Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 15

Poetry Wales: Wild & Wildsmith

 

Laird & Smith 

Wild & Wildsmith 

The new issue of Poetry Wales has arrived and I am amused.

The Lake longlisted for Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2023

HUGE congratulations to Bianca Bellová and Alex Zucker for making the longlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation!

16 titles have been longlisted for the seventh annual award of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.

The £1000 prize was established by the University of Warwick in 2017 to address the gender imbalance in translated literature and to increase the number of international women’s voices accessible by a British and Irish readership. The prize is judged by Amanda Hopkinson, Boyd Tonkin and Susan Bassnett.

In 2022, the prize was jointly awarded to Osebol by Marit Kapla, translated from Swedish by Peter Graves and published by Allen Lane/Penguin Random House, and to Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell and published by Tilted Axis Press.

The 2023 competition received a total of 153 eligible entries representing 32 languages; this is the largest number of submissions made to the prize to date. The longlist covers 11 languages and for the first time includes a title translated from Vietnamese. Arabic, Chinese, Hungarian and Italian are represented more than once. The longlist includes titles from 13 publishers, with the independent publishers Dedalus, Jantar and Parthian Press featuring for the first time.

The judges said of the 2023 longlist:

'From an exceptionally rich field of submissions we have chosen 16 remarkable books in first-rate translations. All of them deserve to find delighted readers everywhere. Our contemporary picks span a dazzling rainbow of genres, cultures and voices – from an Egyptian graphic novel to a Vietnamese vision of migrant life in France; a Chinese fable of an alternative Hong Kong to a comic-epic Swedish novel of ideas; a Mexican musical elegy to a Yemeni documentary testament to the human costs of war. But this year’s long list also honours a formidable cache of rediscovered gems from major 20th-century women writers: classic works given new life by the translator’s time-defying art.'

The shortlist for the prize will be published in early November. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at The Shard in London on Thursday 23 November.

The full list of longlisted titles, in alphabetical order, is as follows:

Dorthe Nors, A Line in the World, translated from Danish by Caroline Waight (Pushkin Press)Lalla Romano, A Silence Shared, translated from Italian by Brian Robert Moore (Pushkin Press)Amanda Svensson, A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley (Scribe UK)Krisztina Tóth, Barcode, translated from Hungarian by Peter Sherwood (Jantar)Thuận, Chinatown, translated from Vietnamese by Nguyễn An Lý (Tilted Axis)Zhang Yueran, Cocoon, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (World Editions)Alba de Céspedes, Forbidden Notebook, translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein (Pushkin Press)Dorothy Tse, Owlish, translated from Chinese by Natascha Bruce (Fitzcarraldo)Marguerite Duras, The Easy Life, translated from French by Olivia Baes and Emma Ramadan (Bloomsbury)Magda Szabó, The Fawn, translated from Hungarian by Len Rix (Maclehose)Bianca Bellová, The Lake, translated from Czech by Alex Zucker (Parthian Books)Grazia Deledda, The Queen of Darkness, translated from Italian by Graham Anderson (Dedalus)Margo Glantz, The Remains, translated from Spanish by Ellen Jones (Charco Press)Hanne Ørstavik, ti amo, translated from Norwegian by Martin Aitken (And Other Stories)Bushra al-Maqtari, What Have You Left Behind? translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain (Fitzcarraldo)Deena Mohamed, Your Wish Is My Command, translated from Arabic by Deena Mohamed (Granta)

The prize is generously supported in 2023 by the School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures and the Warwick Institute of Engagement at the University of Warwick, the British Centre for Literary Translation, and the British Comparative Literary Association.

The Lake is a truly fantastic novel, a dystopian page-turner, and it really deserves all of the accolades it's getting! Earlier in the year The Lake won the EBRD Literature Prize:

'The Lake is a bewitching, beguiling, terrifying and shocking portal into a world gone wrong, a realm in which tenderness and courage come up against brutality and indifference, in which fellow-feeling and communality are undercut by self-interest and folly – and in which small gestures nonetheless keep the flame of hope alive. It is utterly propulsive, immersive and unique, and deserves to become a European classic, to be read by many generations to come.' – Toby Lichtig, EBRD Literature Prize judge

Parthian Submissions Window Opens in November

Hey folks! Parthian is open to submissions for a short window next month. Take a look at what we are looking for in the link below... We look forward to reading your work!

