Page 16 - Sam Bett News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Europa Editions Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, I've been suffering from a reading funk. My concentration is bad; my commitment, worse. I blame the world, not the books, but I do feel especially grateful to the writers whose novels broke through my mental clouds. First on that list is the Japanese novelist Mieko Kawakami, whose English-language debut, Breasts and Eggs, was one of my favorite books of 2020. I wasn't alone; Breasts and Eggs, in Sam Bett and David Boyd's seamless rendering, was a breakaway hit. No wonder Kawakami's U.S. publisher, the reliably excellent Europa E...

The loss of a fishing boat and crew in a nor'easter, and its ripple effects, from Amanda Fairbanks. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares her reflections on grief. A new legal thriller by Stacey Abrams is here. And plenty more.

The first of two collections of Izumi Suzuki’s (1949-1986) work forthcoming from Verso Books, Terminal Boredom: Stories contains seven pieces appearing for the first time in English translation—in some cases more than forty years after their original release. However, from gender politics in a queer matriarchy to media oversaturation and disaffection, the themes of her fiction still thrum with a resistant, brightly grim tension. Passing decades certainly haven’t dulled the the razor’s cut of her punk sensibilities. Instead of one translator handling the entire collection, the stories...

The Rise of Virtual Foreign Author Tours By Ed Nawotka | May 07, 2021 One of the unintended consequences of the pandemic and the shift to virtual author events is that booksellers and publishers have had the opportunity to put together events for overseas authors who would not usually tour the U.S. “The possibilities are endless,” said Pierce Alquist, director of the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Mass. “The pairings and creative panels we have done are once-in-a-lifetime events.” She cited a virtual event in February during...

The Pittsburgh International Literary Festival, known as “LitFest,” hopes to get people talking through reading. Hosted by the City of Asylum @ Alphabet City based on Pittsburgh’s North Side, the virtual event will feature authors from all over the world discussing topics that encompass Black, Indigenous and all people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community and the politics of publishing. Abby Lembersky, director of programs for City of Asylum @ Alphabet City, said planning’s been underway since January. This isn’t the only online happening but it is the first 10-day festival the organiza...