World Literature Today back issues from January 2007:
Los duendes del flamenco.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2007; ... CONGRATULATIONS to World Literature Today for the splendid interview with Maria Benitez (WLT, July-August 2006, 58-61). "Flamenco is a very communicative art," she notes. "Beyond the technicalities, it has to communicate some sort of emotion, but it must have soul above all." Her remarks ...
Reviews redux.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2007; ... WHEN World Literature Today began to limit the number of reviews published per issue, many of my European friends and I were distressed because they were the only way of keeping anglophone readers, mostly Americans, in touch with books being published abroad--as the journal's original ...
Editor's note.
Jan 01, 2007; ... IN ADDITION to the numerous features we regularly offer in each issue of World Literature Today, the current number presents a special section on contemporary Irish literature and culture. The prose, poetry, and drama produced by that country's writers has been of remarkable quality for ...
Review of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Review of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, by Haruki Murakami (Knopf, 2006) First aired on NPR August 17, 2006 SINCE THE LATE 1980s, the literary reputation of the Japanese novelist and short-story writer Haruki Murakami has grown enormously in the United ...
Review of Red Weather.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Review of Red Weather, by Pauls Toutonghi (Shaye Areheart Books, 2006) First aired on NPR June 19, 2006 IN PAULS TOUTONGHI'S first novel, Red Weather, we travel to working-class Milwaukee in the autumn of 1989 and witness the education of a ...
Review of Half of a Yellow Sun.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Review of Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf, 2006) First aired on NPR October 4, 2006 IN TERMS of literary production, Nigeria seems to be the United States--or at least the England--of Africa ....
Sister Fidelma and a wealth of broken noses: a survey of Irish crime writing.(INTERNATIONAL Crime & Mystery)
Jan 01, 2007; ... THE IRISH REVERENCE for the power of words has long been celebrated. Shakespeare, Jonson, and Sir Philip Sidney all referred to the legend that Irish rats could be rhymed to death. The late Hugh Kenner often pointed out that bards would duel each other to the death in old Celtic legends ...
Celtic Tiger Ireland: free and easy?(irish writing today)(portrayal of Ireland in Anne Haverty's novel The Free and Easy)
Jan 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE IRELAND of Anne Haverty's novel The Free and Easy (Chatto & Windus, 2006) is not the Ireland of green fields and country quaintness, or the Ireland of poverty and famine--images often called to mind when people think of Ireland. The Free and Easy ...
Hannah, Grandmother.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Hannah, Grandmother Coldest day yet of Novemberher voice close in my ear-- tell them priests nothing. Was I twelve? Thirteen? Filthy minded. Keep your sins to yourself. Don't be giving them a thrill. Dirty oul feckers. As ...
Cora, Auntie.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Cora, Auntie Staring Death downwith a bottle of morphine in one hand,a bottle of Jameson in the other: laughing at Death--love unconditional keeping her just this sideof the threshold as her body witheredand her eyes grew darker and ...
Peter, Uncle.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Peter, Uncle I Think memory a river. Back then,as far back as I can go,near the headwaters: a wind tossed a seed head inand it is carried by the currentto this muddy backwater low lying estuarial landof Baldoyle, part ...
In Memory, Joanne Breen.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> In Memory, Joanne Breen I am fingering a Length of yarnfrom the mill at Stornoway.It is green as a summer meadowthough when I untwine it widdershinsI see, spun into the yarn, fibres of blue& yellow & purple, occasionally orange. I am undoing the ...
Prison & community theater: a playwright's experience.(irish writing today)(Essay)
Jan 01, 2007; ... A CHALLENGING AND FULFILLING PART of my work as a playwright has been my involvement in two significant initiatives relevant to the development of Irish theater. Exploring the processes in these two distinct areas highlights theater's role in prisoners' rehabilitation and focuses on the ...
Kane's Lane.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Kane's Lane The substance of the being of Jesussifts through the substance of mine; Iam God, and son of God, and man. Times I feel my very bones become so light I maylift unnoticed above Woods's Wood and soarin an ecstasy of being over Acres' Lake; ...
A Flood and Many Waters.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> A Flood and Many Waters It has rained now for days, perhaps the Godhas half-decided this rabid world deserveshalf-radical flooding. We have sat behind windowswatching trees darken, seeing the canterbury bells lose their petals to the battering. The waters ...
