Thanks to everyone who came to see us at the France Show, in London, this past weekend. It was great to meet so many fans of contemporary French literature!

October 1, 2008 - Slap!

The top member of the Nobel award jury set off a firestorm yesterday when he said he believed that “the United States is too insular and ignorant to compete with Europe when it comes to great writing.” Nobel permanent secretary Horace Engdahl said it's no coincidence that most literature prize winners are European.

"Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world ... not the United States," he told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.

"The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature," Engdahl said. "That ignorance is restraining."

Ouch!

We'll leave it to David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, and other able critics to defend American letters, but Linguality is certainly doing its part to encourage the dialogue. This past year, thousands of Americans signed on to enjoy outstanding French and Italian literature in the original language, with extensive annotation to aid comprehension. Next year, we expect thousands more to join the club. Sure, we know that too little European literature is making its way to American readers. That's why we're bridging the cultural divide—one book at a time.