Chinese Literature at the Literatures and Languages Library 

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The UIUC Library houses a rich collection of Chinese literature in the vernacular and in English translation. This spring we are featuring a pop-up display of titles curated by Dr. Bing Wang, our new Chinese Studies Librarian, which is located at the entrance to the Reading Room (room 200) in the Main Library. Click here for more information and resources about Chinese Studies at the UIUC Library.

To pique your interest in these books, Dr. Wang offers a summary of one of her favorites: Confucian Analects on Skin (人皮论语 /Ren pi lun yu) by Wenbiao Ye.

The term “canon” originates from the Greek word denoting principles, norms, standards, and measures. For ordinary individuals, canons represent the unwavering tenets that demand rigorous adherence as the embodiment of truth. But, what about in the event that canons are deliberately distorted and manipulated by authorities for their own vested interests? What might be the costs if individuals opt to advocate the truth? 

The book Confucian Analects on Skin​ 《人皮论语》is a captivating historical mystery fiction that delves into the struggles and conflicts faced by ordinary individuals in their quest to unveil the authentic canon, which stands in opposition to the manipulated version imposed by imperial authorities. Authored by Wenbiao Ye 冶文彪, a renowned contemporary Chinese writer specializing in fictional historical mysteries, this narrative revolves around the ​Analects (the Sayings of Confucius), which have long been revered as the cornerstone of Confucianism. Set against the historical backdrop of ancient China during the Han dynasty (202 B.C.–220 A.D.), this book unveils a mysterious manuscript inscribed on human skin that appears in the nation’s capital. The text displays variations from the officially endorsed and widely accepted version of the Analects; however, these words engraved on human skin adhere to the authentic original but are now known solely by one person. How will individuals respond to these divergent interpretations of the canon? Will they be willing to unearth the truth regardless of potential repercussions, even at the cost of sacrificing their own lives and those around them? Alternatively, might people choose self-silencing in exchange for personal and national interests? Amidst ideals, realities, loyalties, and tranquility, which aspirations will prevail among individuals?

–Dr. Bing Wang, Chinese Studies Librarian

Other works by Wenbiao Ye include The Pupil of Trust and the historical suspense series Qingming Shanghe Tu Mima (The Code of “Along the River During the Qingming Festival”), which was inspired by a famous handscroll painting attributed to Song dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan.  

More Chinese-language fiction and poetry recommendations from Dr. Wang are available to check out now! English translations of some titles are also available.

Shi jian yi min = Time immigrant 时间移民 
Cixin Liu (1969- ). Liu is probably the Chinese science fiction writer most familiar to Western readers due to American SFF author Ken Liu’s translations of his work. Best known for The Three-Body Problem; other works recently translated into English include Ball Lightning and Supernova Era. Liu is the winner of the 2015 Hugo Award, the 2017 Locus Award, and nine-time winner of the Galaxy Award.  

Long yu di xia tie = 龙与地下铁 
Boyong Ma (1980- ). Ma is a prolific novelist, columnist, and blogger; winner of the 2010 People’s Literature Prize. His short story “The City of Silence” was translated into English by American SFF author Ken Liu.  

Ma, qin yi xia = 媽, 親一下 
Jiubadao (pseudonym of Giddens Ko, 1978- ). Taiwanese novelist, screenwriter, and director. Best known for adapting and directing You Are the Apple of My Eye (2011) (based on his novel 那些年, 我們一起追的女孩) and most recently Miss Shampoo (2023) (based on his novel 精準的失控).  

Tian ji = 天机 
Series 1: PL2833.7.A386 T53 
Series 2: PL2833.7.A386 T532 
Jun Cai (1978- ). Cai is a popular writer of horror/suspense novels; winner of the Sina Literary Award. Other notable works include “The Child’s Past Life” (生死河, Sheng Si He) and “19th Floor of Hell” (地狱的第19层, Di Yu De Di Shi Jiu Ceng). Tian Ji was adapted as a movie in 2016.  

Shanhe shengyan = 山河盛宴  
Tian Xia Gui Yuan (pseudonym). Her novels Empress Fu Yao and Huang Quan have been adapted into television dramas (The Legend of Fu Yao and The Rise of Phoenixes). 

Nan da = 男妲 
Yingshu Cheng (1968- ). Other works in our collection: Wo Zeng Shi Liu Wang Xue Sheng and Nü Liu Zhi Bei.  