Waiting.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Waiting We are written down under the skin of the worldthe way cloudbones manuscript the skies; we are written, too, into the drillsof underwater kitchen-gardens, gazing up towards the many-jointed shoals jittering above us.Among nightmare predatory ...
Sailors-by-the-Wind.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Sailors-by-the-Wind Keem Bay, Achill Island For hours, hopeful, we rooted in the quarryfor amethyst, its flush economies, its crystals; we found but dirt-sand, rough-stone, and the hardenedseams of peat. Till someone called, and pointed: the beach below us ...
Whirlpool.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Whirlpool "Down there," he said, and I looked downalong the sheer cliff drop to the ocean."Down there at the bottom is a whirlpooland takes everything to another place." I picked up a rock and dropped it in,porous and dark. It soared downlike ...
When You Died.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> When You Died When you died I burrowed your nameinto an oak's crippling bark with my fingernails,curled it between the ribbed grooves,reading with my eyes love and lover,a touch I carry withering in my breast.I came to fathom the dark, to remember...
The Rowboat.(irish writing today)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> The Rowboat I Every year he'd sunkthe old, clinker-built rowboatso it might again float.Every year he'd got drunk as if he might once and for all write offevery year he'd sunk,kerplunk, kerplunk,one after another into a trough ...
Living in Riverdance? Contemporary art in Ireland.(irish writing today)
Jan 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HOW CAN WE DESCRIBE an idea of contemporary Irish art? Is it possible to define a practice that is essentially Irish? For that matter, would it be possible to define an essentially American art? Or British? Questions of classification bring with them the ...
An interview with filmmaker: Ismael Ferroukhi.(arts & culture)(Interview)
Jan 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Michael Toler You wrote the script for Le Grand Voyage in 1998 but were not able to begin shooting until 2003. Why? Ismael Ferroukhi Why? I don't know. Because nobody wanted to give us money to make this movie. I think what made people nervous ...
Art museums in the age of expansion.(arts & culture)
Jan 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ONCE UPON A TIME, the public was considered a bit of a nuisance in many museums, if truth be told. Visitors were necessary but not to be indulged or made to feel overly welcome--unless, that is, they were of the right sort. In the 1930s Sir Eric Maclagan, ...
The Wind from the East.(fiction)(Fictional work)
Jan 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Wind from the East, the latest novel by internationally celebrated Spanish author Almudena Grandes to be translated into English, is an epic tale of love and redemption. A blend of two narratives, the plot is set alternately in Madrid and an Andalusian ...
The bearded man.(fiction)(Fictional work)
Jan 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] NEITHER HIDE NOR HAIR will concern me after this day. The reactions I'll cross and'll cross me can kiss my ass. My father will no doubt disapprove, frown, pronounce "NOPNOSSG!", utter "INGODBM!", and exclaim, "God forbid!" I don't care. Let him. It's my ...
Highway 1.(poetry)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Highway 1 A snowy egret on the salt marshdips and shakes its golden footwith black onyx claws, luringa meal, stirring the universeto life, then plucks a fish drawnby the beauty, mystery shimmeringin glass, prize in the canopy light. Down ...
Girls in the Trees.(poetry)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Girls in the Trees The onus is upon us to believe in nothing,and that religion, like all religions, happens with great force until understoodto be one further thing between us and the world. But on this day two young girls ridingbareback through a ...
In G Major.(poetry)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> In G Major The forests which I pass Allegro molto moderatobeeches, birches, hazelstheir eternal rustle and silencethe hail of falling acorns Andante un poco motothe forest existsand when we are no more ...
The Overflow.(poetry)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> The Overflow That frail vesselcommunicated with the universebrims and overflows within himbillows from overabundance.That mirrorwhich once ranthrough wide courtyardslies smashed by the roadits every splinterreflects ruffled maple ...
Beautiful Is My Mother.(poetry)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Beautiful Is My Mother Beautiful is my motherevery spring more stunningwith every hair gone whiterwith deeper wrinkles runningwith every step gone harderwith nights still darker comingbeautiful is my motherevery spring more stunning ...
Difference.(poetry)(Poem)
Jan 01, 2007; ... <Pre> Difference Bent over the edge of dawnI listen to my breathand I can seethe only differencebetween meand all of them who are gone. </Pre> Translations from the Polish By Jakub Pogoda ANNA FRAJLICH, an accomplished Polish emigre poet, ...
