Our own Elizabeth Minkel has been posting sights and quotations from a recent George R. R. Martin and Robin Hobb event in London. You can check out her coverage over on Tumblr.
George and Robin
On Kenny’s Window
Maria Popova writes about Kenny’s Window, Maurice Sendak’s “debut as a storyteller.” Our own Emily Collette Wilkinson reflected on Sendak’s vision upon his passing.
Hot Take!
Tim Parks's review of Han Kang's The Vegetarian has some pretty interesting things to say about the nature of reviewing translation, but it also takes some shots at the novel and its proponents: "Looked at closely, the prose is far from an epitome of elegance, the drama itself neither understated nor beguiling, the translation frequently in trouble with register and idiom. Studying the thirty-four endorsements again, and the praise after the book won the prize, it occurs to me there is a shared vision of what critics would like a work of 'global fiction' to be and that The Vegetarian has managed to present itself as a candidate that can be praised in those terms." Here's a Millions review of Kang's Man Booker International prize-winner.
On Reading Salman Rushdie in India
Literary critic Amitava Kumar has written a personal essay for the Chronicle on his experience reading from Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literary Festival in India, where the work has banned for 23 years. Read The Millions coverage of the festival here.
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W.S. Merwin named as 17th Poet Laureate of the USA
W.S. Merwin, a Hawaii-based poet born in 1927, has been named the 17th Poet Laureate of the United States. A fellow poet writes, "There is something monklike about Merwin ... He is trying to achieve a contemplative distance from desire and ambition."
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Recommended Reading: Qiu Miaojin
Remember when I wrote about Bonnie Huie’s translation of Qiu Miaojin’s Notes of a Crocodile? Well here’s some more about Huie’s work. Over at the PEN blog, you can check out the translator’s introduction to Miaojin as well as an additional excerpt from the translation-in-progress.
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Satire and Self-Laceration
At The Rumpus, a chat with the poet Randall Mann, whose new book, Straight Razor, came out last week. Among the more interesting tidbits revealed in the interview: Mann’s father was an Olympic silver medalist.
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The Station Fire in Pictures
A selection of jaw-dropping photos from the LA Times of the Station fire in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles, the largest wildfire in the LA area in modern history.
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