Laureates
The National Review examines a new biography of Czesław Miłosz (Miłosz: A Biography, by Andrzej Franaszek), and explores his opposition to Stalinism and disgust with a nationalistic (and often anti-Semitic) European Right.
“If we didn’t write poetry after the Holocaust it would be as if Hitler had won, or that the Nazis were right.” Neustadt laureate Adam Zagajewski discussed the art and trauma of the Holocaust and the idea of blurred homelands during a conversation on European culture held at the BBVA Foundation.
Central American writer Claribel Alegría, laureate of the 2006 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, has won the twenty-sixth “Reina Sofía de Poesía Iberoamericana” literary prize for lifetime achievement, El País announced on Wednesday.
NSK prizewinner Katherine Paterson has authored her first middle-grade novel in more than five years. The work of historical fiction is titled My Brigadista Year.
This month marks the 50-year anniversary of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the Guardian is inviting people to read the book and offer their own ideas for decoding it.
Jurors
In this NPR interview, recent Neustadt Prize juror Laleh Khadivi discusses her new novel, A Good Country, which features a 14-year-old chemistry whiz who is a son of Iranian immigrants.
“We poets are the absolute antitheses of Trump.” A new poetry collection edited by recent Neustadt Prize juror Amit Majmudar conveys the shock and dismay of many esteemed poets.
Literary Hub announced the 2017 O. Henry Prize Stories this week. Amit Majmudar is among the winners who will appear in an anthology this September.
Via Words Without Borders, this short, food-centric fiction by Ananda Devi is a “journey into the shadows of flavor.”
Love aphorisms? Check out this Unbound campaign for Yahia Lababidi’s newest collection, Where Epics Fail. Lababidi is also guest-editing a special section on “Belief in an Age of Intolerance” for the forthcoming November issue of WLT.
Finalists
Lynda Barry, along with Ann Telnaes, was a marquee winner at the National Cartoonists Society’s 71st annual Reuben Awards.
Recent NSK Neustadt Prize finalist Margarita Engle was named Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation this week. The title is given every two years, along with $25,000.
Recent NSK prize finalist Jacqueline Woodson will be honored along with Jeanette Winterson at the LAMBDA Literary Awards.