This hyphen called my spinal cord: Arab-American literature at the beginning of the 21st century.(Essay)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Beyond the Text and the Usual Suspects ALTHOUGH THE PEOPLE in Arab-American literature may be settled, and even well rooted, in the United States, they constantly make reference to personal, cultural, historical, and political realities in their families' countries of origin ....
Eoin Colfer.(author profile)(Brief biography)(Brief article)
Jan 01, 2007 ... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Eoin (pronounced "Owen") Colfer was born May 14, 1965, in Wexford, Ireland. His first attempt at writing was in the sixth grade for a class play about Norse gods. Before publishing Artemis Fowl, Colfer wrote six books that were published by a small press ...
Guido Conti. Il tramonto sulla pianura.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Guido Conti. Il tramonto sulla Pianura. Parma, Italy. Guanda. 2005. 404 pages. 16.50 [euro] ISBN 88-8246-573 OUT OF THE BARE-BONE ESSENTIALS of a framework reminiscent of the layout of Don Quixote, Guido Conti evolves a twofold dynamism--episodic and contemplative all in ...
Hwang Sok-yong. The Guest.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Hwang Sok-yong. The Guest. Kyung-Ja Chun & Maya West, trs. New York. Seven Stories. 2005. 240 pages. $27.95. ISBN 1-58322-693-1 IT WAS SOCRATES who told the Athenians to direct one eye outside and the other in. That's exactly what the award-winning Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong ...
Witi Ihimaera. The Rope of Man.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Witi Ihimaera. The Rope of Man. Auckland, New Zealand. Reed. 2005. 325 pages. NZ$34.99. ISBN 0-7900-0894-7 THE ROPE OF MAN, a bildungsroman with epic dimensions, charts "the changing nature of the human odyssey. All our successes and failures as people are woven into it, all our ...
La joven guardia: Nueva narrativa argentina.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... La joven guardia: Nueva narrativa argentina. Maximiliano Tomas, comp. Abelardo Castillo, pref. Buenos Aires. Norma. 2005. 261 pages. ISBN 987-545-232-7 IN THE PREFACE to this twenty-story anthology, Abelardo Castillo--a well-known Argentine master of the genre--says the short ...
Wladimir Kaminer. Kuche totalitar: Das Kochbuch des Sozialismus von Wladimir und Olga Kaminer.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Wladimir Kaminer. Kuche totalitar: Das Kochbuch des Sozialismus von Wladimir und Olga Kaminer. Munich. Manhattan. 2006. 222 pages. 18 [euro]. ISBN 3-442-54610-9 --. Karaoke. Munich. Manhattan. 2005. 191 pages. 17.90 [euro]. ISBN 3-442-54575-7 WLADIMIR KAMINER has ...
Imre Kertesz. Liquidation.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Imre Kertesz. Liquidation. Tim Wilkinson, tr. London. Harvill Seeker. 2006. 130 pages. 12.99 [euro]. ISBN 1-84343-235-8 WINNING the Nobel Prize in Literature usually places a heavy burden on writers who receive this distinction. In his or her next book, the prizewinner is ...
Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye. A Farm Called Kishinev.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye. A Farm Called Kishinev. Nairobi, Kenya. East African Educational Publishers (African Books Collective, distr.). 2005. 138 pages. 11.95 [pounds sterling] / $14.95. ISBN 9966-25-418-8 THE MAJOR FICTIONAL preoccupation of the preeminent British-born Kenyan ...
Henning Mortensen. Naeb og kloer.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Henning Mortensen. Naeb og kloer. Copenhagen. Gyldendal. 2005, 196 pages. 199 kr. ISBN 87-02-03094-2 NAEB OG KLOER (Beak and claws) is a rather intriguing mystery set in the small town of Odder and in the rural area around Horsens Fjord in Jutland. The story involves the ...
Hylke Speerstra. De Oerpolder.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Hylke Speerstra. De Oerpolder. Ljouwert, Netherlands. Bornmeer, 2006. 512 pages. 29.50 [euro]. ISBN 90-5615-126-6 DE OERPOLDER (The ancient polder) is a book about survival: the testing of the human spirit in the age-old battle of the Frisians to survive the sea, and not merely ...
