They've announced the long list for this year's Scotiabank Giller
Prize, one of the leading Canadian fiction prizes ("The first word in fiction",
so their tagline ...) which has impressively upped the ante by doubling its
prize money, with C$100,000 going to winner (and C$10,000 to each finalist).
The longlist was selected from 161 entries -- which are, alas, not
revealed (bad form, guys)..
The shortlist will be announced 6
October.
Oddly, while I have no problems with pseudonymous authors -- indeed I'd be
(almost) perfectly fine with books being published entirely anonymously or
namelessly ('almost' only because the lack of corresponding names would
complicate categorization -- shelving, indices, etc.) -- but I'm slightly less
comfortable with anonymous/pseudonymous translation. Part of that is probably in
reaction to the fact that often translators still tend to get ignored anyway --
i.e. aren't named, even if they'd like to get and take credit for their work --,
which seems patently unfair, but part of it is also that, if you're going to
mess with an author's work (and that's what translators do, after all, for
better and worse) you should own up to it.
Sure 'Brooke''s
excuse/explanation seems reasonable enough; still ..... (But, no, you aren't
going to get any guesses out of me; if s/he chose to be 'D.E. Brooke' in public,
that's their choice, and I won't pull back any curtains.)
The most recent addition to the
complete review is my review of Ch'oe In-ho's
Another Man's City, one in the latest batch of titles Dalkey
Archive Press is releasing in its Library of Korean Literature-series.