Si wang zhi shu = 死亡之书 
Ximin Li (1966- ). A popular mystery/suspense writer. We also have the Tang Town trilogy (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3).  

Xiong di = Brothers 兄弟 
English translation here.
Hua Yu (1960- ). A former dentist, Yu turned to a literary career in the 1980s and is today one of China’s most important writers of avant-garde fiction. His works have received many domestic and international awards, including the James Joyce Award (2002). Brothers won the Prix Courrier International, the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Several of Yu’s works have been adapted for television and film, most recently Chronicles of a Blood Merchant (as a Korean television drama) and Mistakes by the River (as a film titled Only the River Knows) in 2023.  

Qi men zhi Fengming Shan = 旗门之凤鸣山 
Tianwang90 (pseudonym)

Nie zi = 孽子  (vol. 3 of Bai Xianyong zuo pin ji) 
Hsien-yung Pai (also written as Bai Xianyong, 1937- ). Pai is an influential modernist writer; during his student days at National Taiwan University, Pai co-founded the literary journal Xiandai Wenshue (Modern Literature). He earned an M.A. from the University of Iowa and is a professor emeritus of Chinese literature at UC Santa Barbara. Nie zi is a novel included in a multivolume collection of his works. 

Hong fu ye ben = 红拂夜奔  
Xiaobo Wang (1952-1997). Wang’s career was brief, but his writing—especially his essays—experienced a surge in popularity and influence after his death. Much of his fiction deals with Chinese history, including his best-known novel, Golden Age. We have an extensive collection of his writings!  

Wa = 蛙 
English translation here.
Yan Mo (1955- ). Mo is the winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature and numerous other international and domestic awards. Best known in the West for Red Sorghum. We have many of his works, both in Chinese and in English translation. 

Mi yu zhe = 密語者 
English translation here.
Geling Yan (1958- ). A novelist and screenwriter who writes in both Chinese and English. We have many of her works written in Chinese, English, and several in English translation. Several of her works have been adapted as films. 

Qing hu = 青狐 
Meng Wang (1934- ). Novelist and essayist; Wang served as China’s Minister of Culture 1986-1989. He was awarded the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2015 for The Scenery Here, a previously unpublished novel written in the 1970s during his time as an imprisoned laborer in Xinjiang.  

Bian xing = 变形 
Duo Na (1977- ). Na is a prolific writer of supernatural/science fiction/suspense novels. A Chinese television adaptation of his novel 十九年间谋杀小叙 (No One Innocent in 19 Years Crime) has been announced but not yet scheduled.  

Di Renjie zhi tong tian an = 狄仁杰之通天案 
Anna Fangfang (pseudonym). A new take on the popular fictional/historical figure Di Renjie (Judge Dee), a Tang dynasty magistrate who investigates and solves cases. 

Xiang si shu xia = 相思树下 
Guanzhong Yu (1928-2017). Yu was a Taiwanese poet who graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and was part of the modernist circle that included Pai Hsien-yung. Best known for his poem “Nostalgia,” he was a prolific poet and essayist, taught Chinese and English literatures, spoke several Western languages, and published Chinese translations of Western literary works.  

Lai ri fang chang : shi hua ji = 來日方長 : 詩畫集  
Xun Jiang (1947- ). Jiang is a well-known Taiwanese artist, art historian, public intellectual, and writer.  

Feng guo wan cheng = 风过晚城 
Wancheng Geng

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Roses & Thorns: New Romance

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Written by Fiona Hartley-Kroeger, GA

Romance novels have changed a lot since Janice Radway’s landmark scholarly work, Reading the Romance, first published in 1984. For one thing, they’re not just about straight white women finding fulfilment under the patriarchy. (That’s never been all that romance novels have been about.) In their exploration of many kinds of love between many kinds of people, today’s romance novels create precisely what Radway hoped for: “a place and a vocabulary with which to carry on a conversation about the meaning of…personal relations and the seemingly endless renewal of their primacy” (18). Romance is a beautiful, varied bouquet.

As the recent “romantasy” trend demonstrates, romantic plotlines and relationships are frequently central to works in other genres. Romance elements can be integral to works of literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, and much more.

