it, WLT contributor Kwame Dawes has day-by-day recaps of the events.
A new play celebrates the lives and letters of 1976 Neustadt Prize Laureate Elizabeth Bishop and her longtime friend Robert Lowell.
The Griffin Poetry Prizes were awarded this week, and 2014 Neustadt juror Fady Joudah was one of them for his translation of What’s the Score? by David W. McFadden.
New words entered the Oxford English Dictionary this week, including “Twitter” and “geekery.”
Nuruddin Farah, winner of the 1998 Neustadt Prize, recounts his memories of the late Chinua Achebe in a new video.
Even though eBooks have been growing in popularity, Gizmodo thinks they will never replace physical books.
Studies show that the act of deep reading—really getting into a book—is a unique experience, but also an endangered one.
For Your Calendar
The Arabic Literature (in English) blog is giving away a bilingual PalFest anthology to anyone who contributes their pick for summer reading (must be an Arabic book in translation, of course).
If you’ll be anywhere near Brooklyn on Monday, June 24, a new opera based on a play by Octavio Paz (which was also inspired by a Nathaniel Hawthorne story) will be debuting at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Fun Finds and Inspiration
The town of Hay-on-Wye, Wales has been deemed the “town of books” for its massive number of bookstores and low-tolerance policy on e-readers.
What is your daily routine when it comes to writing? Perhaps it’s something like the routines of these famous authors.
This list contains 10 female Japanese authors that the blog All Wrongs Reversed thinks should be translated into English. Who would you add?
Tupelo Press has started a fascinating new fundraiser called the Tupelo 30/30 Project, where nine poets each month are challenged to write 30 poems in 30 days.
A new study confirms what we know you already know—that reading makes you a better thinker.
It might be hard to imagine, but theater did exist before Shakespeare decided to take to the stage.
David Shook has started a Kickstarter campaign to fund a poetry drone program, which would drop poetry “bombs” and draw attention to literary and political activism.
This New York Times article claims that all literature is a form of translation. What do you think?
