Hello, lovely readers, Japanese Literature Challenge is hosted by Dolce Bellezza since 2006. The event traditionally runs from June through January, and there is only one requirement: to read at least one work of Japanese literature in this six month period. Here you can find a suggested reading list. After failing badly to complete my challenge last year –…
On sad days no one talks of birds
“On sad days no one talks of birds – by Filipa Leal On sad days no one talks of birds We ring up friends and they are out and then on the street we ask for a light as if asking for a brand new heart. On sad days it’s winter and we walk in…
Filipa Leal
Filipa Leal (1979) is a Portuguese writer. She studied journalism at the University of Westminster, London, and holds a MA in Portuguese and Brazilian Literature from the University of Porto. Poems On sad days no one talks of birds (tr. Juliana Brina) The house (tr. Juliana Brina) Books lua-polaroid (2003) Talvez os Lírios Compreendam (2004) A Cidade Líquida…
She sounded like a killing wind
Dear Sarah, In your debut novel See What I Have Done (2017), we are brought inside the dysfunctional household of the Border family, only to be trapped, along with the characters, in a suffocating atmosphere of sweat, sweltering heat, mutilated pigeons, rotten food, a plate of leftovers, and ripening fruit. It’s claustrophobic. It’s salty, dirty,…
Sarah Schmidt
Sarah Schmidt (1980) is an Australian author. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Professional writing and editing from Deakin University, Melbourne, a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the RMIT University, Melbourne, and a Graduate Diploma of Information Management. She works as a Reading & Literacy Coordinator at a regional public library. Books See…
The delicacy of one’s intellect, one’s sanity, when it is laid open to the specialists
Dear Mary Jane, In your autobiographical novel The Snake Pit (1946) you throw us right inside the mind of a woman struggling to recover mental health. You make us feel in the heat of things, trapped in her delusions – to the point where it is very difficult for us to know where exactly, in…
Mary Jane Ward
Mary Jane Ward (August 27, 1905 – February 17, 1981) was an American writer. Ward studied English at Northwestern University and at the Chicago’s Lyceum of Arts Conservatory, and worked as a book reviewer for the Evanston News-Index. She moved with her husband to Greenwich Village in 1939. Shortly afterwards, she suffered a nervous breakdown due to financial…
It was her portion in that dower of genius which belonged to all her kindred; she carried it like a torch
Dear Margaret, In your novel The Constant Nymph (1924), you left open some carefully disguised questions you later explored once again in your book The Forgotten Smile (1961): can society truly accommodate art and genius? Or does it inevitably destroy it? Yours is also a question about where to locate true morality: is value created by social…
it was clear as a streetcar: I am a flower
“Triumph of Love II – by Belcampo When the wind blew over the village, it also blew across the impenetrable woods, and the castle within, which was where the count lived. Only the sides and tops of the forest would sway back and forth, as well as the white signs around saying Couples caught caressing…
Belcampo
Belcampo (pseudonym of Herman Pieter Schönfeld Wichers, 21 Juli 1902 – 2 January 1990) is a Dutch writer. In 1933, after completing his studies in notarial law, he decided to wander to Italy, drawing portraits on the way for subsistence. After returning, he published the resulting travelogue and enrolled as a student of medicine. From…
20 Books of Summer | 2017
Hello, lovely readers, I have recently come back from a bike trip along the river Main, and I am full of the ecstasy of Spring. Summer is well on its way around here, and, in my inner literary calender, that means one thing: it’s time for another 20 Books of Summer! The challenge is hosted by…
And the fruits gleamed in that light
“Of the voice of things – by Fiama Hasse Pais Brandao Only the wind’s blast gives lyrical sound to the windmill’s blades. Only the things touched by the love of other things have a voice.” (translated by Juliana Brina) * “Song of Genesis – by Fiama Hasse Pais Brandao In the beginning there was light,…