In celebration of this versatile, ever-evolving genre, here are some recent favorites:

ROSES
These novels participate in the genres of contemporary and historical romance, with strong attention to diversity and thoughtful reflection on how they distinguish themselves from their more homogenous predecessors. HEA (Happily Ever After), of course, guaranteed!

book coverAshley Herring Blake, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care

Suuuuuuure she doesn’t. Photographer Delilah Green is on the cusp of making it in New York City, with a string of pleasant one-night stands and an invitation to participate in a gallery show. Unfortunately, she’s also agreed to photograph her stepsister’s wedding in small-town Oregon. A reluctant trip to her childhood hometown unearths a wealth of complicated relationships and family hurt, but also brings the possibility of new beginnings.

 

Alyssa Cole, A Princess in Theory
Struggling epidemiology grad student Naledi is pretty sure the emails she keeps getting are unusually persistent scams. After all, what are the odds that she’s actually the long-lost betrothed of Prince Thabiso? When Thabiso shows up in New York and in her life, though, things get interesting. As a Black woman in STEM trying to get through grad school and pay off her student loans, Naledi is an instantly sympathetic heroine; the realities of her chosen path initially clash with Thabiso’s over-privileged lifestyle in a way that’s both serious and funny. His journey toward understanding her is by turns humorous and touching, and the whole thing is incredibly fun with, of course, a sweet, solid emotional core.

Sonali Dev, Recipe for Persuasion
Jane Austen meets cooking competition (Dancing with the Stars-syle) in this second entry in Sonali Dev’s series about an overachieving Indian family living in California. (Don’t worry if you haven’t read the first book, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, though you should give that a try too!) In a twist on my favorite Jane Austen novel, Persuasion, chef Ashna Raje and her former first love, soccer star Rico Silva, are paired on a high-stakes cooking competition. Their dynamic is as delicious as the food they prepare while utterly failing to resist their feelings. This is a wonderfully flavorful novel about first love, second chances, complicated families, and—inevitably—cooking puns.

Alexis Hall, A Lady for a Duke
The traditional concerns of the classic Regency romance novel—personal autonomy, gendered social roles, issues of class, childhood trauma, and transformation through love—provide an ideal framework for a story about a trans heroine and her childhood best friend. Viola Carroll, presumed dead on the battlefield in France, has sacrificed a great deal to become her true self. Her childhood best friend, Gracewood, never recovered from her death. When they meet again, they both have a LOT of baggage to work through—but they do so thoughtfully and oh-so-tenderly, with a few (minimal) misunderstandings and a really lovely mood of trans affirmation throughout.

Courtney Milan, The Duke Who Didn’t
You’ll fall in love with the entire village of Wedgeford, something of a haven for members of the Chinese diaspora in rural Victorian England. In this series-starter, longtime villager Chloe Fong and half-Chinese, half-English nobleman Jeremy Wentworth navigate their feelings amid quaint village shenanigans. Chloe is Organized! Her prized possession is a clipboard! She WILL make a commercial success of her father’s new culinary concoction, a sauce of supreme savor! Jeremy is more complex than his jokester persona would have you think, but he’s genuinely a sunshiny, sweet man who maaaayyy have forgotten to mention one tiny detail about his identity. Oops? They’re adorable.

Cat Sebastian, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb & The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes
Cat Sebastian brings Georgian England to queer romance! Enter a world of highwaymen, coffee houses, and incredible fashion. The first book features a banter-filled romance between ex-highwayman Kit Webb and nobleman Percy, Lord Holland; the second stars Percy’s best friend/stepmother/bi icon Marian Hayes and idealistic Rob Brooks, Kit’s former partner in (literal) crime. Cuteness! Crimes! Coffee!

Further Rosy Reading:
Jane Austen, Persuasion
K.J. Charles, The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen & A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel
Emily Henry, Book Lovers
Georgette Heyer, Lady of Quality

 

THORNS
Here, the HEA is…less guaranteed. These novels hail from a variety of other genres and draw on romance tropes, comment on romantic fiction expectations, or focus less on the HEA than on the sometimes painful process of navigating feelings and relationships (or, you know, saving the world).

Akwaeke Emezi, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

The line between genre and literary fiction is frequently a thin one, revealing more about publishing norms and audience expectations (or prejudices) than about a work’s narrative, stylistic, or thematic content. In this novel, published as literary fiction, sex and grief collide as Feyi fights a messy, utterly necessary battle to recover from a shocking loss and rediscover love.

