NEWS
January 2008
Argentine poet Luisa Futoransky (IWP, '71) has
recently published two books:
SEQÜANA
BARROSA (EH Editores, 2007) and
DESAIRES
(DelCentro Editores, 2008; photos by
José Antonio
Berni).
In Praise of Hatred (Amisa), the novel by Khaled
Khalifa of Syria (IWP, '07) was shortlisted for The
International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
November 2007
On November 28, Colombian novelist Hugo
Chaparro Valderrama (IWP, 2002) launched his
newest work, No me olvides cuando mueras
(México, D. F. : Mondadori) at the
Salón Antonio
Alatorre during the Feria del Libro de Gudalajara in
Guadelajara, Mexico.
Chilean novelist Alejandra Costamagna (IWP,
2003) was named a finalist for the Premio Planeta-
Casamerica for her 2007 novel, Dile que no estoy
(Editorial Planeta).
October 2007
Manju Kanchuli (IWP, 2005) has recently
published two books of short stories in Nepali:
Vishwamitra ko Shuhaga Rata ['The Honeymoon
Night of
Vishwamitra'] (Nepal Academy); and
Benam ka Manis haru ['Anonymous Ben']
(Sajha Publications).
September 2007
Click here for a recent interview with the
Nigeria-born novelist H elon Habila
(IWP, 2005).
August 2007
Ameena Hussein (IWP, 2005) has been long-
listed for the first Man Asian Literary Award for
her forthcoming work, Moon in the Water.
Click here to read more.
Irish poet Eavan Boland (IWP, 1979) has been
shortlisted for the 2007 Forward Prize for Best
Collection for her recent volume, Domestic
Violence (Carcanet).
New work by Mimi Khalvati (IWP, 2006) has
been reviewed by The Guardian. Click here to
read Charles Bainbridge's take on her latest
volume of poetry, The Meanest Flower
(Carcanet).
For his volume of poems
En un abrir y cerrar de ojos
(Madrid: Visor, 2006), Oscar Hahn
(IWP, 1971) has been awarded Chile's
2006 "Premio del Consejo Nacional del
Libro."
July 2007
An English translation of Mickle Makes Muckle, the poetry collection by Michael Augustin (IWP, 1984), has just been released by Dedalus Press as part of its Poetry Europe series. The translation was completed by Augustin's wife, the Indian poet and Writers' Workshop graduate Sujata Bhatt.
May 2007
The Cannes festival jury's award for best first film, the Camera d'Or, went to Israeli writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret ( IWP, 2001) and Shira Geffen, for Jellyfish, a film blending three melancholic stories of ordinary people in Tel Aviv.
April 2007
Freedom Nyamubaya (IWP, 2002) speaks about the current situation in Zimbabwe on NPR's "The World." Listen to a sample of a new Kontrabanda CD, with the vocals+guitar of Gintaras Grajauskas (IWP, 2002).
An interesting essay on African writing in French by Veronique Tadjo (IWP, 2006) appears in a recent issue Mail and Guardian.
January 2007
Waiting,a novella by the Ugandan
writer Goretti Kyomuhendo (IWP,
1997) , dedicated to Sandra Barkan,
is forthcoming from CUNY's
Feminist Press.
The widely respected Burmese
poet and pro-democracy activist
U Tin Moe died in his California exile.
December 2006
On December 10th, the Swedish
Academy awarded its 2006
Nobel Prize in Literature to
Orhan Pamuk (IWP, 1985).
November 2006
Poet Jeong Rye Choi (IWP, 2006) returned home to Seoul to receive the prestigious Modern Literature Prize for 2007.
October 2006
A German edition of poetry by Ranjit Hoskote (IWP, 1995), translated by the
German poet Jürgen Brocan, is being released this month at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The volume, Die Ankunft der Vögel, is published by Lyrik Kabinett.
September 2006
Zdenka Becker's (IWP, 2004)
autobiographical novel Die Tõchter
der Róza Bukovská has just appeared
at the Viennese publishing house
Residenzverlag.
June 2006
The bilingual story and photo collection Sangre dulce/Sweet Blood by Giovanna Rivero (IWP, 2004), co-authored with Kathy Leonard has been presented at the Bolivian International Book Fair.
Etienne Van Heerden (IWP, 1990) has been awarded the
WA Hofmeyr Prize for Afrikaans Literature
for his novel
In stede van die liefde.
The Bride of the Acacias, a new play by Ezzat Gousheguir (IWP, 1990), is currently being performed at Chopin Theatre in Chicago. The production will run until June 11.
A poetry collection by Ranjit Hoskote (IWP, 1995), Vanishing Acts: New and Selected Poems 1985-2005, was recently published by Penguin Books India.
A poetry collection in English, Do Not Awaken Them With Hammers, by Lidija Dimkovska (IWP, 2005), has been published by Ugly Duckling Presse as part of their Eastern European Poets Series.
April 2006
Chameleon Press in Hong Kong has just issued an international edition of Mani Rao's (IWP, 2005) selected poetry, called 100 Poems.
