Tove Jansson turns 101 this Sunday. She was 61 exactly when I was born, so I will be celebrating at a secret location on the day, hence the advance nature of this post. What is there to celebrate this year? For…
One of my earliest language-learning memories is of hot summer afternoons in the early years of high school, when even our unquenchably enthusiastic Welsh teacher would give up and just tell us stories. Of a land far far away, where children…
English PEN has just announced more support for independent publishers to publish works in translation, which is great news since the independents are the ones producing the really interesting stuff. Their world bookshelf of contemporary writers in supported by the PEN…
Tiny Owl is a new children’s book publisher with a noble aim: to “introduce the cream of the crop of global children’s literature, contemporary and old, to the English speaking audience.” Their 2015 catalogue focuses on Persian treasures, and it’s moving,…
The Women’s World Cup of Literature kicks off today, with a Francophone first fixture. I wasn’t the only one to be both delighted by a world cup I really wanted to follow last year, but complain about the lack of female…
“To write a novel (or indeed a short story) you need two ideas – equally strong, equally developed – and only later it turns out that they were one idea after all, two pillars of one foundation.” “Żeby napisać powieść…
It’s European Literature Night tonight, and this whole week the British Academy in London is celebrating fairy tales. This lunchtime Jack Zipes, who translates fairy tales in German, Italian and English, will be talking at the British Academy about his The…
Millions of non-Europeans are only starting to get the recognition they deserve for their contribution to the end of “the world’s war in Europe”. You might know that 1.5 million Indians fought alongside 5m Brits at the end of empire,…