At The New Arab Sarah Shaffi profiles the The Book of Collateral Damage-author, in Echoing Palestinian perseverance: Iraqi novelist Sinan Antoon on NYU Gaza protests arrest and upcoming translation of Palestinian story ..read more

       The city of Vienna has announced the winner of this year's Veza Canetti Prize, a €10,000 author-award for a female Austrian author, and it is Karin Peschka ..read more

       The Reading Agency has issued their 'The State of the Nation's Adult Reading: 2024 Report', reporting on the results of a survey conducted 2 to 4 April of 2003 people in the UK 16 and older -- see their summary or the full report (warning ! dreaded pdf format !).        Only 50% of respondents report reading for pleasure any longer -- down from 58% in 2015 -- with 24% of those aged 16-24 saying they were never regular readers, while an astonishing 44% in that age group are 'lapsed readers', having given up on it. &nbs ..read more

       Much-admired editor -- of Harper's and Lapham's Quarterly -- Lewis Lapham has passed away; see, for example the mention at Lapham's Quarterly or Robert D. McFadden's obituary in The New York Times (presumably paywalled ..read more

       The German publisher of Hillbilly Elegy -- the bestseller written by American vice-presidential candidate (for now) J.D.Vance --, Ullstein, has declined to renew the license for the German edition of the book (i.e. they no longer wanted to be tainted by association with it and what its author has come to represent); see, for example, Florian Kappelsberger's report in Der Spiegel.        A new edition will now be brought out by some new and not quite as illustrious outfit called YES ..read more

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Thai author Saneh Sangsuk's novel The Understory -- out from Peirene in the UK last year, and Deep Vellum in the US earlier this year ..read more

       Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword is now out, and at the Literary Hub Jane Ciabattari has a Q & A with the author, in Lev Grossman on Adapting Arthurian Legends for a World in Turmoil ..read more

       At the drift Simon Leser considers 'Proust in the Age of Retranslation', in Time and Time Again -- well worth a look ..read more

       The Saudi General Entertainment Authority has announced a new 'Golden Pen Award for the Most Influential Literature', focusing: "on the most popular novels with the highest potential for adaptation into films", whereby the: "first and second place winning novels will be adapted into films". There will also be a 'Best Screenplay Adapted from a Literary Work' -- where, again: "the first and second place screenplays will be adapted into films".        The prize money is good, too -- the main novel and screenplay prizes p ..read more

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of John Fowles' strange 1985 novel, A Maggot ..read more