Former IWP RA Cristina Henríquez has published Come Together, Fall Apart, a collection of stories with a novella.
An excerpt from Zdenka Becker's (IWP, 2004) "The Scent of Wheat" is featured in the March issue of Words Without Borders. And The Nimrod Flipout: Stories by Etgar Keret (IWP, 2001) has its US paperback release April 4.
Weekend of translation events at the University of Iowa, March 31 - April 2.
February 2006
Filmmaker and writer Martin Rejtman (IWP, 2000) has published a new book, Literatura y otros.
Uriel Quesada ( IWP, 2005) is the 2005 recipient of the Premio Nacional A.J. Echeverria, Costa Rica's top book award, for his new novel El gato de su mismo
January 2006
Canongate Books (UK) has been commissioning well-known authors for a new series "The Myths." Forthcoming are The Helmet of Horror by Viktor Pelevin (IWP, 1996) and a just-completed manuscript by Su Tong (IWP, 2001) about the building of the Great Wall.
December 2005
Four volumes of new Celan translations by Piere Joris (IWP, 1987), published by Green Integer and the UC Press, are thoughtfully reviewed at http://bostonreview.net/BR30.6/perloff.html
A posthumous volume sampling the work of the young Argentinian novelist, poet and literary/cultural critic C.E. Feiling (IWP, 1992; d. 1998), is reviewed at
<http://www.lanacion.com.ar/763512>
The collection " Dueños de la arena" won Giovana Rivero (IWP, 2004) the 2005 Franz Tamayo Prize for best Bolivian short fiction.
November 2005
In December Zdenka Becker (IWP, 2004) will be receiving Slovakia's P.O. Hviezdoslav translation award for her translations into German. In the meantime her play "Odysseus Never Returned" (Eugene Sampson, translator) will be performed in New York.
October 2005
John Banville (IWP, 1980) has won the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sea. Fellow countryman Sebastian Barry (IWP 1984) appeared on the shortlist.
September 2005
The Southern Review relief fund for Louisiana students
Joy Goswami (IWP, 2001) is interviewed on the Poetry International Web site.
Piotr Sommer (IWP, 2002) gets a thoughtful review in a recent issue of The Guardian
Orhan Pamuk is facing
charges for
his remarks about Turkey's role in the Armenian genocide.
Gustav
Murin (IWP, 1994) has his new
book Svet je maly/Le
monde est petit elevated
to new altitudes.
August
2005
Asia Week has named Three Lives, the new memoir by IWP co-founder Hualing Engle, one of the 10-best Chinese books in 2004.
June 2005
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk (IWP,
1985) will receive the German book industry's prestigious Peace
Prize, to be awarded at ceremonies marking
the close of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The €25,000 award, from the A ssociation
of German Publishers and Booksellers is being
given to Pamuk at a time when he has come under increasing pressure
in Turkey for "publicly addressing the highly sensitive subject
of the massacre of Armenians in World War I." A statement from
the prize jury says the author of such novels as My Name
is Red and Snow "is committed to
a concept of culture based on knowledge and respect for others.
Pamuk has created a genre in which Europe and Islamic Turkey
co-exist."
May 2005
Hungarian writer Kornel Hamvai's (IWP, 1997) play Headsman's
Holiday will make its American premiere at the Theater
Alliance in Washington, DC on March 26th. The play will
run through June 26th. For more information visit http://www.theateralliance.com/season.htm
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2007 ICPL PRESENTATIONS
9/14/07 "Most Important Book on my Bookshelf"
Alex Epstein
Istvan Geher
Lawrence Pun
9/21/07 "An Age of Migration, Diaspora, Exile"
Aziz Nazmi Shakir-Tash
Ksenia Golubovich
Verena Tay
Tom Dreyer
9/28/07 "Most Important Book . . . (II)"
Ayurzana Gun-Aajav
Khet Mar
Ra Hee Duk
Al-Mustaqeem Radhi 10/5/07 "Age of Migration, Diaspora, Exile (II)"
Kavery Nambisan
Sasa Stanisic
Hana Andronikova
Peter Kimani
10/12/07 "Writing from Where I Stand"
Nirwan Dewanto
Simone Inguanez
Khaled Khalifa
Kei Miller
James Na
10/26/07 "Writing as Philosophy and Craft "
Elena Bossi
Chris Chryssopoulos
Beaudelaine Pierre
Penelope Todd
Alexander Ulanov
11/2/07 "Images of America "
Hamdy El Ghazzar
Sarge Lacuesta
Alexander Ulanov
Malim Ghozali
Kim Reon
2006 ICPL PRESENTATIONS
9/1/06 The Russian Scene 2006
Ksenia Golubovich
Lev Usyskin
Michail Butov
Polina Kopylova
9/8/06 Islam and We
Ken Bugul
Jagath Kumarasinghe
Manju Sarkar
9/15/06 In Pursuit of Justice
Ken Bugul
Jamby Djusubalieva
Mazen Sa'adeh
Fadhil Thamir
