The year in review, best literary feuds of 2012, and the Man Asian shortlist
Welcome to the first Friday Link Pool of 2013! We’ve gathered up all the fun and informative literary links we could find over the holidays (to help make up for how much we know you missed us, of course). Enjoy!
News, Reviews, and Interviews
English PEN led us back through a whole year of Atlas pieces, which span the globe and a range of topics.
If you missed the longlist announcement for the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Literature, the list can be found at the Arabic Literature (in English) blog.
The New York Times has an illustrated video interview with the late Maurice Sendak, beloved children’s author.
Words Without Borders has released best translation picks from 2012.
As it turns out, the state of the economy didn’t phase many independent bookstores’ sales this holiday season.
The New York Review blog features a post by Charles Simic, who looked back at 2012 in a series of fragments.
The New York Times recently delved into the secret underground world of book pirating in Mumbai. (This essay reminded us of Sophie Hardach’s fiction, "Anyone Have Any Idea What Jesus Wrote Here?" from the November 2012 issue about book pirating in Peru.)
Goodreads recently featured an interview with George Saunders about his newest book, Tenth of December.
Open Letters Monthly has a new essay by Michael Johnson about the life and works of Alexander Pushkin and how he has been used as a symbol for various ideologies throughout time.
We’ve learned that all of the Emily Dickinson manuscripts held by Amhurst College are now available through open access, for anyone to view online.
The New York Times reports that libraries now have to think of themselves not as libraries, but as bookstores without the price tag.
Four Chinese activists recently broke through the security surrounding Liu Xia’s home, who has been under house arrest since her husband, Liu Xiaobo, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.
Matt Hooley, writing for the Chicago Tribune, asserts that “Louise Erdrich's National Book Award signals a change in the questions that Native fiction inspires.”
You can now watch PBS documentary Reportero, about the struggles independent news journalists in Tijuana face, online for free until February.
The Man Asian Prize shortlist has been announced! Among the authors shortlisted is Hiromi Kawakami from Japan, whose story “In the Palace of the Dragon King” appeared in the January 2012 issue of WLT.
Former Neustadt juror Ilya Kaminsky recently wrote an essay on Paul Celan, “Of Strangeness that Wakes Us,” at the Poetry Foundation website.
For Your Calendar
Interested in trying your hand at a writing contest? NewPages has a constantly-updated list of writing contests and how to enter them.
Registration for the 42nd annual ASJA Writer’s Conference is open!
The Intralingo blog has several translation classes available throughout the year, but make sure you register for them early!
StAnza, Scotland’s annual poetry festival, will take place March 6-10 at St. Andrews in Fife.
Are you a fan of teen-lit author John Green? Goodreads is hosting a live chat with him on January 23, where participants are invited to ask him questions.
Applications to summer programs for the British Centre for Literary Translation open on January 17, with new programs about Swedish and Portuguese translation.
Fun Finds and Inspiration
Here are the six commandments of “fair play” in translation, as voted by the European Council of Literary Translators’ Association in 2011.
In a new animation at the Brain Pickings blog, Roman Krznaric explains outrospection and the importance of empathy.
In Iceland, books are the top gifts during the holiday season.
Jeffrey Eugenides, author of Middlesex and The Marriage Plot, offers this advice to young writers.
Words Without Borders compiled all the Google doodles that reference translation and literature from 2012 - it’s quite the collection!
Striving to be more charitable in 2013? The Translationista blog has rounded up some ways you can help translation initiatives around the world.
Did you know that poetry has been proven to make you weird? (But in a good way, of course.)
Tired of reading “best books” lists? Why not look to this list and remember the best literary feuds of 2012?
The New Yorker recently posted a list of books to look out for this January.
Flavorwire has a list of literary graffiti from around the world.
