The word ‘Kafkaesque’ has firmly entered our language, although it is hard to give it any direct definition. When we say ‘Kafkaesque’ we mean that something looks like it comes directly from one of classic works by Franz Kafka – and it is about as far as we can go…. Read More →
Although William Shakespeare probably sets the record in what concerns the amount of mystery surrounding a writer’s life, Jonathan Swift may very likely be a close second. The work of his biographers should certainly be a painful one, for the simple reason that they have to work with very inadequate… Read More →
Juan Gelman was a poet from Argentine, who denounced the despotism of his country’s military junta in his poems (which claimed to mark an appearance of new literary movement called “new Spanish American poetry” that changed not only the world, but the word), died on Tuesday at his home in… Read More →
Ned Vizzini, a popular teenage novels writer, sure knew what he was writing about, for the main topics of his books are depression and teenage anxiety (though put out in a humorous manner). On December the 19-th he committed a suicide in Brooklyn by jumping off the roof. For one… Read More →
When talking of some artists, it is often hard to define to which art group they belong. Was Freddy Mercury more of a singer or of a songwriter? Would you consider Adriano Celentano an actor or a musician? Were they poems or dramas Shakespeare gave preference to? Most artistic people… Read More →
This week, on December 5th, Joan Didion, literary journalist and novelist, turned 79. One of the greatest American essayists (and memoirists), she walked a long path of life, leaving her reflections, thoughts and experiences within her works. Almost eight decades spent on the Earth…there must have been plenty of raw… Read More →
On Tuesday, December 3, Maryland writer and professor of mathematics Manil Suri won the Bad Sex Award for his novel “The City of Devi”. Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? Bad Sex Award is an annual prize, given by Britain’s Literary Review to various writers in order to ”draw attention to the… Read More →
Oscar Hijuelos, the Cuban-American writer best known as the first Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize, has died of heart attack at the age of 62. The sad news was announced by his literary agent, Jennifer Lyons; according to her, the accident happened when Mr. Hijuelos was playing tennis in… Read More →
Salman Rushdie is one of the most prominent and well-known writers of our time; nobody would doubt that. This makes the early period of his life and the influences that formed him as an author all the more fascinating. Among other things, Salman Rushdie is the author of Midnight’s Children,… Read More →
This year’s Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to a Canadian short story writer Alice Munro. Her name appears in the news not for the first time – she already received the Man Booker International Prize for her literary work, and her style is often compared to that of another… Read More →
