Tag: literature

  • Paul Auster’s wife deplores reporting on US writer’s death

    Paul Auster’s wife deplores reporting on US writer’s death

    New York (AFP) – The wife of US writer Paul Auster, who died due to lung cancer complications, said Thursday that her family was “robbed” of “dignity” after a friend quickly confirmed his death to media outlets.

    The New York Times, citing a friend of the couple, published a story of Auster’s passing hours after his death on Tuesday, with other outlets following suit with similar reports.

    “I was naive, but I had imagined that I would be the person to announce the death of my husband,” Siri Hustvedt, an esteemed novelist, wrote on Instagram.

    “He died with us, his family, around him on April 30, 2024 at 6:58 PM,” Hustvedt said.

    “Sometime later, I discovered that even before his body had been taken from our house, the news of his death was circulating on media and obituaries had been posted,” she added.

    Hustvedt revealed in March 2023 that Auster, whose works included “The New York Trilogy,” had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

    The New York Times — the first news outlet to announce Auster’s death — cited family friend and American journalist Jacki Lyden as its source, though Hustvedt did not refer to her or the newspaper directly.

    Hustvedt wrote on Instagram: “Not one of us was able to call or email the people dear to us before the shouting online began. We were robbed of that dignity.

    “I do not know the full story about how this happened, but I know this: It is wrong.”

    Hustvedt added: “Paul never left Cancerland. It turned out to be, in Kierkegaard’s words, the sickness unto death,” referencing the 19th-century Danish philosopher.

    He made his name with noirish, existentialist novels about lonely writers, outsiders and down-and-outers that were a huge hit in Europe particularly.

    The author gained cult status in the 1980s and 1990s with his “New York Trilogy” of metaphysical mysteries and his hip film “Smoke,” about the lost souls who frequent a Brooklyn tobacco shop.

  • Palestinian prisoner in Israel wins top fiction prize

    Palestinian prisoner in Israel wins top fiction prize

    Palestinian writer Basim Khandaqji, jailed 20 years ago in Israel, won a prestigious prize for Arabic fiction on Sunday for his novel “A Mask, the Colour of the Sky”.

    The award of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.

    The prize was accepted on Khandaqji’s behalf by Rana Idriss, owner of Dar al-Adab, the book’s Lebanon-based publisher.

    Khandaqji was born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus in 1983, and wrote short stories until his arrest in 2004 at the age of 21.

    He was convicted and jailed on charges relating to a bombing in Tel Aviv, and completed his university education from inside jail via the internet.

    The mask in the novel’s title refers to the blue identity card that Nur, an archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah, finds in the pocket of an old coat belonging to an Israeli.

    Khandaqji’s book was chosen from 133 works submitted to the competition.

    Nabil Suleiman, who chaired the jury, said the novel “dissects a complex, bitter reality of family fragmentation, displacement, genocide, and racism”.

    Since being jailed Khandaqji has written poetry collections including “Rituals of the First Time” and “The Breath of a Nocturnal Poem”.

    He has also written three earlier novels.

    bur-srk/srm

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Celebrating Inspirational Women: The Impactful Legacy of Urdu Poets

    Celebrating Inspirational Women: The Impactful Legacy of Urdu Poets

    Today, on International Women’s Day, we pay homage to the remarkable women who have left an indelible mark on Urdu poetry, inspired by Rekhta’s post shared on Instagram. Among these extraordinary poets are Ada Jafarey, Zehra Nigah, Fahmida Riaz, Parveen Shakir, Meena Kumari, and Aziz Bano Darab Wafa. Their powerful words and unwavering spirits have inspired countless individuals, and their contributions to literature are truly remarkable. Let’s explore the amazing contributions of these talented women.

    As we honor these talented women, let’s also take a moment to appreciate and recognize the countless women in our lives who inspire us every day. Women’s Day serves as a reminder of the progress made towards gender equality and the ongoing efforts needed to achieve true inclusivity and empowerment for all women. It’s a day to celebrate the resilience, strength, and achievements of women from all walks of life. So, let’s come together to appreciate and uplift women, today and every day.
    Ada Jafarey’s poetic expressions of love and longing have touched the hearts of many. Her poem “Main Saaz Dhoodati Rahi” resonates deeply with audiences, capturing the essence of human emotions.

