Literary News

As part of the Silk Roads Programme’s ongoing work to better understand the rich history and shared legacy and spirit of the Silk Roads, UNESCO, with the support of the National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO, launched the "Silk Roads Youth Research Grant" in 2021 within the framework of the Social and Human Sciences Sector. The second edition has been launched on 1 March 2022. UNESCO calls on young women and men under the age of 35 to apply for the 2022 Silk Roads Youth Research Grant. Deadline for submitting proposals is 31 May 2022. The grant aims to mobilize young researchers for further study of the Silk Roads shared heritage. Twelve grants of USD10,000 will be awarded per research project. Grant applicants are invited to address areas of academic study which relate to the shared heritage and plural identities of the Silk Roads, as well as its internal diversity, and potential in contemporary societies for creativity, intercultural dialogue, social cohesion, regional and international cooperation, and ultimately sustainable peace and...

China has a long history of poetry writing and both traditional and modern poetry enjoy wide popularity for people all ages. Poetry can reflect Chinese people’s feelings about the world in a very precise and tangible way. Since 2019, the top Chinese poetry journal POETRY collaborated with Pathsharers Books from Washington D.C. to produce a Chinese-English bilingual online website named 21st Chinese Poetry, which presents the latest and widest Chinese poetry writing in English. Now all these poems are all available for free online and will be published in books in the future. CLRC Express selected a few of these poets, whose dwellings range from cities to the countryside and from bustling eastern towns to vast west deserts, who write, or ponder, or sing, or chant about the relations between history, future, humanity and nature from the deepest of their hearts. For further reading please visit: www.modernchinesepoetry.com Keyword: contemporary Chinese poetry, Pathsharer Books, 诗刊社，汉诗英译 Authors: Li Shaojun, Chilechuan, Ah Xin, Bai Ma, Chen Yundong Translators: Meifu Wang, Michael Soper, Peter...

Poetry: I AM THE ETERNAL SPIDER I am the eternal eight-legged spider my web stretches between the window and television screen ad infinitum between the hollow time of real and virtual deaths I can see everything from my center— a bud appeared on a branch a pop singer sang a familiar song on TV a woman gave birth to a son again a soldier exploded before the bud could fully open you first see the light then you hear the sound (the laws of nature never change unlike the laws of conscience) the light the sound the dust the shoes a mother screams and falls down the soil is an underground museum here is a soldier four centuries after death and here—only four hours after everything repeats identically . . . which means something must be wrong I am the eternal mourner in my four black veils my grandfather was killed by a Turk my father was killed by a German my son was killed by an Azeri and yesterday...

Photographed by Bar Gordon Tal Nitzán is an Israeli award winning poet, novelist and a major translator of Hispanic literature. Recipient of a dozen literary prizes, among them the Women Writers’ Prize, the Culture Minister's Prizes for Beginning Poets and for Debut Book, the Hebrew University and Bar-Ilan University prizes for poetry, and the Prime Minister's Prize for writers, Nitzán has published seven poetry collections, two novels, a short stories collection and six children books, and edited three poetry anthologies. Her poems are widely translated and anthologized, and thirteen selections of her poetry were published in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian and Latvian. An ardent peace activist, Nitzán has edited the anthology ‘With an Iron pen’, Hebrew protest poetry against the Israeli occupation (subsequently published in English and French). Nitzán has translated to Hebrew circa 80 works of poetry and prose, mainly from Spanish, by authors such as Cervantes, Shakespeare, Neruda, García Lorca, Paz, García Márquez, Cortázar, Vargas Llosa, Bolaño, Toni Morrison, Edith Wharton, Ian McEwan, Aleksandar Hemon, Angela Carter. For her translations she won the Culture Minister Prize for translators (twice), the...

“I am not a hunter of silk worms / but I have passed through sea routes and land routes that I must / I have caressed her silk / but it feels as through my fingers have touched nothing...” The words of Mexican poet Margarito Cuellar’s poem “The Gazelle and the Ancient Silk Road rang through the Blackstone M+ Music Park in Xujiahui's Hengfu Scenic District,” stretching halfway around the world to open the Sixth Shanghai International Poetry Festival.  While poets from around the world were unable to come to Shanghai due to Covid related travel restrictions, this year’s International Poetry Festival remained a platform for the celebration of poetry thanks the use of the Internet and online cloud technologies.  The theme of this year's Shanghai International Poetry Festival was “Poetry, and the Common Destiny of Mankind,” a reflection of the times in which we currently live and the hope of creating a common destiny for all mankind through the sharing of literature and its role as a mirror of...

The member of LNBR, the Morocco writer, Ms. AÏcha Bassry recommend a novel published in Arabic in 2018 by the publishing house (Al Dar Al Masriah Aloubnania) in Cairo (Egypt). The novel under the title La vie sans moi takes place between the People's Republic of China, Vietnam and Morocco. It is useful to translate this novel Especially since this novel is at the heart of the subject of the Belt and the Road and the mutual understanding of humans. The novel is based on historical events in the People's Republic of China and the protagonist of the novel is a Chinese woman. The novel tells about the events of Chinese society from an Arab point of view. This novel La vie sans moi won a very important award, which is the award for the best Arabic novel for the year 2018 at the Sharjah International Book Fair, United Arab Emirates. Here is a summary of the novel La vie sans moi: La vie sans moi is the story of...

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is an Irish poet and translator. She specially provided her acceptance speech after winning the 1573 International Poetry Award to the Literary Network of Belt and Road, and recited three of her poems. Acceptance Speech The poems she recited in her acceptance speech： In Gaelic: Cuirim mo dhóchas ar snámh i mbáidín teangan faoi mar a leagfá naíonán i gcliabhán … féachaint n’fheadaraís cá dtabharfaidh an sruth é, In English: I send my hope afloat in the small boat of a language as you might lay a baby in a basket cradle ….. watching, wondering where the stream will take it, The first poem: A Bridge Between Two CountiesThe long bridgeStretched between two countiesSo they could never agreeHow it should be keptStanding at all(In the mist in the darknessNeither bank could be seenWhen the three-day rainThe flood watersWere rising below).On that day I lookedWhere the couple walkedA woman a small childThe child well wrappedBecoming less visibleAs they dodged leftThen right, weavingBetween the barrels and the planksPlaced there...

Thanks to the support of all members of the Literary Network of the Belt and Road, the official website of LNBR, www.brliterature.com, has gained a lot of influence in China and abroad. In order to expand its role as a platform of joint contribution and shared benefits, the Secretariat of LNBR would like to call for the following contributions: Book recommendation. We welcome writers, editors, critics and publishers to recommend good books/literary journals/authors from your country, especially under the theme of the Belt and Road or mutual understanding. The recommendation, preferably less than 3, 000 words per article, may include the book’s background, summary, highlights, brief comments and links of purchase or sharing if available.Original works. We welcome original poems, essays, short stories, non-fiction, children's literature, sci-fi works, etc. that convey the Silk Road Spirit and the spirit of solidarity for mankind. Works suitable for the website might be full-length or extracted, preferably within 10, 000 words each.Literary discussions. We welcome writers, critics, experts and readers from your countries to...

The Literary Network of the Belt and Road, initiated by the Chinese Writers Association (CWA), was established in Beijing on Sept 7 to introduce Chinese literature to the world and promote regular literary exchanges between China and other countries.