Book Marks: Writing Local, No More AP Book Reviews

If a story is good, does it matter where it's set? Italian author Vincenzo Latronico ponders developments in the local literature of other countries and begs the question - to me, at least: does local lit in non-anglophone countries need to be filtered through an anglo lens to make it relatable to a wider audience?

English translations have made many non-anglo works accessible, but the aim is to carry over the original authors' vision and message, baggage and all, to the reading public. Latronico seems to suggest that reworking local works through an anglo press strips them of everything that makes them "local", and I tend to agree. Such decisions are determined by saleability and if it doesn't jive with the majority being sold to, "it won't sell".

Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, co-founder and publishing director of Cassava Republic Press in Nigeria, appears to be musing over what's "local" in this piece on how African publishing could reclaim that word. I also like this point, which echoes a little of what Latronico was saying: "For African publishers, 'connecting local writers to global audiences' shouldn't mean reinforcing a one-way flow of value, where legitimacy is bestowed elsewhere. That is not equity, but soft coloniality. Amplifying voices across geographies must preserve context, nuance, and political complexity. We are all rooted in a place before our ideas travel. The global is not neutral; it is the accumulation of many locals."

More works are coming out by authors beyond the anglosphere and kudos to translators who are bringing them to us while maintaining the original nuances and contexts. Readers are those who should make an effort to understand what they're reading – if there's no engagement with works, can it be called reading? Can we be called readers if all we do is suck content through our eyeballs into our brains without processing it?

Insisting on "local" content that has been retooled for easier consumption is like going to a foreign country and insisting on all the comforts from home. There's none of the discomfort, trepidation and girding of the loins when confronted with the new. Nor is there any of the wonder and jubilation of discovery. Many bookworms are armchair adventurers and would prefer to have the thrill of finding and figuring out stuff every time they turn the pages.

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The Associated Press announced that it's stopping its weekly book reviews. "This was a difficult decision but one made after a thorough review of AP’s story offerings and what is being most read on our website and mobile apps as well as what customers are using," the statement reads. "Unfortunately, the audience for book reviews is relatively low and we can no longer sustain the time it takes to plan, coordinate, write and edit reviews." AP will still be covering books but the reporting will be handled by its staffers.

This decision will not be good for small newspapers because "historically, AP arts coverage has been particularly important because smaller and local papers tend to syndicate AP reviews, which are written for a wide, non-partisan audience. Absent their standard blurbs, smaller outlets that can't afford to staff a books section may be forced to stop circulating literary news full stop."


Sobering. All right then...

• Back when it first launched, crowdfunded publisher Unbound was a novel idea that started off quite well. So it was a shock to learn that it was going to fold and owed authors money. How did things go wrong?
• Some might be ready to move on from Dr Seuss as a cultural ambassador for children's literature, others might hesitate. New generations will grow up with less and less exposure to the Grinch and the Cat in the Hat, and Seuss — and also Dahl — isn't the only iconic children's author out there. And do we need one anyway, when it might make kids reluctant to read beyond the well-known and much-talked-about marquee names?
• Books about Kashmir have been banned in India and Kashmiri bookshops have been raided for "secessionist" material. Not a new development, but it appears to be part of a wider trend of growing suppression of free speech and criticism worldwide.
• "Boasting 125,000 followers on Instagram, Revolving Books has established itself as a trusted curator of both fiction and non-fiction for readers across the U.S. It capitalized on a growing community of online readers, and slid neatly into an underfilled niche — making high-quality, hard-to-find secondhand books available to the masses for a reasonable price." Don't you wish your hobby would blow up like Austen Baack's has?
• The longlisting of controversial author John Boyne's novella, Earth, for an award for LGBTQ+ literature, compelled ten authors to withdraw from the awards. "Two judges have also withdrawn from the prize process, and more than 800 writers and publishing industry workers have signed a statement calling on Polari to formally remove Boyne from the longlist," The Guardian reports. This was how many learnt that Boyne declared himself a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) – as if more reasons to think twice about reading him are needed.
• "There is clearly a thriving market for this particular blend of nature writing, personal memoir and a specific form of self-help in which the embattled individual – or in the case of The Salt Path, a couple – finds solace, sustenance and even redemption by withdrawing from everyday society and launching themselves into the great outdoors," writes Alex Clark in The Guardian. But what damage, if any, has The Salt Path done to the nature memoir?

Wrapping things up are, first, the release of Kenangan Luka, the Malay translation of Sybil Kathigasu's memoir, No Dram of Mercy. Translated by Fahmi Mustaffa, the memoir "was published with the support of the Perak Heritage Society, a local NGO advocating for the preservation of historical sites in Perak, including the former premises of Sybil Kathigasu's residence in Papan," Free Malaysia Today reported.

Second, is the longlisting of Tash Aw's The South for the 2025 Booker Prize. Previously longlisted were The Harmony Silk Factory in 2005 and Five Star Billionaire in 2013, back when it was called the Man Booker Prize. However, Malaysians may not get to read The South. Someone raised a stink over a scene in the book and I heard that Kinokuniya KLCC was visited by the authorities. The novel, as far as I know, is no longer on sale in Malaysian bookstores. Nevertheless, we wish Aw and his novel the best – third time's the charm, aye?