By Edward Nawotka ISTANBUL: Selçuk Altun understands what it takes to market a novel. As the former executive chairman of YKY (Yapi Kredi Publications), one of Turkey’s largest and most prestigious publishers, he knew that if he wanted to bring his books to an audience outside Turkey, he’d have to do it on his own. So in 2007 he paid …
Who Controls African Literature?
Editorial by Tolu Ogunlesi LAGOS: The literary world is once again shining a spotlight on Africa. There are new prizes: the South Africa-based PEN Studzinski Literary Award for short stories, and the Penguin Prize for African Writing, a pan-African prize covering both fiction and non-fiction genres. There’s a new book series, the “Penguin African Writers Series,” which will include not …
Will Holden Caulfield be Hijacked?
By David L. Fox The pending U.S. publication of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, a self-described “sequel to one of our most beloved classics” that portrays the adventures of an aged Holden Caulfield of The Catcher in the Rye, has brought a court challenge by the famously litigious J.D. Salinger. Each side is accusing the other of hijacking …
Revamped Granta to Focus on International Literature
by Craig Morgan Teicher LONDON/NEW YORK: On May 29th, The New York Times reported that Alex Clark, the first female editor of the London-based international literary quarterly, was resigning after less than a year, leaving the magazine’s recently appointed American editor, John Freeman, in the post of acting editor. According to Freeman, Granta, which has a circulation of about 50,000 …