How foreign writers make it to US bookshelves

I’m quoted (or at least paraphrased) in the Christian Science Monitor, on how African writers gain attention.

It’s the same for young African talents, says Geoff Wisner, author of “A Basket of Leaves: 99 Books that Capture the Spirit of Africa.”

Engaging an American audience is anything but easy. Winning one of Africa’s two biggest literary prizes – the Caine or the Wole Soyinka – is the best bet but even that is no guarantee.

Mr. Wisner notes that Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina won the Caine Prize in 2002, founded the influential literary magazine Kwani?, and teaches at Bard College in the US. Yet he is still best known (if known at all) to American readers as the author of “How to Write about Africa” – a short satirical piece mocking Anglo writers who set novels in Africa.

P.S. Libyan writer Hisham Matar has weighed on what’s it’s been like to be a judge for the Caine Prize.

And also the Mets

Manhattan Mini Storage has some smart marketing people. Their posters in the subway and elsewhere really give you the impression that they live here and understand the place.

By contrast, the phone company that uses lines like “Faster than a couple with children moves to Park Slope” just seems like it’s trying too hard.

O nobly born

As the weather gets warmer, the weary blogger spends less time reflecting on serious books and more time just snapping pictures and saying, “How about that?”

This flyer was posted near the pedestrian entrance at the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan Bridge. The sketch of the jaded skateboard dude receiving the spark of life from the Almighty is signed SPUTZY. The quotation is from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Seeing the tags dangling from the flyer, I thought, “Oh, this is just a clever promotion for some product or service.” But no: Each tag simply says, “Remember the unity of all living things.” Hard to argue with that. 

Muhammad’s Tire Mecca

A new business has opened in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, with a somewhat startling name.

Help a good magazine get born

Words Without Borders, the nice folks who have let me blog about African literature (mostly) on their website for the last two years, publish an online magazine and an increasingly impressive line of anthologies. I was lucky enough to attend a benefit reading from one of these, The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry.

The next issue of Words Without Borders will cover contemporary writing from Afghanistan. As this is the country where we’ve been fighting a war for almost a decade (remember?) it’s well worth knowing more about, and if WWB’s track record is any indication, they will do a great job.

To help make it happen, visit WWB’s Kickstarter page. Even a $10 pledge will get you a Words Without Borders shot glass, and WWB’s undying gratitude.

P.S. Attentive readers will note that I thought at first that WWB was raising money for an Afghanistan anthology. Nope, it’s a new issue of the Words Without Borders magazine, and equally deserving of support.