(Link Gems is a weekly round-up of interesting articles and essays from around the web)
For this week:
- Words without Borders has launched a new “series to explore the ways that book reviews handle translations“. The first article in the series is by David Hahn, translator of José Eduardo Agualusa’s Book of Chameleons and Rainy Season and José Luís Peixoto’s Piano Cemetery. On Reviewing Translations: David Hahn
- I’m an Orange Prize Convert -a piece on prizes for women writers in The Guardian. I fully support prizes exclusively for books by women :).
- Belletrista’s 10th Issue is out. The online magazine celebrates women writers from around the world.
- An interesting perspective on the Japan earthquake and one that I’m glad to have read.
- In the LA Times, Did Egan win or Franzen Lost – looks at the newspaper’s report on Jennifer Egan’s NBCC win.
- Dickens in Lagos via Lapham’s Quarterly – an essay on how Dickens resonates in, and is relevant, to the city of Lagos.
- Last year, Jonathan Goodluck, the president of Nigeria, launched a reading campaign. It was encouraging to hear an African president use the words “reading” and “books” in the same, positive sentence! In Can You “Bring Back the Book” to a Country That Can’t Afford to Read?, Tolu Ogunlesi analyzes the prospects of the campaign.
- A Millions’ essay, Reading and Race: On Slavery in Fiction, list some of my favorite books.
- St Patrick’s Day was celebrated last week. The Wall Street Journal looks at the legacy of the great Irish writer, Flann O’Brien,
Kinna Reads 
Kinna – that really was an excellent article on Japan. Thanks so much for posting. It really does help put things in perspective.
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I glad that I came across; it was mentioned on Twitter. No one can prepare for a disaster like a 9.0 magnitude quake. But certainly, Japan has done much to limit its losses in this particular case.
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Brilliant list – thanks for the link to A Millions essay about slavery and fiction. I’ve read Beloved by Toni Morrison and right now I’m reading Someone Knows my Name by Lawrence Hill. Since I’m British/New Zealander, my education didn’t really include much about slavery so I’m busy educating myself now. This essay was an amazing help.
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That’s why I love the essay so much. It really does list some of the best fiction on slavery. Please keep The Known World in mind when next you are looking for a book to read. It’s such an amazing book.
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Thanks for this list. Looks like some very interesting stuff.
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