A literary nod to a Taiwanese novelist has made waves from a small French island.
Ushant, off the coast of France, awarded its Island Fiction Prize — the Salon d’Ouessant’s International Island Literature Fiction Award for 2015 — to the French translation of a novel by Taiwanese writer Wu Ming-yi (吳明益), author of The Man With Compound Eyes (複眼人).
The novel, an eco-fantasy about the near future in Taiwan, was translated into French by Gwennael Gaffric after being commissioned by Stock, a Paris publishing firm.
According to Gray Tan (譚光磊), Wu’s literary agent in Taipei, the French award is another feather in Wu’s cap, following separate English translations published in Britain and the US.
Gaffric’s translation was published in France last year, titled L’homme aux Yeux a Facettes in French, Tan said.
When asked how sales of the French translation were doing, Gaffric said in an e-mail that he was not sure, since Stock does not release sales figures to the public.
However, he said the prize was both a surprise and a good thing for the book’s reception in France.
Ushant is a small French island off the coast of Brittany in France. While the population in the winter months is about 1,000, in the summer, the island comes alive with tourists arriving by ferry or plane, with a boat ride to Brest, France, taking about two hours.
Ten years ago, a literary group on the island began awarding prizes for novels, poetry, photography books and nonfiction about islands and island nations around the world.
When asked how he felt about the winning the French award, Wu said was honored and touched that the jury recognized his novel and Gaffric’s translation, adding: “I hope that someday all people who live on islands, large and small, will have a chance to hear the stories of other island dwellers.”
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
RSS