Jane Urquhart. A Map of Glass.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Jane Urquhart. A Map of Glass. San Francisco, California. MacAdam/Cage. 2006. 371 pages. $25. ISBN 1-59692-170-6 VIVID LANDSCAPE DESCRIPTION is as elemental to Jane Urquhart's narratives as are the artists whose absorbing yet dysfunctional lives she creates. A Canada of small ...
Robert Bly. My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Robert Bly. My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy. New York. HarperCollins. 2006 ([c] 2005). xi + 97 pages. $22.95 ($14.95 paper). ISBN 0-06-075718-3 (075719-1 paper) THE UNEXPECTED MOVEMENT of metaphorical connection can be one of the delights of poetry. How manifest the ...
Seamus Heaney. District and Circle: Poems.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Seamus Heaney. District and Circle: Poems. New York. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2006. ix + 78 pages. $20. ISBN 0-3741-4092-8 ANY NEW BOOK OF POEMS by Seamus Heaney is an event. He makes us aware, as only a genuine poet can do, of the rich vocabulary of the English language, with ...
Njordur P. Njardvik. Aftur til steinsins.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Njordur P. Njardvik. Aftur til steinsins. Reykjavik. JPV Utgafa. 2005. 63 pages. ISBN 9979-781-75-0 NJORDUR P. NJARDVIK has added another small collection of poems, Aftur til steinsins (For the stone), to his oeuvre. The poems range widely in themes and settings, often touching ...
Tomasz Rozycki. Kolonie.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Tomasz Rozycki. Kolonie. Krakow. Znak. 2006. 86 pages. 25 zl. ISBN 83-240-0697-04 THE PLETHORA OF VOICES and books published in Poland today, often by no more than vanity presses, is of course not unique to Poland or any other Eastern European nation, which treads water as it ...
Juri Talvet. Unest, lumest.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Juri Talvet. Unest, lumest. Tartu, Estonia. Ilmamaa. 2005. 73 pages, ISBN 9985-77-162-1 SINCE THE REESTABLISHMENT of Estonia's independence, Juri Talvet has chaired the comparative literature program at Tartu University, with Spanish and Latin American literature as his special ...
Vera Feyder. Un Manteau de trous.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Vera Feyder. Un Manteau de trous. Brussels. Grand Miroir. 2005. 146 pages, 15 [euro]. ISBN 2-87415-535-7 FOR THE FIRST TIME in her extensive career in fiction, poetry, and drama, Vera Feyder has resorted to the aching medium of memoir. Un Manteau de trous, with its metaphoric ...
Fredric Jameson. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Fredric Jameson. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. New York / London. Verso (Norton, distr.). 2005. xvi + 431 pages. $35/20 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 1-84467-033-3 IN THE FINAL SENTENCE of A Singular Modernity in 2002, Fredric ...
Nelofer Pazira. A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Nelofer Pazira. A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan. Toronto. Random House Canada / Vintage. 2005/2006. 408/432 pages. Can$34.95 (Can$21 paper). ISBN 0-679-31271-4 (978-0-679-31272-7) WHEN HER FAMILY fled Afghanistan for Canada in 1989, sixteen-year-old Nelofer ...
Vijay Tendulkar. The Cyclist; His Fifth Woman: Two Plays.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Vijay Tendulkar. The Cyclist; His Fifth Woman: Two Plays. Balwant Bhaneja, tr. New Delhi. Oxford University Press. 2006. xiv + 79 pages. Rs280. ISBN 0-19-567640-8 IN The Cyclist and His Fifth Woman, Vijay Tendulkar masterfully balances, blends, and blurs the playful and serious, ...
Stephan Wackwitz. An Invisible Country.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2007; ... Stephan Wackwitz. An Invisible Country. Wendy Lesser, foreword. Stephen Lehmann, tr. Philadelphia. Paul Dry. 2005. xiii + 254 pages. $24.95. ISBN 1-58988-022-6 As INDICATED by the phrase "family romance" (the Freudian reference is used throughout An Invisible Country but ...
The Cuirt International Festival of Literature: Galway, Ireland.(outpost: Literary Landmarks & Events)
Jan 01, 2007 ... "One of the world's leaders in this field. Galway, indeed, boasted the kind of list that would put most English and Welsh festivals to shame. The Cuirt Festival was convivial, international and timeless. It had the kind of atmosphere that Shakespeare himself might have reveled in." ...