Lydia Davis, a contributor to Issue 1 of Interlitq, shortlisted for Man Booker prize 2013

Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis, the U.S. author who contributed fiction to Issue 1 of Interlitq, has been cited in “URA shortlisted for Man Booker prize” (Deccan Herald, 20.05.13):  ”Noted litterateur U R Ananthamurthy has been shortlisted as one of the ten finalists for the fifth Man Booker International Prize 2013 that is given away in recognition of the winner’s achievement in fiction and comes with a cash reward of £60,000.

The winner will be announced at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on Wednesday. Besides Ananthamurthy, other finalists are Aharon Appelfeld (Israel), Lydia Davis (USA), Intizar Husain (Pakistan), Yan Lianke (China), Marie NDiaye (France), Josip Novakovich (Canada), Marilynne Robinson (USA), Vladimir Sorokin (Russia), and Peter Stamm (Switzerland).”

U.R. Ananthamurthy

Aharon Appelfeld

Intizar Husain

Yan Lianke

Marie NDiaye

Josip Novakovich

Marilynne Robinson

Vladimir Sorokin

Peter Stamm

Event at London Zoo, chaired by Ruth Padel, a contributor to issue 9 of Interlitq, moves D.J. Taylor to reflect on Charles Dickens’s “Ode to an Expiring Frog”

Ruth Padel

Ruth Padel, the UK poet who was a contributor to Issue 9 of Interlitq, has been cited in “Love against money? It’s no contest” (D.J. Taylor, The Independent, 19.05.13): At an event held last Tuesday night at London Zoo, the poet Jo Shapcott could be heard talking about the loris – a small furry animal native to Sri Lanka – about which she has written a poem. The series of six discussions, chaired by Ruth Padel, also includes Mark Haddon on Galapagos tortoises and Andrew O’Hagan on the Malaysian tapir, each accompanied by a conservation scientist and the animal itself.

This led me to wonder what might be the most recherché specimen to which a poet has ever addressed a poem. Obviously there is Burns on mice (‘Wee sleekit, cowrin,’ tim’rous beastie’). The Georgian rhymers had a thing about parrots, although one of their number, Sir John Squire, wrote some affecting verses to a cabbage white butterfly he once saw fluttering along the Strand.

The Beat Poets have their moments, although Ed Sanders’ “Sheep Fuck Poem” is probably not much anthologised. But the last word was probably spoken by Dickens, in the shape of Mrs Leo Hunter’s “Ode to an Expiring Frog” in Pickwick (“Can I unmoved see thee dying/on a log/Expiring frog?”). You can keep your lorises.

D.J. Taylor

Finding discussion of religion by A.C. Grayling, a Consulting Editor for Interlitq, “disgraceful”, Melvyn Bragg also agrees to be Guest Speaker at Cheltenham Literary Festival

A.C. Grayling

While finding the discussion of religion by A.C. Grayling, a Consulting Editor for Interlitq, “disgraceful”, Melvyn Bragg is also scheduled to be a Guest Speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival this October.

Melvyn Bragg

Cheltenham, England

 

Kathy Lette, wife of Geoffrey Robertson QC, a Consulting Editor for Interlitq, attends Autism’s Got Talent show

Kathy Lette

Kathy Lette, the wife of Geoffrey Robertson QC, a leading human rights lawyer who is a Consulting Editor for Interlitq, has been cited in “Autism’s Got Talent” (This is Local London, 16.05.13): “Author Kathy Lette was one of the famous faces at the Autism’s Got Talent show at the Mermaid Theatre, London, earlier this month.”

Robert Elsie, a Consulting Editor for Interlitq, states: “The fate of the Cham Albanians is one of modern European history’s darkest secrets”

Robert Elsie

A video is now online of The Centre for Albanian Studies & The Directors of I.B.Tauris celebrating the publication of The Cham Albanians of Greece; A Documentary History, the edited by Robert Elsie, the Albanian specialist who is a Consulting Editor for Interlitq, and Bejtullah Destani at The Travellers Club in London 26th April 2013.

Bejtullah Destani