LEAP+

Asia Pacific Writers & Translators (APWT) has launched an online magazine, LEAP+ 

LEAP+ seeks to provide evaluations of creative writing programs, tips on writing and editing, information about literary translation and finding publishers, and listings of festivals, workshops, retreats and so on. 

Click here to see the first issue. 

Australian author Richard Flanagan wins Booker

Richard Flanagan has won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Narrow Road to the Deep North, published by Chatto & Windus.

The Tasmanian-born author is the third Australian to win the prize which, for the first time in its 46-year history, is now expanded to include entries from writers of all nationalities, writing originally in English and published in the UK. He joins an impressive literary canon of former winners including fellow Australians Thomas Kenneally (Schindler’s Ark, 1982) and Peter Carey (Oscar & Lucinda, 1988 and The True History of the Kelly Gang, 2001).

The Narrow Road to the Deep North centres on the experiences of surgeon Dorrigo Evans in a Japanese POW camp on the infamous Thailand-Burma railway.

Named after a book by the Japanese haiku poet Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North was described by the 2014 judges as: “a harrowing account of the cost of war to all who are caught up in it”. Questioning the meaning of heroism, the book explores what motivates acts of extreme cruelty and shows that perpetrators may be as much victims as those they abuse. Flanagan’s father, who died the day he finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North, was a survivor of the Burma Death Railway.

The novel bridges East and West, past and present, with a story of guilt and heroism that will be of interest throughout Asia, as well as in London, Sydney and New York.

This week in the Asian Review of Books

Asian Books Blog is not a review site.  If you want reviews, see the Asian Review of Books.  Here is a list of its newest reviews:

The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob reviewed by Jill Baker
To the Edge of the World: The Story of the Trans-Siberian Railway by Christian Wolmar reviewed by Peter Gordon
The Golden Lands: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand & Vietnam by Vikram Lall reviewed by Jame DiBiasio

Villages in the City: South China’s Informal Settlements and Factory Towns of South China, edited by Stefan Al; Paris Reborn by Stephane Kirkland reviewed by Mark L. Clifford
Manan by Mohit Parikh reviewed by Mia Warren

Click here for an extract from  Desde Hong Kong: Poets in conversation with Octavio Paz.  

The October 2014 print edition of Asian Review of Books is now available. Click here for details. 

Internationalism at Frankfurt

Frankfurt crowds this year

The Frankfurt Book Fair, which has just closed,  is the international publishing industry’s biggest trade fair.This year it featured 7,300 exhibitors from more than 100 countries, around 280,000 visitors, and over 3,400 events.

Those who were there say this year has been notable for the sense that once-insular publishers are now crossing international boundaries as a matter of course.

“Book publishers are expanding the scope of their opportunities to the maximum. They are experimenting with content and technologies.” Said Juergen Boos, Director of the Fair. He added: "The world belongs to enterprising people. For publishers, this means having the courage to cross boundaries, perhaps even to relocate mentally to other countries or industries.” 

The rapid  internationalisation of the publishing business was particularly evident at the Business Club, where  around 3,000 visitors from more than 50 countries benefited from conferences, consultations and networking services. In more than 70 sessions, approximately 150 speakers examined the issues and trends of the international publishing and media industries. 

Meanwhile, almost 100 tech-based innovators from all around the world made use of the Hot Spot exhibition areas for digital innovation. Boos said: "After an initial moment of panic the publishing industry is now demonstrating an astonishing level of mental agility, in the face of digitisation.”

As for the content providers - the writers - Frankfurt Undercover brought together more than 20 international writers who met over a period of three days to address political issues. Danish author and initiator of the project, Janne Teller, said: “There is obviously a strong interest on the part of writers to share ideas among themselves, and to assume a more active role vis-à-vis society and politics.” Juergen Boos concurred, saying that: “exchanges between politics and literature can be fruitful. Perhaps the power of words and the power of politics should meet more often?”

Especially, it could be argued, in Asia. 

Were you at Frankfurt?  If so, please do share your experiences with the Blog.

Book Launches in Ubud / Alice Clark-Platts

The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival is a great place for writers from around Asia to launch their books.  Alice Clark-Platts reports on launches at this year’s Festival, which finished last week. 

The Singapore Writers’ Group (SWG) launched Rojak, its first anthology of short stories.  Rojak is Malay for an eclectic mix, and the anthology is a reflection of the myriad nationalities of the more than 550 members of the SWG, many of whom are expat, and their experiences of life both in Singapore, and in countries far away. 