 

 

Intisar Khanani, Thorn

This is a lovely, fleshed-out retelling of the Brothers Grimm tale “The Goose Girl.” The unpleasant bits (identity theft, talking severed horse heads) are thoughtfully elaborated, and what begins as a tale of escaping abuse and betrayal gradually develops into a heart-tugging love story.

 

 

 

T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

This is not a novel where the princess marries the prince and lives happily ever after. Actually, the prince murders one sister, abuses another, and deserves what’s coming to him when Princess Marra decides to take him down. There IS a cute romance, though, amid Marra’s efforts to complete impossible tasks, gather allies, and figure out how to murder the man she’s next in line to marry. (Maybe two cute romances, if you squint.) This is a perfectly dark fairy tale with all the unpleasant sorcery and underground tomb mazes you could wish for.

 

Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth

“Lesbian necromancers in space” isn’t INACCURATE, per se, but that description doesn’t do justice to Muir’s tangled web of love, grief, mental instability, and space palaces. The necromantic lesbians are cute, sure (by some definitions), but there’s a whole buffet of other relationships running the gamut from the wholesome to the wildly disturbing, and they’re all DELICIOUS.

 

 

 

Emily Tesh, Silver in the Wood & Drowned Country (coming soon!)
If sheer sweetness was the only criterion, these two novellas could go under Roses, but the HEA is by no means guaranteed. Tobias, the Wild Man of Greenhollow, and Henry Silver, newly arrived owner of Greenhollow Manor, undergo horror-filled trials of the heart to be together—only to undergo an acrimonious breakup that precipitates the second volume. Twining around their relationship are wonderful elements of English fairy lore; this is a great choice for fans of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell who would prefer something a little shorter.  

 

Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (coming soon!)

An exemplar of the Chinese danmei (boys’ love) genre by the author of The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (the novel on which the 2019 drama The Untamed is based). The romance between a god and a ghost is incredibly sweet; it’s everything else that’s thorny! The epic tale spans 800 years, three realms, an extensive, memorable cast, martial arts, and a love story of unmatched devotion. This is the officially licensed English translation. Coming soon!

 

Further Thorny Reading:
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber
Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light & A Restless Truth (A Power Unbound coming soon!)
Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Gods of Jade & Shadow

Did you know? We also have a selection of romance on audiobook!

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“Something Wicked this Way Comes” from Canada!

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Written by Curtis Valasek, visiting scholar at the LLL

Portrait of Stanley Pean

Several of the titles from Stanley Pean – one of our newly spotlighted Afro-Canadian, Francophone authors – fit nicely into the spooky season upon us, as Hallowe’en approaches. To think you could enrich your knowledge of French-Canadian literature, Black authors, and the horror genre at the same time in the collections curated by our Literatures & Languages Librarians. Allons-y for some chills & thrills from the Literatures & Languages Library (LLL).
Over the past weeks of the semester, our LLL has brought together one subcollection of works few other university French collections can brag about, Afro-Canadian, Francophone authors. These would be French-speaking (and writing) residents of Canada with African ancestry publishing fiction or poetry. Many have fascinating biographies with origins in Haiti, French-speaking Caribbean Islands, or West African countries, but now often navigate big city living in Montreal, North America’s largest French-speaking metropolitan area.

One such author, Stanley Pean, born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, actually grew up in the Quebecois city of Saguenay, becoming well-known for his voice on the airwaves of Radio-Canada, among many other media outlets (you can find his own webpage en français HERE). Writing both novels and short stories, he has developed a penchant for exploring the creepier, spookier side of fiction, many of them also in the mystery genre. These titles of his below might send shivers down your spine too!

Titles (linked to catalog record)

Bizango, Les Allusifs, 2011

Noirs désirs, Leméac, 1999

La Nuit démasque, Planète rebelle, 2000

Treize pas vers l’inconnu, Pierre Tisseyre, 1996

Le Tumulte de mon sang, Québec Amérique, 1991

Zombi Blues, La courte échelle, 1996

Afro-Canadian Francophone Literature

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Fiction Friday: The Murderess

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“…For many nights Frankojannou had permitted herself no sleep. She had willed her sore eyes open, while she kept vigil beside this little creature who had no idea what trouble she was giving, or what tortures she must undergo in her turn, if she survived. Nor she was capable of feeling the despair to which her grandmother only secretly gave expression: ‘O God, why should another one come into the world?’”