9/22/06 Lost and Found in Translation
Genti Cocoli
Doris Kareva
E. Moe Hein
9/29/06 Fantasy and Reality
James Norcliffe
Ashur Etwebi
Bi Feiyu
10/06/06 Writing for Two and Three Dimensions
Rafael Courtoisie
Lou Ye
Mazen Sa'adeh
10/13/06 Why I Write and What I Write and
How I Write It
Choi Jung Lae
Nukila Amal
Srijato Bandyopadhyay
Thomas Pletzinger
10/20/06 Writing With (and Against) National Identity
Mimi Khalvati
Laksmi Pamuntjak
Gentian Cocoli
10/27/06 Writing and Its Mis/Fortunes: How I Write Where I Write
Mathilde Clark
Partaw Naderi
Veronique Tadjo
2005 ICPL PRESENTATIONS
9/7/05 Worlds of Letters
Sherko Fatah
Kristien Hemmerechts
Mani Rao
9/14/05-9/15/05 Islam and We
Nadia Abduljabbar
Said El Haji
Sherko Fatah
Josef Haslinger
Ameena Hussein
Zahiye Kundus
Yvonne A. Owour
Nihad Sirees
Yoo Jae-Hyun
9/21/05 Writing for Two and Three Dimensions
Jung Young-Moon
Liu Heng
Nihad Sirees
Yim Phil-Sung
9/28/05 Lost - and Found - in Translation
Nadia Abduljabbar
Zoltán Pék
Marjan Strojan
Wendy Ella Wright
10/5/05 Books, Men and Women
Manju Kanchuli
Anna Rogozhnikova
Edi Shukriu
10/12/05 Imagination/Fantasy/Reality
Chi Zijian
Van Cam Hai
Josef Haslinger
Laila Neihoum
Kyoko Yoshida
10/19/05 The Best Thing I Ever Read Was...
Estabraq Ahmad
Kiwao Nomura
KV Tirumalesh
10/26/05 Why I Write What I
Write and How I Write It
Lidija Dimkovska
Ameena Hussein
Uriel Quesada
Sandra Sodhy
Ayu Utami
11/2/05 Literature of Evil
Said El Haji
John Mateer
Yvonne A. Owour
Antonio Ungar
ALUMNI ANNOUNCEMENTS
Rasiah Halil (IWP, 1995) has conveyed the sad news that the Malay writer Masuri Bin Salikun (IWP, 1986) has passed away this year.
Vivienne Plumb (IWP, 2004) is working on a new series of poems about a historic missionary house in New Zealand. In addition, she is collaborating with Adam Wiedemann (IWP, 2004) on a joint poetry collection in English and Polish, and with Rajeevan Thachompoyil (IWP, 2004) on an anthology of New Zealand poetry for South Indian readers.
Sukrita Paul Kumar (IWP, 2002) is Contributing Editor for the current issue of the literary journal Muse India. The issue is dedicated to modern Hindi literature.
Iowa City welcomes back Mani Rao (IWP, 2005) who returns in February 2006 as the International Programs' Writer-in-Residence.
Tang Ying (IWP, 2004) has been made director of the first non-state-owned theatre in Shanghai and has already brought to the stage the physical work, "Tongue's Memory of Home," by Zhang Xian (IWP, 2004). Tang Ying will publish two novella collections in 2006 and is also at work on a new novel.
Ahmed Alaidy (IWP, 2004)
is having a great year. The English version of
Being Abbas Elabd may be released as early as next
fall from The American University in Cairo press. A movie he has co-writen will be filmed early next year. A comic strip he helped author has recently been resurrected and found a new audience. In November and December he will participate in the International Writers' Workshop in Hong Kong. And his publishing house early this year published Pahlaniuk's Fight Club. Ahmed writes, "Maybe we'll arrange for Chuck to attend next year's book
fair." Here's hoping.
Sadly, word has reached us of the death of India's Nirmal Virma (IWP, 1977). Dilip Chitre (IWP, 1975) has this appreciation.
We regret to announce the death of Aurel-Dragos Munteanu (IWP, 1970-71), whose battle with cancer ended May 30,
2005. Mr. Munteanu was a fiction writer, the Romanian
representative at the UN after the Ceaucescu regime was overthrown, and later the Romanian Ambassador to the US. In his memory we are posting a 1971 interview he gave to the Cedar Rapids Gazette and an article from the New York Times about his first days as Romanian Ambassador. A website dedicated to his work can be accessed here.
Yu Hua's (IWP, 2003) new novel Brothers is receiving good reviews in China. He had suffered ten years of writer's block on the project and could not complete the manuscript until his return home after the 2003 residency.
Congratulations! to Narlan Teixeira (IWP, 2002) on receiving
a full scholarship to pursue his Master's Degree at The University
of New Mexico.
Update: And the good news keeps coming for Narlan: He has now won the
Media-Poetry Award.
Julio Monteiro Martins (IWP, 1979) has written
to say he will be guiding creative writing workshops in Peralta,
Italy, in collaboration with Da Vinci Capers Studios. Julio
is the founder of the creative writing school Scuola Sagarana
in Lucca: http://www.davincicapers.com/studio.html#writing
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