Seven of the SWG authors travelled to Ubud to launch Rojak at the beautiful and evocative Café Rouge on the third day of the Festival. Comfy sofas, delicious mojitos and a glorious Bali sunset provided the backdrop for readings from the book and a question and answer session with the authors.

The hugely supportive audience was amazed to discover there is such a thriving literary scene in Singapore.

Australian Tim Brennan’s Lucky Rice was another notable launch. The book, illustrated by glorious photographs of Bali, is a fictitious account of one of the author’s conversation with a Balinese rice farmer. It deals with the quest for enlightenment, and transposes its philosophical ideas into an accessible and joyful conversation between East and West, inviting the reader to discover how nature whispers her wisdom to all who care to listen.

Lucky Rice was the winner of the Best eBook: 2014 eLit Awards (multi-media production).  The eLit Awards are a global awards program honouring the very best of English language digital publishing, they are administered by the same US-based company that runs the popular Independent Publisher of the Year awards

It is fantastic that the organisers of the Ubud Festival encourage launches by unknown local authors, bucking the trend for literary festivals to laud only celebrity and best-selling authors.

Further information  

Lucky Rice www.facebook.com/luckyricebook

Rojak  click here for the link to Amazon.

Murakami doesn't get Nobel

So this year's Nobel Prize for literature went to a Frenchman, Patrick Modiano, with the organisers explaining they picked him: "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the (Nazi) occupation (of France)".

Is this Eurocentrism?  Aggrieved fans of Haruki Murakami might think so.  Here's a round-up of English-language comment on the prize-giving committee's decision, from newspapers in Japan. 

‘Harukists’ stay positive after Murakami overlooked by Nobel again / The Asahi Shimbun

A Wild Nobel Chase: Murakami Haruki and the Elusive Literature Prize / Nippon.com

Why Haruki Murakami should not receive the Nobel Prize for Literature / Japan Today.

The New Yorker has also chipped in to the debate, with The Harukists, Disappointed. 

Asia in Frankfurt

Crowds at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Frankfurt, the biggest books fair and rights market in the world, is now underway. Last year, in 2013, 451 Asian exhibitors attended, this year publishers and agents from all over the region are there in force, and around 10,000 of the Fair’s visitors are expected to be from Asia. 

Many events on offer have an Asian twist.  Here’s a selection:

Chinese Market with CNPIEC: this explains how Western publishers can explore the Chinese market through exhibiting at the Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), and offers updates on the development of digital publishing in China. BIBF is Asia's largest book fair, CNPIEC is the company that runs it.

Digital Publishing in South East Asia: South East Asia has a dynamic, young, literate population, and here digital is perhaps the future of publishing, more so even than in the west.  This event, run by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, explores how publishing in Asia can benefit from the new tools. 

Markus Nummi: Am Anfang ein Garten: The Finnish author Markus Nummi discusses his novel Am Anfang ein Garten. This is about love, loss and friendship, set in a missionary station in the Chinese part of Turkestan with the desert, mountains, and Asian gods in the background, and in the foreground a love story that begins in the year 1903 and continues until the year 1941. The event is sponsored by Finland Cool. Finland is the Fair’s guest of honour country this year.

Entering Asian Markets Successfully. Hosted by the Taipei International Book Fair, this panel will assemble experts from Korea, Thailand and Taiwan. They’ll present the best ways Western publishers can enter the Asian book markets, with a special focus on the Chinese language markets.

Dewi Lestari on new trends in her writing. Dewi Lestari is one of Indonesia’s foremost young authors, known for stylistic and formal innovation. In this session she will give her opinions on the future of writing in Indonesia in the digital age. Sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Indonesia.

Plenty yet to be done Against Child Labour and for Children’s Rights. Publisher and photographer Lois Lammerhuber and multi-award winning photographer Hartmut Schwarzbach in conversation about child labour and children’s rights.  Schwarzbach has devoted his career to sophisticated photo reportage on humanitarian and ecological issues. Since 2000 he has focused his attention on children’s rights in Asia and Africa.

Next year, in 2015, Indonesia will present its rich and diverse culture as the guest of honour in Frankfurt. This should make a big impact on the awareness of Asia as a hotspot in the publishing world.  In preparation for this cultural exchange, Indonesian chef William Wongso will demonstrate the art of cooking beef rendang, and also traditional Indonesian appetizers and desserts. The demonstration is called Mysteries of the Flavours of Indonesia - Part 1. Perhaps Part 2 will be next year?