From The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis, translated by Peter Levi

The Murderess, one of the best works of Alexander Papadiamantis, is a dark story of crimes and Holy judgment under the veil of the patriarchal society of a small Greek island. Hadoula Frankojannou, an old widow, lives in poverty, raising her children and grandchildren with many difficulties on the island of Skiathos. Throughout her life, she was always serving others; first as a daughter, later as a spouse, and then as a mother. Her personal experiences and stories made her realize the tragic fate and position of the woman, filling her with anger and bitterness. All these thoughts flood her mind while she rocks her newborn granddaughter in her crib, thinking that she should do something to spare the poor child from its “ill fate”. She will do much more than that.   

Papadiamantis’ work manages to marry the true meaning of the ancient Greek tragedies with the modern social phenomena of inequality and patriarchy of his era – Hybris and Nemesis. Although written in 1903, the social novella (as described by the author) remains contemporary and travels its reader through time and space, at the darkest thoughts of the protagonist. It is not irrelevant that Papadiamantis will be called “the evil Saint” for this masterpiece. At the same time, its translation by Peter Levi captures the pure essence of the Greek Language, providing the reader with every single emotion of the original text.

You can find The Murderess at the Literatures and Languages Library. The catalog record is linked here.

This highlight was written by Elias Petrou, Librarian for Classical, Medieval, and Modern Greek Studies at the Literatures and Languages Library.

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New Book Highlight: Creatures of Passage

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This dream of a novel takes us to the bleak suburbs of Washington DC, Anacostia to be exact, where we follow the path of Nephthys Kinwell, who taxis people in grief to wherever they need to go in her old green Plymouth, which has a disgruntled ghost of a white woman in the trunk, and which never runs out of gas.  She intuits who needs a lift in this magical car.  Nephthys, herself, is grieving the loss of her twin brother, Osiris, who went missing years ago.  And when her great-nephew shows up at her door one day, she is forced to face that grief.  This is a quiet book, not unlike Plainsong by Kent Haruf, winner of the New Yorker Book Award and finalist for the 1999 National Book Award, that will steal your heart.  Creatures of Passage, was shortlisted for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and a 2021 Notable Book selection by NPR and the Washington Post.   

You can find Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé on the New Books Shelf at the Literatures and Languages Library. The catalog record is linked here.

This highlight was written by Karen Huck, Library Specialist for Collections, Events and Outreach at the Literatures and Languages Library.

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New Book Highlight: Manywhere: stories

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“People think contentment is a gentle, warm thing, like bathwater, that needs only occasional replenishing to keep it from turning slowly tepid. In my experience, contentment often requires more ruthless and more immediate defending.”

From “Bump,” in Manywhere: stories by Morgan Thomas

The bright green lightning bolt and colorful birds on the face of Manywhere jumped out at me from the New Books shelf in the Literatures and Languages Reading Room, though they didn’t provide much of an indication of the book’s contents.  

Manywhere: stories is a collection of nine pieces of short fiction following queer and genderqueer characters in the American South throughout various stages of history. Author Morgan Thomas displays an impressive range of styles and voices, offering explorations of characters in first- and third-person narrative and through newspaper extracts, letters, and emails. As each character navigates their own past and present, they touch on relationships with parents, partners, and places they’ve left behind. They address illness, pregnancy, and versions of care. They seek places for themselves in history and sacrifice partnerships to secure them. And they consider the bodies they were born into, and what that means for who they are becoming.

Through compelling and emotionally intelligent prose, the stories in Manywhere ask the reader consider the relationships they sustain with their own bodies, with their parents, and with their pasts.

You can find Manywhere: stories on the New Books Shelf at the Literatures and Languages Library. The catalog record is linked here.

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Arts and Humanities Libraries Ekphrastic Challenge

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Calling all undergraduate students to participate in an Arts and Humanities Libraries Ekphrastic Challenge!

What is an ekphrastic challenge?

In ancient Greece “ekphrasis” meant describing something with vivid detail. More recently, ekphrastic poetry has come to be known as poetry written about works of art. It usually includes an exploration of how the speaker is impacted by their experience with the work.

For this challenge, we’re expanding the definition to include poetry, prose, or visual artwork based on a work of literature, music, poetry, or art from any one of the Arts and Humanities division libraries. These include the Literatures and Languages Library, the Music and Performing Arts Library, the Ricker Library of Architecture and Art, and the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library. Your piece of writing or art should clearly show your engagement with the work. This guide from Masterclass suggests the following steps to create an ekphrastic poem. These are a good starting point as you create your work!