    Zehra Nigah’s verses provide a poignant portrayal of women’s lives, their struggles, and their triumphs. Hailing from a family with a deep literary heritage, her work reflects a rich cultural tapestry and offers profound insights into the female experience.
    Fahmida Riaz used her poetry to advocate for important societal issues, particularly women’s rights. Her books “Godavari” and “Patthar Ki Zabaan” have empowered countless women to speak up and demand equality.
    Parveen Shakir, celebrated not only for her poetic prowess but also for her roles as a teacher and civil servant, has left an enduring legacy with her bold and evocative poems. Works like “Khushbu” and “Sadrang” delve into the complexities of love and life, resonating with audiences from all walks of life.

    Meena Kumari, writing under the pen name Naaz, crafted deeply emotional poems inspired by her personal struggles. Dubbed “The Tragedy Queen” for her touching verses, she has left an indelible mark on Urdu poetry with her raw and heartfelt expressions.
    Aziz Bano Darab Wafa, ahead of her time, addressed pressing societal issues through her poetry, earning admiration from figures like Indira Gandhi. Her work serves as a powerful testament to the enduring impact of literature on social change.
    On Women’s Day, let’s celebrate these amazing poets whose words inspire us. They remind us how important literature is in shaping our view of the world. Happy International Women’s Day!

  • Japan Literary Laureate Unashamed About Using ChatGPT

    Japan Literary Laureate Unashamed About Using ChatGPT

    The winner of Japan’s most prestigious literary award has acknowledged that about “five percent” of her futuristic novel was penned by ChatGPT, saying generative AI had helped unlock her potential.

    Since the 2022 launch of ChatGPT, an easy-to-use AI chatbot that can deliver an essay upon request within seconds, there have been growing worries about the impact on a range of sectors – books included.

    Lauded by a judge for being “almost flawless” and “universally enjoyable”, Rie Kudan’s latest novel, “Tokyo-to Dojo-to” (“Sympathy Tower Tokyo”), bagged the biannual Akutagawa Prize on Wednesday.

    Set in a futuristic Tokyo, the book revolves around a high-rise prison tower and its architect’s intolerance of criminals, with AI a recurring theme.

    The 33-year-old author openly admitted that AI heavily influenced her writing process as well.

    “I made active use of generative AI like ChatGPT in writing this book,” she told a ceremony following the winner’s announcement.

    “I would say about five percent of the book quoted verbatim the sentences generated by AI.”

    Outside of her creative activity, Kudan said she frequently toys with AI, confiding her innermost thoughts that “I can never talk to anyone else about”.

    ChatGPT’s responses sometimes inspired dialogue in the novel, she added.

    Going forward, she said she wants to keep “good relationships” with AI and “unleash my creativity” in co-existence with it.

    When contacted by AFP, the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature, the Akutagawa award’s organiser, declined to comment.

    On social media, opinions were divided on Kudan’s unorthodox approach to writing, with sceptics calling it morally questionable and potentially undeserving of the prize.

    “So she wrote the book by deftly using AI … Is that talented or not? I don’t know,” one wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    But others celebrated her resourcefulness and the effort she put into experimenting with various prompts.

    “So this is how the Akutagawa laureate uses ChatGPT — not to slack off but to ‘unleash creativity’”, another social media user wrote.

    Titles that list ChatGPT as a co-author have been offered for sale through Amazon’s e-book self-publishing unit, although critics say the works are of poor quality.

    British author Salman Rushdie told a press conference at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October that recently someone asked an AI writing tool to produce 300 words in his style.

    “And what came out was pure garbage,” said the “Midnight’s Children” writer, to laughter from the audience.

    The technology also throws up a host of potential legal problems.

    Last year, John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and “Game of Thrones” author George RR Martin were among several writers who filed a class-action lawsuit against ChatGPT creator OpenAI over alleged copyright violation.

    Along with the Authors Guild, they accused the California-based company of using their books “without permission” to train ChatGPT’s large language models, algorithms capable of producing human-sounding text responses based on simple queries, according to the lawsuit.

  • Star-studded lineup for Dubai’s Urdu Literature Festival

    Jashn-e-Rekhta, the famous Urdu literary festival, is coming to Dubai on 27 and 28 January, 2024. It’s a two-day celebration of the Urdu language with poetry, talk shows, ghazals, and storytelling. The festival starts at Zabeel Park with a panel discussion called ‘Urdu Tehzeeb aur Rishton ki Lazzat’.

