Arnon Grunberg on Dubrakva Ugresic
Last week, The Millions ran this excellent piece by Arnon Grunberg on fellow Open Letter author Dubravka Ugresic: The Russian word poshlost, according to a seminal essay by Vladimir Nabokov, has a number of possible definitions — “cheap,” “inferior, “scurvy,” “tawdry” — but is perhaps best grasped by ...
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More Shishkin for Your Enjoyment
Following on yesterday’s announcement of Mikhail Shishkin’s April tour, here’s an excerpt from an essay he wrote for The Independent, A Revolution for Russia’s Words: My departure from the language, the loss of Russian murmuring in my ears, forced me to stop, to be silent. On the rare occasions ...
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Late-March 2103 Open Letter Newsletter
For anyone who’s not already a subscriber, click here to read the new issue of the Open Letter Newsletter. And if you’re not a subscriber, you should definitely sign up now. It’s the best way to find out what’s going on with Open Letter, AND we’ve been giving away free books via the ...
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Words Without Borders's Amazing James H. Ottaway, Jr. Award for the Promotion of International Literature
Announced yesterday by Words Without Borders, the James H. Ottaway Jr. Award for the Promotion of International Literature is one of the coolest prizes ever: The Ottaway is named in honor of the organization’s first chair and current Chair Emeritus, James H. Ottaway, Jr., in recognition of his leadership during the ...
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Lenin's Kisses
A rich, beautifully written, consistently surprising satire, Yan Lianke’s Lenin’s Kisses boasts an elaborate, engrossing plot with disarming twists and compelling characters both challenged and challenging. It leads the reader on a strange pilgrimage—often melancholy but certainly rewarding—through a China by ...
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Mikhail Shishkin's April Tour
I think I’ve mentioned this once or twice in recent posts, but although Mikhail Shishkin won’t be attending BookExpo America this year he WILL be touring throughout the U.S. this April, starting in San Francisco and hitting up Austin, Boston, and New York City. Below is a list of all the dates and general ...
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GoodReads Giveaway for "Two or Three Years Later"
Our new GoodReads Giveaway is for Ror Wolf’s Two or Three Years Later: Forty-Nine Digressions, which was translated from the German by Jennifer Marquart and is coming out in June. After struggling for a week this summer trying to figure out to describe this book, we came up with some killer jacket copy—one of the ...
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