I was browsing Mo Yan novels in the Greenville Public Library, and I came across his interesting choice for a prefatory quotation to The Garlic Ballads:
Novelists are forever trying to distance themselves from politics, but the novel itself closes in on politics. Novelists are so concerned with "man's fate" that they tend to lose sight of their own fate. Therein lies their tragedy.
~Josef Stalin
I don't think that it invariably requires a Nobel Prize in Literature to sell translated books in the states, but I do know Mo Yan won one in 2012. The books I was looking at in the library appeared worn, to an extent, so I'm guessing that they were on the shelf before that.
As you may know, Mo Yan is a pen name that means "don't speak," and if you follow the link to Wikipedia.org from his name above, you'll see that there was some controversy over his win in light of both his ties to Chinese authorities as well as his Swedish translator's connection to the Nobel committee. I haven't read his writing.
Alex Kudera’s award-winning novel, Fight for Your Long Day (Atticus Books), was drafted in a walk-in closet during a summer in Seoul, South Korea. Auggie’s Revenge (Beating Windward Press) is his second novel. His numerous short stories include “Frade Killed Ellen” (Dutch Kills Press), “Bombing from Above” (Heavy Feather Review), and “A Thanksgiving” (Eclectica Magazine).
-
In theory, a book isn't alive unless it's snuggled comfortably in the reading bin in the bathroom at Oprah's or any sitting Pres...
-
And Duffleman has the nerve to think he has problems! Is he a homeless man breaking into and reopening a bar? No. Is he earning over $10K a...
-
Reading Little White Duck: A Childhood in China led me to Wuhan, China, a large sprawling city dissected by a huge river that Chairman Mao ...
-
So the University of Kentucky lost the title game, and perhaps that was seen as a victory for those who dislike the lopsided recruiting of t... -
Here's Dave Newman's essay on trucking, teaching, writing, and surviving in America.
-
"[B] ut the fact that [Roberto] Arlt wrote 'badly' is what made him important. Because Arlt’s style was no style at all—an abra...
-
The Clemson Literary Festival came and went, and as best I can tell, it was a huge success. For me, highlights were hearing U.S. Poet Laurea...
-
I stumbled upon a couple articles on Atlantic City's current casino "contraction," here and here , and it sounds like the bea...
-
Even more quickly than Joe Wilson could nab $200,000 for his near-blasphemous yelp in the halls of power, Allen Iverson inked for 3.1 millio...
-
An excerpt from and a book review of Auggie's Revenge appears in the June 2017 issue of the European academic journal American, Briti...
No comments:
Post a Comment