  1. Choose a piece of art
  2. Write down what you see.
  3. Pick a form.
  4. Write from a specific point of view.

Formatting:

Prose submissions of short fiction, flash fiction, or creative nonfiction may be up to 2,000 words. Poetry may be up to 200 lines in any poetic form. Written works should be in 12-point Times New Roman and submitted as Word documents attached to your email. Please number all pages.

Visual art should be scanned and sent as an email attachment. JPEG or PNG file formats are preferred. If you are unable to scan your work, please take a clear photo and attach the photo to your email.

Please do not include any identifying information on your work.

How to submit:

Once you’ve created your work, submit it to ahlibekphrastic@gmail.com. Submissions must be received by December 15th, 2022. Please follow the formatting instructions above and include your name, program, your work, and a catalog link to the work that inspired you in your email. Refer to this guide for how to locate the permalink in the catalog.

Judges from the Arts and Humanities Libraries and the Editorial Board of Montage Arts Journal will decide on one winner from each category to be published in Montage. Runners-up will receive gift cards to The Literary in Champaign.

Winners will be announced in mid-March 2023.

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Booker Prize and National Book Awards: Shortlisted Works at the Literatures and Languages Library

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As the days get shorter and the autumnal chill slowly sets in on campus, it’s the perfect time to curl up with a book from the Literatures and Languages Library. Can’t decide on one? Luckily, fall is peak season for some national and international book awards. Two major prizes recently announced their shortlists, or the finalists in the running for the top place. The Booker Prize shortlist was announced in Mid-September and the finalists for the National Book Award were just announced on October 4th. And you can find many of the shortlisted titles at the Literatures and Languages Library!

The Booker Prize has been active since 1969 and is awarded annually to a work of fiction which the judges believe will be relevant well into the future. While the book must be written in English and published in the UK or Ireland, the authors may have any nationality and origin. This prize is announced in multiple rounds, with the longlist announced in the summer and shortlist announced in the fall. This year, the winner will be announced on October 17th.

In addition to the notoriety that comes with winning a major prize in literature, each author of a shortlisted work receives £2,500 and the author of the winning work is awarded £50,000.

The Booker Prize Shortlist consists of six works of fiction. This year’s list includes both the shortest work ever nominated as well as the oldest author to be considered for the prize. They are:

The Booker Foundation

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

The Trees by Percival Everett

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

The National Book Awards have been around since 1950, when they were established to celebrate the best writing in the United States. There are currently five categories, which include Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature. For each category, ten books are selected for the longlist. This list is narrowed down to five Finalists, from which a winner is chosen. This year, the winners, who each receive $10,000 and a bronze sculpture, will be announced on November 16th.  

To be eligible for the Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, or Young People’s Literature Awards, the author must either be a U.S. citizen or have been approved by a petition process and their book must have been published by a U.S. publisher located in the United States. The Translated Literature Award does not require either the author or translator to hold U.S. citizenship and the original work does not need to be newly published, but the translated work must be in English and must have been published within the eligibility year.

The finalists for the Fiction, Poetry, and Translated Literature are listed here, but be sure to look at the winners for Nonfiction and Young People’s Literature as well!

Finalists for Fiction:

National Book Foundation

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai

The Birdcatcher by Gayl Jones

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela

Finalists for Poetry:

National Book Foundation

Look at This Blue by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene

Balladz by Sharon Olds

Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves

The Rupture Tense by Jenny Xie

Finalists for Translated Literature:

National Book Foundation

A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls (click here for the original in Norwegian)

Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti (click here for the original in French)

Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda, translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker (click here for the original in Spanish)

Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin, translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell (click here for the original in Spanish)

Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani

Happy reading!

