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The Rise of Virtual Foreign Author Tours By Ed Nawotka | May 07, 2021 One of the unintended consequences of the pandemic and the shift to virtual author events is that booksellers and publishers have had the opportunity to put together events for overseas authors who would not usually tour the U.S. “The possibilities are endless,” said Pierce Alquist, director of the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Mass. “The pairings and creative panels we have done are once-in-a-lifetime events.” She cited a virtual event in February during which Russian author Maria Stepanova discussed her book In Memory of Memory (New Directions): Alquist, who ran the event, was in Boston; Stepanova was in Moscow; her translator, Sasha Dugdale, was in the U.K.; and the moderator, Elif Batuman, was in Brooklyn. In another far-flung example, for an Earth Day event in April, Point Reyes Bookstore in Point Reyes, Calif., host ....
Book Review: Red Ants Pergentino José s first short story collection celebrates Zapotec culture, while underscoring the threats it faces. Deep Vellum Publishing ’s special report on transnational organized crime. In his first short story collection, Red Ants, Zapotec writer Pergentino José blends magical realism with the mythology of his upbringing to shine a light on the historical struggles of Mexico’s indigenous communities and to make clear that the threats they face have not gone away. The title of the collection is a nod to the primary theme of José’s stories: In Zapotec culture yellow ants represent happiness and good fortune while red ants represent adversity. José’s tales are thus full of everyday violence and hardship that stem from a community being forced to assimilate and leave behind its way of life. ....
Natasha Gilmore, Idlewild Books and Open Borders Books, NYC : This book contains two novellas and some short stories set around Colombia (and occasionally Miami). The narration is often low-affect, sharply cynical, and wryly observed. There’s a cutting honesty in the voice throughout the book that feels totally absent from so much literature now. It reminded me of the feeling of encountering something truly when I was a teenager. But then there’s just the crushing reality of coming into sexuality as a teen, colorism and racism in Colombia, the restlessness wrought by capitalism and the desire to flee yourself and the accidents of your birth that ultimately coalesce into something so universally resonant, that will make any reader feel seen and connected. Truly an author worthy of attention. ....