    (The Delight of Urdu Culture and Relationships), featuring Javed Akhtar and Arfa Sayeda Zehra.The event will also feature a stage play, a Sufi concert by Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan, and a performance about the life of Noor Jehan. Don’t miss the enchanting session of Sufi music called ‘Shab-e Rafta’ from 9 pm to 11 pm.

    There’s a talk show with Sameena Peerzada and Usmaan Peerzada, followed by an interactive session with Mahira Khan, Shabana Azmi, and Shekhar Kapur.
    And let’s not forget about ‘Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaau’n,’ a project combining poetry, songs, narration, and music with Javed Akhtar, Meiyang Chang, and Jahnvi Shrimankar. The grand international mushaira ‘Gehan aur Dhoop’ will showcase amazing poets like Anwar Shaoor, Farhat Ehsad, Zehra Nigah, Shakeel Azmi, and Abbas Tabish.
    It’s going to be a cultural fusion like no other. And with delicious food at Aiwan-e-Zaiqa Food Bazaar and an Urdu Bazaar with art, handicrafts, and books, it’s going to be a fantastic experience.

  • Palestinian poet Dr. Refaat Alareer killed in Israeli strike in Gaza

    Palestinian poet Dr. Refaat Alareer killed in Israeli strike in Gaza

    Palestinian poet, writer, literature professor, and activist Dr. Refaat Alareer was killed in an Israeli airstrike, announced on Thursday evening.

    “My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family a few minutes ago,” wrote his friend, the Gazan poet, Mosab Abu Toha.

    The Israeli airstrike also killed his brother, his sister, and four of her children. He is now survived by his wife, Nusayba, and their children.

    Dr. Alareer was one of the leading contemporary authors in Gaza who settled on writing in English to tell stories of the besieged strip. He was one of the most prominent voices conveying details of the atrocities Israel is committing to global audiences.

    He had been working as a professor of literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza since 2007.

    His other contributions included co-editing Gaza Unsilenced (2015) and being editor of Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine (2014).

    Dan Sheehan quotes in LitHub that in his contribution to the 2022 collection Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, titled “Gaza Asks: When Shall this Pass?”, Refaat writes:

    “It shall pass, I keep hoping. It shall pass, I keep saying. Sometimes I mean it. Sometimes I don’t. And as Gaza keeps gasping for life, we struggle for it to pass, we have no choice but to fight back and to tell her stories. For Palestine.”

    He was also one of the founders of We Are Not Numbers, a nonprofit organisation founded in Gaza following the 2014 Israeli attack and devoted himself to establishing “a new generation of Palestinian writers and thinkers who can bring together a profound change to the Palestinian cause.”

    In November, Alareer published a poem on X entitled “If I must die” that was shared tens of thousands of times. It concludes with the words: “If I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale.”

    Via his X (formerly Twitter) account, “Refaat in Gaza“, Dr. Alareer also openly condemned Israeli atrocities being committed in Gaza and was also vocal against the US who has been supporting Israel in its operations.

    Remembering Refaat

    The announcement of Dr. Refaat Alareer’s death evoked a cascade of sorrow and anguish across social media, shared by his friends, colleagues, former students, and followers:

  • Irish author Paul Lynch wins 2023 Booker Prize

    Irish author Paul Lynch wins 2023 Booker Prize

    Irish author Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize for fiction on Sunday for his novel Prophet Song, a dystopian work about an Ireland that descends into tyranny.

    The 46-year-old pipped five other shortlisted novelists to the prestigious award at a ceremony in London.

    He becomes the fifth Irish writer to win the high-profile literary prize, which has propelled to fame countless household names, including past winners Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel.

    “This was not an easy book to write,” Lynch said after collecting his award, which comes with £50,000 (around US$63,000) and a huge boost to his profile.

    “The rational part of me believed I was dooming my career by writing this novel. Though I had to write the book anyway. We do not have a choice in such matters,” he added.

    Lynch’s book is set in Dublin in a near future version of Ireland. It follows the struggles of a mother of four as she tries to save her family from totalitarianism.

    There are no paragraph breaks in the novel, which is Lynch’s fifth.

    Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan, who chaired the five-person judging panel, called the story “a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave”.

    “With great vividness, Prophet Song captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment,” she said.

    “Readers will find it soul-shattering and true, and will not soon forget its warnings.”

    The Booker is open to works of fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK or Ireland between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023.

    None of this year’s six finalists – which included two Americans, a Canadian, a Kenyan and another Irish author – had been shortlisted before and only one had previously been longlisted.

    The shortlisted novels, announced in September, were chosen from a 13-strong longlist that had been whittled down from an initial 158 works.

