2016
December 2016
Direct and Spontaneous Testimony: Edwin Morgan: The Midnight Letterbox. William Bonar reviews the collected letters of Edwin Morgan, edited by James McGonigal and John Coyle.
‘On the Afterlife of Czech Surrealism: Vítězlav Nezval The Absolute Gravedigger, translated from the Czech by Stephan Delbos and Tereza Novická (Twisted Spoon Press, 2016).’ Anna Förster brings this rarely translated Czech writer of the 20th century into the context of Czech Surrealism.
November 2016
‘The Hustler Abides: Jonathan Lethem’s A Gambler’s Anatomy. By Mark Bresnan.
Poems of Quiet Devastation – Kylie Grant reviews Kate Hendry’s The Lost Original.
‘Vampire in Love: In Conversation With Margaret Jull Costa About Translating Enrique Vila-Matas’ Short Stories.’ On the occasion of the publication of Vampire in Love, short stories collected and translated by Jull Costa (And Other Stories, 2016), Delaina Haslam interviews the great translator, OBE, whose translation brought her a nomination for the Best Translated Book Award longlist 2016 (as one of 4 [!!] nominations).
October 2016
‘Ripostes And Addendums: Teju Cole’s Known And Strange Things (Faber and Faber, 2016).’ A review by Rachel Sykes.
‘A Conversation With Margot Livesey, Author of Mercury (Harper, 2016).’ By Anne Kniggendorf.
September 2016
‘Swallow Summer: An Interview with Lyn Marven On Translating Larissa Boehning. Editor Rebecca DeWald interviews German translator Lyn Marven on working with Boehning and translating contemporary German literature (Swallow Summer, Comma Press, 2016).
August 2016
Something Else: After Tomorrow the Days Disappear: Ghazals and Other Poems by Hasan Sijzi, translated by Rebecca Gould. A review by Kevin L. Schwartz, as part of Women in Translation Month 2016, #WITMonth.
Gender, Translation, and Chasing the Authentic Voice: Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs by Lina Wolff, translated by Frank Perry. A review by Dominic Hinde, as part of Women in Translation Month 2016, #WITMonth.
July 2016
Fuelling the Fire: Claire Askew’s This Changes Things. A review by Vicki Husband.
Corruption Incarnate: Yuri Herrera’s The Transmigration of Bodies, translated by Lisa Dillman – by Ailsa Peate. A review of Herrera’s second book, also translated by Lisa Dillman, and an insight into contemporary Mexican and its often stereotypical portrayal in British culture.
Anthropocene Flotsam: Steve Mentz’s Shipwreck Modernity: Ecologies of Globalization, 1550-1719. Peter Adkins reviews Steve Mentz’s most recent booked about the post-Anthropocene age of the Naufragocene as part of our Ecocriticism Now thread.
Forms of Impatience: Vicky Jarrett’s The Way Out – by Gerard Lee McKeever. A review of a recent short story collection full of impatience and yet rooted in a Scottish tradition.
May 2016
Kiruna’s Choice: Dominic Hinde’s A Utopia Like Any Other: Inside the Swedish Model – by Rory Scothorne. Sweden has always been upheld as role model for democratic countries, Scotland included. But is this pioneer position really justified?
Porous and Resilient: Tales from a Cancelled Country, ed. Alan McMunnigall, Brian Hamill & Stuart Blackwood (thi wurd books, 2015) – By Gerard Lee McKeever. The day after the Scottish elections 2016, McKeever reviews a Scottish short story collection that endeavours to show the effects the Scottish Independence Referendum 2014 has had on the literary scene.
April 2016
Lyric Mediums: PJ Harvey’s The Hope Six Demolition Project – by Rebecca Varley-Winter. A review of PJ Harvey as musician and writer.
On The Edges: Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun – by Kevin Addies. An empathic and disturbing memoir of addiction, set on Orkney.
March 2016
An Oscillatory System: Pippa Goldschmidt’s The Need for Better Regulation of Outer Space – by Charlotte Morgan. Morgan reviews the scientific short story collection that garnered a spot on the Frank O’Connor Prize longlist.
Things Invisible to See: Russia’s Vanishing Act on Ukraine and the Country’s Literary Renaissance – by Steve Komarnyckyj. Komarnyckyj explains the relationship of Russia with Ukrainian literature and why the latter, in English translation, is experiencing a revival.
February 2016
Line Drawings, and other Diagrams: Miriam Gamble’s Pirate Music – by Matt Macdonald. Macdonald “is led along a stream of similarly well executed lyrical forms” following the lines of Gamble’s carefully crafted collection.
Verging on the Absurd: Ivan Ivan Vladislavić, The Folly – Lynnda Wardle. South African Ivan Vladislavić’s first novel (1993), re-issued by And Other Stories in 2015, “is both funny and cruel and casts a surreal look at the workings of power as the characters march across its pages like grotesque marionettes.”
January 2016
100 Dutch-Language Poems: From the Medieval Period to the Present Day – by Richie McCaffery. A review of Holland Park’s new anthology, edited and translated by Paul Vincent and John Irons, with a special emphasis on issues of translation and accessibility within the canon of Dutch-language poetry.