Its that time of year and a treat today we have two Nobel Laureates one for this year and one for last year. we see if a year away has meant the academy gone in a new Nonanglophile and feminist direction that has been mention in recent years. The first winner for the last year 2018 is Olga Tokarczuk for her encyclopedic writing. I have reviewed her book Drive my plough over the bones of the dead Here is an interview with her
hen for this year, 2019 we have Peter Handke A favorite for many years to win although he has courted controversy in some of his view but I loved every book I have read and he has also worked with Wim Wenders on a number of films including the goalkeeper anxiety a classic film. Here is a review of slow homecoming by him and an interview IT is from a german paper but worth reading
I ve been planning this for last six months since reading Witold Gombrowicz Diaries and deciding that A. I needed to read more Polish literature B. we all need to maybe know a bit more about this hidden gem of European literature and C. There has been some great books from Poland published in the last year or two .
So what is coming up ,well next week I have a give-away for ten books that has been kindly offered by Joanne at Stork press 5 of Madame Mephisto by Am Bakalar ,which was the first book written by a female writer from Poland in English and 5 of their novel Illegal Liaisons by Grazyna Piebanek ,Also Joanne has written me a piece on publishing Polish literature in English .I’ve also a piece from Magda who is the head of Polish Literature at the Polish Cultural Institution . I’m also contacting a number of translators for suggestions of books and Translations they have made from Polish .I hope to have a great list of books for every one to read between now and June .Here is my fist suggestion on I will be reading as well –
Stone Upon Stone by Wieslaw Mysliwski
A badge – I have been working on a badge for Polish literature month but haven’t quite done one I’m happy with so hope to have one in a couple of weeks when I ve work a bit more on it .So every one can have one for post and sidebars in time .
Twitter – I will be using a hashtag for the month and all posts it will be #plm13 ,so if everyone could use it before and during the month it will make finding post much easier .
Cooking – I will during the month be cooking a traditional Polish dish ,I will post a the start of the month A list of ingredients then in the last week be doing a cook along via twitter and posting the results here on the blog .
Film – I will be choosing a film to watch during the month ,I ve not quite decide which but will be doing a post on Polish cinema and the choice of Film for everyone to watch .
Drink – I will also be trying some polish Beers and spirits to do a post on what to drink .
As you see I want June to be a month we all get Polish .Its important I feel as a recent report showed Polish is now the UK’s second Language .But if you ask the average reader to name a Polish writer they may just mention one but not many more so lets all get to know Polish literature better .
Well I sat down on Friday evening to watch the draw for euro 2012 (european football championship) .So as the numerous ins and outs of the draw were explained how each team was put in each bag and how when the matches are to be played decide .So I sat there hoping our draw would be easy and looking forward to next summer and yet again living the dream of an english victory .So as I did two years ago I m going to tie up a number of posts in june to focusing on each country and the team and writers from each country and my memories of the teams playing . I did same two years ago with some of the world cup teams in 2010 .I want to use this as a way to get men reading and boys ,As a shocking stat today from the literacy trust in the uk showed that an estimate 3.8 million children don’t own a book ,I know from other such surveys that most of these will be young boys that will grow up to be young men that don’t interact with books so again I m using football of a way of promoting literature in translation and books in general in a fun way .Using football pics and players names to help get people there via google search for these terms .So I was fairly happy with our draw and felt we did about as good as we could with the middle in competiveness of the groups as one group fairly easy group A and one very hard group which is group B ,well enough of the football talk, here are the groups –
Group A
Poland
Greece
Russia
Czech Republic
Group B
Holland
Denmark
Germany
Portugal
Group C
Spain
Italy
Republic of Ireland
Croatia
Group D
Ukraine
Sweden
France
England
So maybe if the FA in the uk could hand the English players a Steig Larson ,Andrey Kurkov and Jean Echenoz novel and Kids watch could see Rooney or Wiltshire reading them and asking why and they could say it is to help the players learn about the teams there playing and maybe we could start a debate on books and reading around our players and the young kids watch could be inspired to read like their hero’s where doing ? Anyway my question for some help is some choices from Croatia ,Poland and Ukraine that you may have read ,I ve read a few from each but would love some extra books and writers to include in June .Also on reading european fiction may I mention Rose city readers European reading challenge for next year to get you in the mood .I d like to wish my readers from round europe all the best I know some of you may have been disappointed with draw .