    Among them was Irish author Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, a tragicomic saga which looks at the role of fate in the travails of one family.

    Murray was previously longlisted in 2010.

    Kenyan writer Chetna Maroo’s moving debut novel Western Lane about grief and sisterhood follows the story of a teenage girl for whom squash is life.

    The judges also selected If I Survive You by US writer Jonathan Escoffery, which follows a Jamaican family and their chaotic new life in Miami.

    He was joined by fellow American author, Paul Harding, whose This Other Eden – inspired by historical events – tells the story of Apple Island, an enclave off the US coast where society’s misfits flock and build a new home.

    Canada was represented on the shortlist in the shape of Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein. The unsettling novel explores the themes of prejudice and guilt through a suspicious narrator.

    The Booker was first awarded in 1969. Last year’s winner was Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

    The previous Irish winners are Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright.

  • The Lahore Literary Festival: What’s it all about?

    The Lahore Literary Festival: What’s it all about?

    The Current’s special contributor, senior journalist Razeshta Sethna, spoke to Razi Ahmed, the founder of the Lahore Literary Festival about the ethos behind the fest and the challenges overcome in making it successful for the past eight years.

    Q) What’s the overall ethos/or underlying theme for LLF this year?

    LLF is a civil society initiative which stands for intellectual stimulation and honouring Lahore’s rich literary and cultural traditions. It is an entirely private event, with no government support, run for the city of Lahore as a free and open-to-public event.

    READ MORE: The LLF schedule is out and here is what we are most excited about

    The popular Hall One where all the big sessions take place

    Q)In the past eight years, LLF has come a long way despite the challenges, so what’s been the hardest one you’ve had to contend with and why?

    LLF has faced hardships which are common to many platforms in places like India and Bangladesh too. It is collective teamwork, indeed, coupled with a strong mission to serve and contribute to the society that have enabled the team at LLF to surmount the challenges.

    RELATED: LLF organisers respond to criticism ‘for blocking certain Twitter handles’

    We have over eight years of LLF honoured the great Pakistani writers and poets, including, among others, Intizar Hussain, Bapsi Sidhwa, Abdullah Hussein, Zehra Nigah, Amjad Islam Amjad and Asghar Nadeem Syed.

    Q) What sessions will you be going to this year? Your top three picks?

    All.

    *LLF will commence on Friday Feb 21st at the Alhamra Arts Center on Mall Road,

    The three-day event, culminating on February 23, 2020, will continue its tradition of hosting eminent writers, historians, artists and opinion makers from Pakistan and abroad with over a hundred speakers and 63 sessions.

    This year’s festival will include Pakistani author Fatima Bhutto, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Orhan Pamuk, Oyinkan Braithwaite, who was long-listed for the Man Booker 2019; author Musharraf Ali Farooqi, who will launch his latest book, The Merman and the Book of Power; novelist and poet Nitasha Kaul, who has written on the plight of Kashmir in Modi’s India; and Adrian Hayes, who will launch One Man’s Climb, a book about his journey to reach the summit of K2.

    DOWNLOAD THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE:Download
  • And the word of the year is…

    And the word of the year is…

    Climate change, gun violence, the very nature of democracy and an angsty little movie star called Forky helped propel existential to Dictionary.com’s word of the year.

    The choice reflects months of high-stakes threats and crises, real and pondered, across the news, the world and throughout 2019.

    “In our data, it speaks to this sense of grappling with our survival, both literally and figuratively, that defined so much of the discourse,” said John Kelly, senior research editor for the site, ahead of the announcement.

    The word earned “top of mind awareness” in sustained searches at Dictionary.com in the aftermath of wildfires and Hurricane Dorian, and mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas. It also reared itself in presidential politics and pop culture.

    Oxford Dictionaries picked climate emergency as its word of the year, noting usage evidence that reflects the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, the company said in a statement.

    Dictionary.com crunches lookup and other data to decide which word to anoint each year. The site has been picking a word of the year since 2010.

    The word ‘existential’ dates to 1685, deriving from Late Latin’s existentialis. Dictionary.com defines existential as of or relating to existence and of, relating to, or characteristic of philosophical existentialism; concerned with the nature of human existence as determined by the individuals freely made choices.

    Meanwhile, last year, Merriam-Webster had chosen “justice” as its 2018 word of the year while Oxford Dictionaries chose “toxic.” “Misinformation” was Dictonary.com’s word of the year in 2018.