#book blasts

The work of the charity, The Childrens Book Project, is heartwarming, inspiring and innovative: it is dedicated to helping children build a personal book collection of their own at home. This is a ground breaking approach to promoting literacy across the UK. I often walk past the door of The Children’s Book Project in Golborne Road beneath the iconic Trellik Tower near BookBlast’s office, and…

News | Celebrating Banipal Magazine of Modern Arab Literature, 7pm 18 January 2023, Irish Cultural Centre, London

A celebration of 25 years of Banipal Magazine translating and publishing contemporary Arab literature in English is being held at 7pm on Wednesday 18 January 2023 at the Irish Cultural Centre 5 Black’s Road, Hammersmith, London W6 9DT. All are welcome however registration by way of an RSVP to the editors of Banipal Magazine via this webpage is essential in order to be included on the Guest List…

Goddess Fish Promotions Book Blast: Summon A Bad Boy Jimmy by Megan Slayer

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Megan will be awarding a prize pack featuring a bracelet and necklace made by the author to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour. I call on the fates to bring my love to me. As I will it, so mote it be… What if those simple words plus a…

Review | Sarajevo Firewood, Saïd Khatibi (trs. Paul Starkey) | Banipal Books

Saïd Khatibi’s polyphonic novel, Sarajevo Firewood, pays homage to the victims of civil war in Algeria and Bosnia in the 1990s, and gives the survivors a voice. Scarred by erratic memories and traumatic recall – indicative of the psychological wounds of war – writing is a way to come to terms with what happened. “We might find a mass grave with a café or restaurant in front of it, which changed…

Review | Wicked Enchantment selected poems by Wanda Coleman (Ed.) Terrance Hayes

The selected poems of Wanda Coleman, edited by the American poet Terrance Hayes, and published in the UK under the title Wicked Enchantment, has brought her back into the spotlight. Considered to be the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles, she died in 2013 age sixty-seven. “Wanda Coleman, like Gwendolyn Brooks before her, has much to tell us about what it is like to be a poor black woman in…

Review | Crocodile Tears, Mercedes Rosende | Bitter Lemon Press

Mercedes Rosende is Uruguay’s leading woman crime writer. In 2005 she won the Premio Municipal de Narrativa for Demasiados blues, in 2008 the National Literature Prize for La muerte tendrá tus ojos and in 2019 the LiBeraturpreis in Germany for Crocodile Tears. The only other literature I have had the good fortune to read in translation from the second-smallest nation in South America, includes…

Guest Review | Lucy Popescu | Tazmamart: 18 Years in Morocco’s Secret Prison, Aziz BineBine | Haus

Tazmamart was an underground military prison in southeast Morocco where those considered enemies of the king were detained from 1972 to 1991. It was built after two failed coup d’états against Hassan II of Morocco. On 10 July 1971, around a thousand soldiers were driven to Skhirat palace, where the king was celebrating his birthday and when a shot was fired, panic ensued. Hassan survived the…

News | The BookBlast® Podcast 2020 series | Bridging the Divide

The BookBlast® Podcast 2020 | Bridging the Divide: Translation & the Art of Empathy 30 July to 05 November

Thursday 30 July, 5 pm: A ground-breaking weekly podcast series kicks off, championing independent publishers committed to publishing writing in translation; their authors and translators; including a guest interview with the publisher behind Nordic Noir.

The podcast line-up features…