A Case Study of Literary Karma
Two years ago Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Yesterday, he celebrated his 76th birthday by donating 30,000 of his books to the library in Lima, his Peruvian hometown.
Instead of “man of letters,” can we start using the phrase “hero of letters?”
(Always nice to start the day with good news.)
Congratulations to our five finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize:
- Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything by David Bellos (Current Interest)
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Current Interest)
- Molotov’s Magic Lantern: Travels in Russian History by Rachel Polonsky (History)
- Double Shadow by Carl Phillips (Poetry)
- Ghost Light by Joseph O’Connor (Fiction)
David Bellos and Daniel Kahneman are also finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award. And it’s a banner year for Phillips: not only is he a NBCC award finalist as well, but Double Shadow was named a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award.
To celebrate Yusef Komunyakaa’s nomination for the National Book Critics Circle Award, I thought I would share this recording from our poetry blog. I was fortunate enough to meet Komunyakaa a few years ago when recording this piece, and he was a consummate gentleman. It’s something of a bonus that he was born with an astounding reading voice.
And the finalists are…
We are thrilled to announce the following FSG books have been named finalists for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award.
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (Fiction)
Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan (Nonfiction)
Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything by David Bellos (Criticism)
The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa (Poetry)
