Sunday 4 October 2015

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…


Seen Elsewhere
Click here for the Rules for the 25th International Play Writing Competition from the BBC World Service, which runs from now until Jan 31, 2016, and which is open to all writers as long as they live outside the UK. 

Click here for the page of the OUP Pakistan website which carries details of prizes to be awarded at the Karachi Literature Festival, 2016. The Festival will be held next February. The deadline for submissions for the various prizes is October 30. 

Quick Notice: Stories and Poems by Rudyard Kipling Edited by Daniel Karlin
  
Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,         
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;             
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, 
When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!    
The Ballad of East and West / Kipling

About the book: Rudyard Kipling, a supreme master of the short story, and a poet of brilliant gifts, is perhaps best known in Asia for his youthful volumes. These chronicled British India, and British army life  in India, at the end of the 19th century. They hence explored contemporary attitudes to, and experiences of, colonialism. But later in life Kipling's energy and inventiveness poured themselves into every kind of tale, from the bleakest of fables to the richest of comedies. During his career he illuminated every aspect of human behaviour, of which he was a fascinated, and sometimes appalled, observer. This anthology of stories and poems covers the full range of his output from those early tales of British India, to the bittersweet fruits of age and bereavement in the aftermath of the First World War. Two appendices explore in detail Kipling's attitude to India and the British army.

About the editor: Daniel Karlin has published widely in the field of Victorian literature. He has also edited a translation of The Rubáiyát by Omar Khayyám for Oxford World's Classics.

Details: Published this week, on 8th October / 978-0-19-872343-1 / Paperback / Priced in local currencies / Oxford University Press.

Blog Spot
Each week I invite the administrator of a relevant and interesting-sounding blog to write a paragraph, explaining why readers of Asian Books Blog should take a look at his or her site. This week New York-based ML Awanohara writes about The Displaced Nation, the blog she founded for expats, of which, of course, Asia has legion – not just Western expats, but Indians living in Hong Kong, Japanese living in Singapore, Indonesians living in the Philippines, and so on and so forth.

“Entering The Displaced Nation is like falling down into the expat's version of Alice in Wonderland. Here, expats are free to express the sense of discombobulation they feel when moving to other countries. By the same token, they are encouraged to channel their feelings of being out of place into reading and writing books. Founded in 2012, this collective blog quickly achieved a following among expats, third culture kids, and other internationals who appreciate its quirky source of humour and emphasis on creativity. A set of regular columnists help me feed the blog twice a week. One of the most popular features is a list, published twice a year, of recommended books for, by, and about expats. Also popular are interviews with expat authors. Right now, reflecting the blog's special relationship with Alice in Wonderland, I am running a Wonderlanded series about expat authors whose lives, and works, in some way echo Alice's adventures. The best way to sample The Displaced Nation's special blend of internationalism, creativity and wackiness is to subscribe to its weekly newsletter, The Displaced Dispatch. It's free, informative, and also a bit of a wheeze.”

Do you run a blog you think may be of interest to readers of Asian Books Blog, and which you’d like to see featured here?  If so, get in touch, preferably via e-mail - asianbooksblog@gmail.com. Thanks.

Twitter Spot 
Each week I make a suggestion of an interesting Twitter account you may like to follow.  This week, the Royal Asiatic Society, @RAS_Soc. The London-based Royal Asiatic Society provides a forum for those who are interested in the history, languages, cultures and religions of Asia to meet and exchange ideas. Their Twitter account often features images of artworks of interest in Asia.  Click here to explore too their website. 


*A rojak is a Singaporean salad. Like Asian Books Blog on Facebook, or follow it on Twitter: @asianbooksblog.