BRYNHILD’S HEL RIDE
Helreið Brynhildar
When Brynhild died, they piled two pyres. The first was stoked for Sigurd; on the second, Brynhild burned. Wound in cloth, she was cremated in her wagon. Some say she drove that wagon all the way to Hel. But on her way, she was stopped...
Three Poems from Montreal Before Spring by Robert Melançon
One of the books we're most excited to be publishing this coming spring is Montreal Before Spring, a book of poems by Quebec francophone poet Robert Melançon translated by Donald McGrath. Melançon's verse is painterly, metaphysical, restrained and elegiac, qualities captured wonderfully in McGrath's...
What Africa Does the African Writer Write About? by Mia Couto
Editor's Note: This essay was originally delivered as an address given at the award ceremony for the International Prize for the Twelve Best African Novels, Cape Town, South Africa, July 2002.
The theme of this event is the relationship of the writer with the struggle for a world that is more...
Mia Couto awarded the 2014 Neustadt Prize
Everyone here at Biblioasis was thrilled to hear the news that Mia Couto was awarded the 2014 Neustadt Prize for Literature last Friday. The prize, which carries a $50,000 purse, is sponsored by the University of Oklahoma, and was made possible in perpetuity by a generous endowment from the...
A Singer From Ferghana by Marius Kociejowski
Monâjât
Yultchieva has duende. She has more of it than any
singer I have seen or heard in recent times. She sings into being whole landscapes.
She is Uzbekistan incarnate, or, rather, Uzbekistan’s sweeter side, an
Uzbekistan without its Tamerlane. One day, perhaps, I will be wafted there upon
a woman’s...
