If it’s 2019, it must be time for the bi-annual Bókmenntahátíð í Reykjavík which this year has a spring date for the first time. That will be April 24-27 for those who fancy a spring break in Iceland. Don’t worry if you flunked Icelandic at school. Bókmenntahátíð í Reykjavík is of course the Reykjavík International Read More …
Unsurprisingly, audiobooks have been a hot topic at the London Book Fair, which finishes today, but it wasn’t the usual suspects, Audible and Storytel, that grabbed the headlines. The Bookseller’s Audiobook producer of the Year Award went to an audio outfit in the United Arab Emirates, which may come as a surprise to those who Read More …
In our Anglophone-centric publishing world it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of the Global New Renaissance unfolding, and to build a faux impression that the world of translations is all about translating English to other languages and other languages to English. But important as English is on the global publishing stage, it Read More …
Turkey’s Aras Publishing this week received the coveted Publishing House of the Year Award from Dünya Books Magazine for its role as a window to Armenian literature. Explains Massispost, Aras Publishing was established in 1993 in Istanbul. It adopted a publishing policy which made it called “the window to Armenian literature” soon. With its books Read More …
The US $10,000 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize for Literature will be awarded in Mexico on 4 December this year, and authors and publishers have until April 30 to get their submissions in. The award, launched in 1993 and funded by the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, is for books originally published Read More …
The Jerusalem International Book Forum (formerly the Jerusalem International Book Fair) will run 12-15 May this year, and for the first time will run concurrent with the International Writers Festival of Mishkenot Sha’ananim. Founded in 1963, the then Jerusalem International Book Fair has long been the Israeli publishing industry’s public face, and the forum where the Read More …
With the announcement in December that Amazon-owned Audible was sponsoring the prestigious Sunday Times Short Story Award came the prospect that the winners would not just earn some extra cash but would have their entries published as an audiobook that would reach a still wider audience. Which all sounds great. The Sunday Times Short Story Read More …
Ghana’s inaugural Accra Book Festival last Year (not to be confused with the Ghana International Book Fair) was an unqualified success last year, and plans for the 2019 edition are underway. The 2nd Accra Book Festival will be formally launched on August 10 and the event itself will run for four days over October 24-27. Read More …
The Accra International Book Festival has announced its shortlist for two awards today: the 2018 First Book Award and the 2018 Independent Writers Award, with five female contenders and just one male making the finals. Unusually for an Africa-based award the prize is open to submissions from authors of any nationality, although submissions must be Read More …
Okay, Janet Museveni’s book My Life’s Journey may not have made quite the splash that Michelle Obama’s Becoming has made, but then, being the wife of the President of Uganda doesn’t come with quite the high profile that comes with being the wife of the former President of the United States. But that didn’t stop Read More …
The past seven days on TNPS – here’s what you missed. Dubai Audio Library “the largest Arabic audio library in the world” Dubai Audio Library “the largest Arabic audio library in the world” Self-published comic book to become Netflix series – Again Self-published comic book to become Netflix series – Again Saudi Arabia’s 4th Read More …
With contenders from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Syria, Yemen and Norway, the 2019 Sheikh Zayed Book Award long list for the Literature category is announced, with ten novels, two poetry collections and a memoir forming the line-up. Here’s the longlist: Novel: Esmy Fatima (My Name is Fatima) by Egyptian writer Amro Al Adly (2017) Read More …
With the Sharjah International Book Fair underway in the United Arab Emirates you could be forgiven for thinking there was only one bookish event happening in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) arena right now. The just finished Khartoum International Book Fair, for example, passed almost completely unnoticed in Sudan, while the still on-going Algiers Read More …
Back in the last century when I was a kid I won my fair share of writing prizes for my back-then handwritten essays and stories. The prizes were much appreciated – a book token, a cinema ticket, etc – but not quite in the same class as the trophy for winning Nigeria’s 2018 Channels Book Read More …
South Africa, Canada , the USA, the UK and Nigeria are on the travel map today as we start the day global today in what you may or may not consider the USA: Puerto Rico. If we outside the US and Caribbean think of Puerto Rico at all it is probably in relation to the Read More …
The winner of the Prix Albert Londres 2018 will be announced in Istanbul on October 22. Yes, a French literary prize awarded in Turkey. The award is the creation of the daughter of the celebrated French author Florise Martinet-Londres, and the awards ceremony this year, writes Actualitté’s Antoine Oury, has a strong symbolic significance. A delegation Read More …
Here’s a summary of TNPS posts from the past seven days. Sao Paulo’s Avenida Paulista bookstore closes – Fnac Brazil now has just one bookstore standing Setswana? Indonesian? Can you tell the difference? Nor can Microsoft A mermaid wearing a bra among the books banned in Kuwait, but protests are gathering momentum Big Bad Wolf Read More …
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) has picked Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur to succeed Sharjah as World Book Capital in 2020. The title is currently held by Athens, which will concede the title to the UAE’s Sharjah for 2019. In a statement Unesco said Malaysia’s capital was selected because of the city’s strong Read More …
The longlist for the 2018 National Book Award for Translated Literature has been announced. Négar Djavadi, Disoriental, translated by Tina Kover (Europa Editions) Roque Larraquy, Comemadre, translated by Heather Cleary (Coffee House Press) Dunya Mikhail, The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq, translated by Max Weiss and Dunya Mikhail (New Directions Publishing) Perumal Murugan, Read More …
As reported here yesterday, a CreateSpace self-published title made it through to the shortlist for the prestigious French literary award the Prix Renaudot. Amazon’s CreateSpace goes out with a bang – cracks shortlist for prestigious French literary award Today comes news some French bookstore owners are now boycotting not just the CreateSpace title but the Read More …
