Sunday 1 May 2016

The Sunday Post

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

 Eka Kurniawan
Click here for an interview with Eka Kurniawan, in the Jakarta Post.  His novel Man Tiger made the longlist for this year’s prestigious Man Booker International Prize - he was the first Indonesian writer ever to have been even in contention for the prize. Alas, he didn’t make the shortlist. The winner will be announced on May 16.  Asian authors still in contention are Han Kang (South Korea), for The Vegetarian, (published in the UK by Portobello Books translated by Deborah Smith) and Yan Lianke (China) for The Four Books, (published in the UK by Chatto & Windus, translated by Carlos Rojas)

Lahore in New York
The Lahore Literary Festival will travel to the Asia Society New York on May 7 - 8. This is the first time that a Pakistani literary festival will take place outside the country. For details click here.

This week in Asian Review of Books
See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here are links to its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, listings, translations, news items, and round ups:

Lion City lit notes / by Lucía Damacela
Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Our regular column Lion City Lit explores in-depth what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. Lion City lit notes provide quick updates between columns. Here Lucía Damacela gives advance notice of a Book illustrators Gallery exhibit.

As part of the upcoming Asian Festival of Children’s Content, the Book Illustrators Gallery (BIG) will feature published and unpublished works from local and international illustrators and artists. This exhibition, curated by David Liew and Susanna Goho-Quek, is free and open to the general public. Judy Ho, BIG coordinator, pointed out that they have received 300 illustrations submitted by creators from Singapore and the region, and also from countries such as Afghanistan, Brazil, Iran, Japan, Syria, South Korea, Spain, and The Netherlands. The curators selected a total of 140 works for the exhibition, including those of Evelyn Ghozalli, Patrick Yee, and Betty Sargeant.  

Dates: May 14 to June 3, 2016, from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm (closed on May 21).
Venue: Central Public Library, B1 Exhibition Area (100 Victoria Street 188064).
Additional information and a sample of the showcased illustrations can be found here.   

Twitter spot 
Each week I make a suggestion of an interesting Twitter account you may like to follow.  This week I’m actually making two recommendations:
@ASEANLitFest the official Account of the 3rd ASEAN Literary Festival. Jakarta, 5-8 May, 2016
@AsiaSocietyNY if you want to follow tweets about the Lahore Literary Festival in New York.


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