books / news

MAY 15, 2013

Residencies in Review: Banff International Literary Translation Centre

By Rachael Small

Let me first say that Banff is one of the most naturally beautiful places I have ever visited. The Banff Centre, a small complex set up in the hills overlooking the tourist town of Banff, is equipped with dining facilities, a gym, a wonderful library, performance spaces and comfortable, hotel-style rooms. Each year, BILTC brings together a fantastic group of translators and authors to work (both collaboratively and individually), talk about literature in translation, and be inspired by the natural wonder that is the Canadian Rockies.

MAY 2, 2013

Residencies in Review: Marjolijn de Jager on the Villa Gillet

By Rachael Small

The atmosphere is serene and silent, perfect for working in solitude. Lyon is an amazingly walkable city, with a wealth of parks, museums, churches, theaters, and an opera house. It was undoubtedly one of the finest months I have spent in France!

APRIL 22, 2013

70th Anniversary of the Publication of The Little Prince

By Rachael Small

The Little Prince was first published in French on April 6, 1943 by Reynal & Hitchcock, a now defunct publishing housed based in New York City. At the time, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, France’s renowned literary pilot, was preparing to leave the city where he had lived in exile since January 1941. This exile, the distance the war forced between him and those he loved, tormented him and he lamented living in New York “when my people are dying and suffering from the war."

APRIL 18, 2013

What's the Big Deal with Proust?

By French Culture

At the Morgan Library's current exhibition 'Marcel Proust and Swann's Way' visitors can follow the development of his great work from his first uncertain ideas through pages of drafts and doodles into its final published form, the 4,000 page À la Recherche du temps perdu.

APRIL 17, 2013

Residencies in Review: Centre national du livre

By Rachael Small

The residencies were a gift from the heavens. There are absolutely no obligations other than to translate, and translate I did. There is no “community” per se, other than the community I had established with French translators and writers during previous stays in France, or whom I had met in the States. The “location,” is ideal, because you can stay wherever you want.

APRIL 12, 2013

Virtual Library of Medieval Manuscripts from the IRHT

By French Culture

The IRHT's virtual library ‘Bibliothèque virtuelle des manuscrits médiévaux’ (BVMM) offers over 1,000 color and 600 black and white digital images of its vast medieval manuscript collection. These manuscripts are not only beautiful works of art and design but also examples of the most advanced information technology of their day. A remarkable resource worth exploring.

APRIL 10, 2013

Residencies in Review

By Rachael Small

In the early 1900s, a number of organizations in the US and abroad began inviting musicians, painters, sculptors, and writers to participate in residency programs aimed at bringing these artists out of their cafés and studios and into nature, to share the experience of creation.

MARCH 20, 2013

Salon du Livre Honors Romania

By Rachael Small

Authors, publishers, designers, students and literature lovers have begun to descend upon Paris for the 33rd Annual Salon du Livre, which takes place March 22-25, 2013. This year, the Salon’s guests of honor include the city of Barcelona and the country of Romania.

MARCH 19, 2013

March 2013: International Month of the Francophonie

By Rachael Small

This year, the International Month of the Francophonie commemorates a special milestone with the 100th birthday of poet and playwright Aimé Césaire. Many of the events and festivals that have been planned in cities across the globe this month include celebrations, not only of Césaire’s work, but of his literary heritage and the many writers he has influenced.

MARCH 12, 2013

Happy Birthday Philip Roth

By Kathryn Hamilton

Last year Philip Roth made the announcement in the French magazine, Les Inrocks, that he was retiring from writing. At 79 years old, and after 31 books – among them ‘American Pastoral’, ‘The Human Stain’, and ‘Sabbath’s Theater’ - Roth had decided it was time to lay down the pen.

MARCH 4, 2013

Bazin by Andrew Dudley

By Delphine Selles

A specialist of André Bazin, the most-acclaimed French critic from the Nouvelle Vague, Dudley Andrew is the author of an expanded eponymous biography on the former.

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

BNF Wins Stanford Prize for Innovation

By French Culture

This week, the Bibliothèque nationale de France become one of the first recipients of the new Stanford Prize for Innovation in Research Libraries (SPIRL). The prize was created to recognize efforts to transform research libraries for the through innovative "programs, projects...[and] improved services that...benefit readers and users."

Pages