Q & A with Cheryl Robson

Amongst many other achievements, writer, editor, arts entrepreneur, and charity activist Cheryl Robson founded Aurora Metro Books, which has offices in London, Sydney, and Singapore, where she is now based. Aurora Metro is strong in non-fiction titles relating to the arts, in biography, and in fiction for young adults.  It also has an exciting adult fiction list, including debut novels from many new voices; it is particularly keen to champion previously unpublished women writers. The company is committed to bringing non-English-language writers to an English readership in good, accessible translations. Authors from over 20 countries are represented in its lists, and many of its translated titles are available in English for the first time.

I asked Cheryl about her life and about Aurora Metro, and its big ambitions.

Quick Comment from PP Wong

As reported here, The Life of a Banana by PP Wong has been longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize).  It is one of four titles with Asian interest to have caught the judges' eyes, the others are I Am China, by Xiaolu Guo, A God in Every Stone, by Kamila Shamsie, and The Bees, by Laline Paull, who was born in the UK of first generation Indian Immigrants

PP had this to say about the Prize's support for Asia's women writers: "I'm absolutely thrilled that four Asian authors have been longlisted. In the last year, I have seen some positive steps in the Western publishing industry towards supporting fresh, fearless narratives by female Asian writers. For example, Celeste Ng was chosen as Amazon's book of the year. While Yiyun Li and Madeleine Thien were nominated for the UK Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. There is still more work to be done in encouraging more diverse voices, but I am hopeful that changes are already starting to happen."

The Prize will be awarded in London, on June 3.  Good luck, PP!

This Week In 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, and columns:

Voices from the Frontline: Narratives of Nonnative English Speaking Teachers by Icy Lee and Paul Sze reviewed by Peter Gordon
Confucius and the World He Created by Michael Schuman reviewed byJohn Butler
Islamic Schooling in East Java: a visit to a pesantren in Gontor by Pallavi Aiyar
A Bad Character by Deepti Kapoor reviewed by Jane Wallace

Lion City Lit: Three From Ethos

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore.  Lion City Lit explores literary life in our own backyard. This week, we highlight three new titles from local publisher, Ethos.

Moth Stories, a collection of short stories by Leonora Liow

A young girl’s ambitions prompt dark stirrings in her nature. A father reckons with a lifetime of dysfunctional family relations. A foreign worker is cut adrift on a raft of shattered dreams. In the title story, Moth, a condemned woman reclaims her broken dignity. In a collection filled with pity, humour and irony, Leonora Liow explores the private universes of individuals navigating the arcane waters of human existence and illuminates the extraordinary humanity that endures.

Leonora Liow is a Singapore-based writer. Moth Stories is her debut collection.

Moth Stories is published in paperback, priced at SGD 20, excluding tax.

This Week in 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 Porcelain Thief: Searching the Middle Kingdom for Buried China by Huan Hsu reviewed by Juan José Morales
Sinophobia: Anxiety, Violence, and the Making of Mongolian Identity by Franck Bille reviewed by Joshua Bird
Poetry review: The Lost Novel by James Shea reviewed by Jennifer Wong
Wombs in Labor: Transnational Commercial Surrogacy in India by Amrita Pande reviewed by SY Koh

English PEN Supports World Literature

Take a look at World Bookshelf and the PEN Atlas, two really interesting sites from English PEN.

World Bookshelf is an online collection of the very best contemporary literature in translation. Some of the most important writers of our time have written for PEN Atlas, a weekly blog dedicated to international voices.


Visit World Bookshelf at
 

worldbookshelf.englishpen.org

Visit the PEN Atlas at
 

www.englishpen.org/pen-atlas

Clarification from Rena Pederson

Rena Pederson, author of The Burma Spring, has been in touch to point out that in her book's Quick Notice I mentioned  that she used the term Burma throughout, although the country's name has been changed to Myanmar. However, I failed to mention she addressed this issue in the following editor's note: 

In 1989, Burma’s military rulers changed the official English name of the country from “the Union of Burma” to “the Union of Myanmar.”And in 2010, they changed it once more to “The Republic of the Union of Myanmar.”Some countries—including the United States and the United Kingdom—continued to use the country name Burma because the military government that changed the name to Myanmar was not elected democratically. Since there is now a quasi-civilian government in place, the growing trend has been to use the Myanmar nomenclature around the world. Because it was still the U.S. State Department policy to continue using the country name Burma at the time of this book’s writing, that is the term used predominantly here. Myanmar is also used where appropriate.

Rena has provided an e-mail interview for Asian Books Blog, which will be posted on Tuesday, 31 March.