More info here: https://www.parthianbooks.com/blogs/news/submissions-window-to-open-in-november

Black Bough Book of the Month: Small

Black Bough Book of the Month October 2023: Small by Natalie Ann Holborow

'Small is brave, honest and straight-eyed, overlaid with a rare passion that confronts the edges of human fragility. The weight and force of its characters are centre-stage in a raw telling that shines a soul-trapping and valuable light on the invisible stigmata of pressure to conform to body-image perfection.' – Glenn Barker, September 2023

Read the review in full

The Bookseller: Czech Literature Supplement

Read the Czech Literary Centre's supplement in the new issue of The Bookseller

The supplement is mainly focused on Czech books that have recently been published (or will soon be published) by British publishers. Space was given to fiction as well as to poetry and graphic novels. The cover was designed by Jaromír 99.The highlight of the supplement is Tivnan‘s article about Bianca Bellová and her novel The Lake (trans. by Alex Zucker, publ. by Parthian Books), for which she won the EBRD Literature Prize in June (Olga Tokarczuk was also among the finalists).Ra Page, the director of Comma Press, introduces The Book of Prague, an anthology of Prague short stories, edited by Ivana Myšková and myself. It contains 10 short stories by 10 Czech writers, translated by 10 translators (or translating couples). The book will be published later this month.Scottish poet and publisher Rob A. Mackenzie wrote a short essay about why he decided to publish Selected Poems by Petr Hruška, and one of Petr‘s poems is featured on the page as a preview of the book. Paul Gravett, London-based journalist, curator and writer, presents the English editions of graphic novels by Lucie Lomová, Vojtěch Mašek and Jaromír 99. He also praises Kateřina Čupová's comics adaptation of Karel Čapek‘s famous play R. U. R. which gave birth to the word robot.The back cover consists of brief profiles of books by Kateřina Tučková, Jáchym Topol, Jan Němec, Martin Vopěnka and Jan Procházka.

Burning Bones Wins TRANSLATION PRIZE LABORAL KUTXA – ETXEPARE 2023

We are delighted that Burning Bones – written by Miren Agur Meabe and expertly translated to English from the original Basque by Amaia Gabantxo – has been selected as the winner of the TRANSLATION PRIZE LABORAL KUTXA – ETXEPARE 2023. The prize rewards the quality of the translation itself and the publisher’s promotional strategy. The publisher and the translator will share the prize.

In a series of short poetic narratives Burning Bones (Hezurren Erretura) finds the writer on a remarkable journey of imagination, discovery and emotion. Burning Bones is a companion piece to A Glass Eye (Kristalezko begi bat) – a collection of short stories that complement the universe of Miren’s novel about absence as an engine for creation, about what we make out of the things we lose; her eye, in the author’s case, or love, or the innocence of youth. Throughout this work, Miren tries to illuminate the life of a woman artist. She asks how a woman can be an artist in this society? How to make art from this female condition?Burning Bones was published as part of our Europa Carnivale list celebrating women writers in translation with the financial support of the Etxepare Basque Institute, the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the Books Council of Wales. We would also like to thanks these three organisations for their support with bringing the book out into the world.Thanks so much to all who have been involved in making this decision and congratulations to both Miren and Amaia!


If you'd like to read Miren and Amaia's work, you can pick up a copy of Burning Bones here: https://www.parthianbooks.com/collections/translations/products/burning-bonesand A Glass Eye here: https://www.parthianbooks.com/collections/translations/products/a-glass-eye

Happy National Poetry Day!

 

‘He became the unacknowledged national poet of his generation, an open hearted soul whose poems embodied much of what our nation is today—diverse, passionate, tender and unafraid to take a hard look at its political and cultural complexity.' – Menna Elfyn

Wild Cherry: Selected Poems by Nigel Jenkins, edited with an introduction by Patrick McGuinness will be released this November.
#nationalpoetryday #poetry #poetrycommunity

THE BROKEN SPINE: Best of the Net (BOTN) 2023

Well this is lovely! Congratulations all! >>

Exciting News! The Broken Spine is thrilled to announce our Best of the Net (BOTN) nominations for 2023! These outstanding pieces have captured our hearts and exemplify the exceptional talent we're proud to publish:"I Hate You" by Sue Finch"Desert Streets" by Regine Ebner"Anne Neville" by Bex Hainsworth"That Snarl Amongst the Goddesses" by Damien B. Donnelly"Sheltered" by Jen Feroze"I've been wanting to write to you about the trampolines" by Susie Wild These nominations are a testament to the incredible poets and writers who entrust us with their words. We are immensely proud of their work and the profound impact they've made in the world of literature and poetry.Join us in celebrating their remarkable contributions to the literary world by using #BOTN and #Nominations. Let's continue to champion the power of words together! #TheBrokenSpine #LiteraryExcellence #BOTN2023 #Nominations #Poetry #FlashFiction

WAR SUMMER READS: Moon Jellyfish Can Barely Swim

Diolch to Wales Arts Review for including Ness Owen's Moon Jellyfish Can Barely Swim in their pick of poetry Summer Reads!

Moon Jellyfish Can Barely Swim 

by Ness Owen (Parthian)

Moon jellyfish live a life adrift, relying on the current to take them where they need to go. They are the ultimate survivors and one of the most successful organisms of animal life. So how do they thrive in the open ocean when they can barely swim? Ness Owen uses this poignant selection of poems to delve into questions of womanhood, language and identity, asking what it really means to move with the flow of an ever-changing environment.

PARTHIAN OFFER: The Sealey Challenge

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Tackling @thesealeychallenge this August? 

Well we’ve got the stack for you! 

Buy any poetry book from Parthian Books this August and get your second half price with code - SEALEY.

www.parthianbooks.com