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Street Haunting: The Flâneur in Literature

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Image shows an impressionist painting depicting people strolling down an intersection in Paris

Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte (1877), The Art Institute of Chicago

“The crowd is his domain, just as the air is the bird’s, and water that of the fish. His passion and his profession is to merge with the crowd. For the perfect idler, for the passionate observer, it becomes an immense source of enjoyment to establish his dwelling in the throng, in the ebb and flow, the bustle, the fleeting and the infinite. To be away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere; to see the world, to be at the very centre of the world, and yet to be unseen of the world, such are some of the minor pleasures of those independent, intense and impartial spirits, who do not lend themselves easily to linguistic definitions.” –Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life, 1863

In his essay, “The Painter of Modern Life,” nineteenth-century French poet and critic, Charles Baudelaire, established his definition of the flâneur, a figure that continues to capture the imagination of writers and artists more than a century later. Literally but imperfectly translated as “stroller” or “idler,” the flâneur is the quintessential observer, the outsider whose meandering path skims along, but does not directly intersect, with the paths of those that surround him or her. In Baudelaire’s eye, the flâneur was inextricably tied with the artist and the poet—the ability to return to one’s home and fashion something immortal out of these passing glimpses of modern city life.

It is not surprising then, that throughout the intervening century and a half, numerous modern and contemporary writers have explored the iconic image of the flaneur, from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway to Teju Cole’s Open City. In these works, the act of wandering a city often becomes a journey of self-discovery and inward reflection.

And while in Baudelaire’s day, the flâneur was generally assumed to be white and male, more contemporary works have challenged this preconception. Through some writer’s eyes, the act of observing, and the gaze itself, has taken on a new power and potential. Viewing the flâneur through a feminist or postcolonial lens, street haunting (as Virginia Woolf calls it) raises the questions of who is able to be invisible and unobserved in the modern city and what this capability says about modern society.

Today, we’ve highlighted a few works in the library’s collection, both historical and contemporary that explore this lesser-known image of the flâneur in literature. Why not be transported somewhere new today?

Open City by Teju Cole

Nigerian-American writer Teju Cole’s debut novel, Open City is about many things—identity, dislocation, history, and love. But first, it is about a solitary walker setting out from his home in Morningside Heights and learning the city at his feet. While the narrator, a Nigerian doctor doing his residency, wanders the streets of New York, he reflects on his recent breakup with his girlfriend and encounters a string of local immigrants who enrich and complicate his portrait of the city and himself. For Open City, the term “street haunting” is perhaps particularly apt; this post-colonial look at New York City reflects the unique loneliness that stems from isolation in the midst of a crowd.

Quartet by Jean Rhys

Rhys’ debut 1928 novel explores the sometimes squalid but often mesmerizing underbelly of bohemian Paris, a world Rhys herself knew only too well. Quartet is a roman à clef, an autobiographical novel, exploring a quartet of four lovers whose foibles and trials mirror the experiences of Rhys during her marriage to her first husband and her concurrent messy affair and financial entanglement with literary luminary Ford Maddox Ford and his partner, Stella Bowen. Isolated and increasingly troubled amidst the rich literary and artistic culture of a city in bloom, Quartet lays bare the at-times stark realities of Café Society in Paris, particularly for women.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

The titular character of Mrs. Dalloway sets out from her London home with a simple goal in mind—to buy flowers for her party. But what begins as a practical errand quickly diverges as Dalloway’s journey provides an opportunity for the protagonist to consider the complex ways her life intersects with those of the other characters that populate the novel, as well as where the path of her own life might have diverged in the past. A complex modernist classic, Mrs. Dalloway is at times challenging, but infinitely rewarding for its exploration of how a single day, and a single task, can unveil the intricate layers of a person’s life and mind.

NW by Zadie Smith

Traversing the eponymous North Western postcode area in London, NW presents a complicated portrait of the city and modern adulthood. The novel follows four Londoners as they try to make lives and identities outside of Cadwell, the council estate where they grew up. Smith’s writing style immerses its reader in the unique culture of Northwest London—from its immigrant dialects to its cultural landmarks.  This tragicomic novel swings between violence and scandal, but the protagonists’ quests to define and achieve happiness on their own terms will resonate with anyone struggling to navigate life in a modern city.

French Milk by Lucy Knisley

Known for her travelogues and graphic memoirs, French Milk, is one of cartoonist Lucy Knisley’s earliest efforts in the field. This travelogue narrates Knisley’s six-week trip to Paris with her mother as they explore the city and face milestones in life. Blending musings, photographs, and illustrations, Knisley reflects on family, love, and the looming prospect of adulthood as she samples some of the culinary and cultural delights the City of Light has to offer. While it is at times self-indulgent (what travelogue isn’t?), it offers a charming and tempting snapshot of Paris through the eyes of a consummate artist and foodie.

