Photograph: Hu Jia /AP Video/AP
Liu Xiaobo has spent yet another year and another birthday in jail. For his birthday on the 28th December, and in the hope that he will be released before his birthday in 2013, we publish for the first time in English a love poem to his wife Liu Xia. This poem was first read on the BBC World Service on 3 November 2010. For the poem and more click on the link above.
Asia Literary Review readers can now download our latest issue as an eBook for the Kindle, iPad, iPhone and other mobile devices - click here!
The Man Asian Literary Prize 2013 long list was announced this evening in Hong Kong and London. We were delighted to hear that ALR writers Jeet Thayil, Tan Twan Engand Kim Young-ha are included in the list. Click on their names to read their work in the ALR. Tan Twan Eng's short story 'Somewhere above the Clouds' was first published in Volume 5 of the Asia Literary Review and is available online here for the first time.
The longlisted titles, laid out at the announcement event in Man's Hong Kong office.
For the full list, click here.
CRIME AND CORRUPTION SPECIAL
AVAILABLE FROM 18 NOVEMBER
Issue 25 of the Asia Literary Review will be online and in the post to subscribers at the end of this week.
Crime and Corruption - in fiction, poetry, interviews, non-fiction, art and reviews. Not yet subscribed? Do it now by clicking on the link at the top of this page.
Visit the ALR's website to read Kelly Falconer's review of Julia Boyd's new book - A Dance with the Dragon.
http://www.asialiteraryreview.com/web/article/en/420
Read Kelly Falconer's review of Julia Boyd's new book - A Dance with the Dragon.
FURORE OVER RIGHTS FOR NOBEL PRIZEWINNER MO YAN'S BOOKS
Paper Republic's latest newsletter investigates Andrew Wylie's sudden takeover as Mo Yan's agent.
MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE LOSES ITS KEY SPONSOR
It's just been announced that the Man Group is dropping sponsorship of the the Man Asian Literary Prize after the 2013 award.
LONGLIST ANNOUNCED:
DSC PRIZE FOR SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE
It is indeed a long list - sixteen books. Familiar names include Amitav Ghosh and Jeet Thayil, and the rich variety of themes and approaches promises us both a feat and a feast of reading, and a very tight finish.
Vietnamese poet Nguyen Chi Thien dies - article here in the Economist.
Volume 24 of the Asia Literary Review is now in print and online.
Feature article on the Asia Literary Review in Hong Kong's South China Sunday Morning Post
BBC World Service: Newshour. Jang Jin-sung is interviewed about poetry, politics and human rights.
Huffington Post, Washington Post, CBS news and 240 other news outlets on ALR poet Jang Jin-Sung
Video: Jang Jin-sung reads his poems for the ALR in London.
The Asia Literary Review's event at Poetry Parnassus is covered by ABS-CBN News.
Oxford's Rex Warner Literary Prize is awarded to Shirley Lee for her translations of Jang Jin-sung's poetry, published in the Korea Issue of the Asia Literary Review. Full report in New Focus (in Korean).
Associated Press: Sylvia Hui's story on Jang Jin-sung is picked up by Huffington Post, CBS, Washington Post and over 200 papers worldwide.
WEB-ONLY Interview - Morgan Stanley's Ruchir Sharma talks to the ALR about his new book, Breakout Nations.
Our latest issue is now available as an eBook for immediate download - ready for Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC and other devices. Click on the image to go straight to Amazon, here for a list of bookshops or here to subscribe.
The Korea Herald reviews our Korea issue:
'The edition offers a lot for English-language readers, comprising fiction, poetry, reviews and interviews that dig deep into the triumphs and future of Korean literature on the world stage.'
For other reviews and articles, visit the launch link below.
Asia Literary Review launch at the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre
Issue 23: Korea
Hyun Joo Park (interpreter) Kyung-sook Shin, Martin Alexander
Issue 23 of the Asia Literary Review
will be launched at the Asia Society's new premises in Hong Kong on 8 May.
We're excited to announce that Shin Kyung-sook, recent winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize, will be our guest of honour. Our spring issue focuses on Korea and Shin has agreed to return to Hong Kong to celebrate Korean literature with us.
