Literature Without Borders

A few news items on the free movement and translation of literature across borders:

Iraqi novelist Fadhil al-Azzawi's novel The Last of the Angels is published has been translation by The Free Press [US], and the first review is out in the Quarterly Conversation.

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Knesset Member Yuli Tamir has proposed a draft bill that would challenge the Israeli embargo on books published in Syria or Lebanon, making books in Arabic more available in Israel. Yuval Azoulay's article in Ha'aretz looks at the challenges facing readers coming through Israeli customs or looking to obtain books in Israel, with an update on the campaign against the embargo launched by Adalah, as the Atlas reported in February.

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Emirati newspaper The National offers a global overview of its summer reading recommendations with a nifty hotspotted map. Recs include Rawi Hage's De Niro's Game and Bahaa Taher's Sunset Oasis. Chad at Three Percent suggests turning this format into a social networking app like Cities I've Visited on Facebook...

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And Three Percent also put up this short video of the Big Think's interview with Alane Salierno Mason, founder of the brilliant Words Without Borders, discussing literature in translation. In other videos (the Big Think seems to work on one idea per short film), Alane discusses the continuing fortunes of publishers of translation, the guiding impulse for WWB and her thoughts on the power of Oprah.

Life or Facebook?

There have been many apocalyptic articles bemoaning the death of sociality/literature/civilisation as we know it due to the advent of the internet, and particularly social networking. But what becomes clear when you spend any time on social networking sites (and I spend way too much time on Facebook) is that many of the groups are dedicated to promoting live events, and can reach an unprecedented audience of potential attendees. Just as Kutub's blog allows you to read along with a bookclub in Dubai, the Facebook groups for Jordan Poetry and Cairo's Diwan Bookstore give a picture of a thriving literary culture that's as much face-to-face as Facebook.

Authors are increasingly savvy about using the internet to reach new readers -- and to shape their reputation. Celebrated Egyptian blogger and writer Marwa Rakha used Facebook to encourage her readers to review her book on Amazon. It sounds like a virtual whirl, but net users are conscious of real-life consequences, whether positive (increased book sales or event attendance, improved transcultural communication) or negative. That one writer, Adnan Okter, could get an injunction to block the website of Turkey's third-largest newspaper demonstrates -- uncomfortably -- the real-life power of the virtual world.