Taipei by Tao Lin

Many of the books that explore the figure of the flâneur traverse the line between fiction and memoir, and Tapei is no exception. Based on the author’s own life, Tapei is an undeniably modern take on the figure of the flâneur—providing an unvarnished portrait of the way we live and love today. The novel follows Paul from Manhattan to Taipei, Taiwan as he navigates his artistic ambitions alongside his cultural heritage. As relationships bloom and fail, the novel’s characters devote much of their time to drugs and screens, numbing agents that distract from the by turns bleak and absurd realities of modern life. While opinions about Tao Lin and his work vary, Taipei is undeniably effective in distilling the tedium, the excitement, and the uncertainty of being alive, young, on the fringes in America. 

Further Reading Suggestions for the Fledgling Flâneur:

The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays by Charles Baudelaire

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

My Year Abroad by Chang-Rae Lee

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo

People of the City by Cyprian Ekwensi

Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson

New York: A Mod Portrait of the City by Vladimir Fuka

Bibliography

Baudelaire, Charles, and Jonathan Mayne. The Painter of Modern Life, and Other Essays. London: Phaidon, 1964.

Baudelaire, Charles, 1821-1867 2006. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. https://www-proquest-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/encyclopedias-reference-works/baudelaire-charles-1821-1867/docview/2137915067/se-2?accountid=14553.

Flâneur 2010., edited by Ian Buchanan. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www-proquest-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/encyclopedias-reference-works/flâneur/docview/2137953454/se-2?accountid=14553.

Lopate, Phillip. The Art of the Personal Essay : an Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.

Wood, James. “The Arrival of Enigmas.” The New Yorker, February 20, 2011. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/02/28/the-arrival-of-enigmas.

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The Trauma of War and Displacement in the Poetry of John Guzlowski

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By Marek Sroka

One of the most interesting examples of traumatic experiences of war and displacement are the poems of John Guzlowski, “arguably the most accomplished Polish-American poet on the contemporary scene.”[1]  Guzlowski, who was born in a displaced persons’ camp in Vienenburg, Germany, after World War II, came with his parents and sister to the United States as “DPs” (“displaced persons,’ the term Guzlowski uses to describe their status) in 1951.  Inspired by the wartime experiences of his parents, the author has been writing poems about his parents’ lives addressing the tragedy of war, the trauma of displacement, and the anguish of immigration.  Moreover, the topics he highlights in his poetry did not disappear after World War II.  Instead, new conflicts erupted that resulted in massive displacement of populations in various parts of the world, including present war in Ukraine.                                                                                                                    In one of his most powerful poems, “Landscape with Dead Horses, 1939,” Guzlowski introduces audiences to the Polish experience of Nazi Germany invasion of Poland in 1939 and confronts them with tragedy of all wars.  Here is the opening verse:

War comes down like a hammer, heavy and hard

flattening the earth and killing the soft things:

horses and children, flowers and hope, love

and the smell of the farmers’ earth, the coolness

of the creek, the look of trees as they unfurl

their leaves in late March and early April

(from Echoes of Tattered Tongues)[2]

Another poem worth mentioning is “Cattle Train to Magdeburg,” in which Guzlowski recreates the experience of his mother’s deportation to Nazi Germany where she would work as a slave laborer.  The poem deals with the universal and often lifelong trauma of displacement caused by wars.  Here is a fragment:

My mother still remembers

The long train to Magdeburg

the box cars

bleached gray

by Baltic winters

 

The long twilight journey

to Magdeburg-

four days that became six years

six years that became sixty

 

And always a train of box cars

bleached to Baltic gray

(from Lightning and Ashes)[3]  

Guzlowski’s poems are emotionally powerful and are anchored in his parents experience as forced laborers and country-less refugees.  Yet, his poetry has universal relevance giving voice to countless refugees displaced and traumatized by wars in the past and current centuries.

Cover of John Guzlowski’s book of poetry “Echoes of Tattered Tongues” (2016)

[1] Thomas Napierkowski, “Lightning and Ashes: The Poetry of John Guzlowski,” Polish American Studies, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 86-93.

[2] John Z. Guzlowski, Echoes of Tattered Tongues (Los Angeles, California: Aquila Polonica Publishing, 2016).

[3] John Z. Guzlowski, Lightning and Ashes (Bowling Green, Kentucky: Steel Toe Books, 2007).

 

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