This event is held in association with the Asia Society. Click on the logo below to book your seat and read more.
Nobel laureate VS Naipaul is interviewed in Hong Kong for the Liberatum festival by David Pilling, Asia Editor of the Financial Times. More pictures and video to follow.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo's You Wait for Me With Dust is published here in Chinese on our website.
Jonathan Shaw reviews the Review -
Winter 2011, Issue 22.
THE ALR 2012 OLYMPIC TEAM
A team of nine ALR poets have been selected to represent their countries at Poetry Parnassus, the literary event at the peak of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad at London's South Bank Centre in June. Poets from over 200 of the competing nations will attend.
We're proud to announce that ALR contributors Seamus Heaney (Ireland), Tishani Doshi (India), Laksmi Pamuntjak (Indonesia), Marjorie Evasco (Philippines), Jennifer Wong (Hong Kong), Alvin Pang (Singapore) and Yang Lian (China) will be flown to the UK to take part in the Olympic readings.
Two other Olympic poets appear in the pages of our latest issue, which came out on 8 May 2012. Reuniting North and South Korea - at least in print - Jang Jin-sung from North Korea appears for the first time in English, while Kim Hyesoon of South Korea joins us with new poems in their first translation.
For the complete list of poets, go here. The BBC has more, as does the Guardian.
ALR Editor in Chief Martin Alexander talks poetry with Crystal Kwok in Kwok Talk on RTHK's Radio 3.
Literature of the Middle East and Asia, on 23 April at the Asia Society's gorgeous new premises in Hong Kong: ALR contributor Madeleine Thien and Canadian-Lebanese writer Rawi Hage discuss their new books, Dogs at the Perimeter and Cockroach, respectively. Xu Xi, programme leader of the MFA in Creative Writing at City University, Hong Kong, moderates a discussion that explores heritage and creativity in the authors' work.
Ma Jian speaks out about the London Book Fair controversy on Project Syndicate.
He asks how the British Council could invite Liu Binjie, the man who supervised the silencing of Liu Xiaobo and who acts as China's chief censor, to lead the delegation of writers representing China at the London Book Fair.
Ma Jian was interviewed for the ALR by James Kidd in 2008 following the publication of his novel Beijing Coma.
MORE CHINESE WRITERS IN DETENTION THAN OFFICIALLY ATTENDING THE LONDON BOOK FAIR - EXILES NOT INVITED
The 2012 London Book Fair starts on Monday 16 April amid controversy about the exclusion of some of the guest of honour's most highly regarded writers.
With China as guest of honour and under the microscope, the absence of dissenting writers is very obvious. As Jonathan Heawood of English PEN tells us, 'There are more Chinese writers in detention than are included in the official programme at London Book Fair.'
Today, in another post, English PEN highlights the ALR's translation of Liu Xiaobo's love poetry and celebrates both invited and excluded writers.
The Guardian's Richard Lea sums up both sides on the eve of the event.
Little has changed since the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair, where Dai Qing and Bei Ling's invitations were rescinded, though Dai Qing later attended unofficially.
The same pressure is being exerted this year, but wait and see what effect it has in the Cultural Olympiad's Poetry Parnassus at the end of June. More on this soon.
We reported recently that Bei Ling was featured in the Guardian for his criticism of the exclusion of Chinese writers from the LBF.
Murong Xuecun, who features in ALR 21 with a macabre story about food, is in theGuardian today with the car accident scene from Red Dust (translated by Harvey Thomlinson of Make Do Studios).
The Guardian's Books Editor, Richard Lea, introduces us here to his series on China writing - Murong's story gets top billing.
Cambodian cinema: ALR contributor Madeliene Thien reviews Golden Slumbers.
Shin Kyung-sook wins the
Man Asian Literary Prize
Read the news, watch the video and read the ALR's Kelly Falconer's review of Shin's winning novel, Please Look After Mother.
J. P. O'Malley reviews Krys Lee's Drifting House for the ALR.
ALR poet 'Jimmy' (Kyaw Min Yu) is released from jail in Burma.
On Liu Xiaobo's birthday, highly acclaimed cartoonist Harry Harrison sends the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate a rather grim card.