‘Dream of the Red Chamber’: Why you should read a 2,500-page-long, 18th century Chinese novel

The sprawling novel is one of an immersive experience of Imperial China and one of literature’s most ambitious attempts at capturing the human experience.

Josh Stenberg, The Conversation

· Apr 24, 2018 · 05:30 pm

Photos and translations: The unique semi-pictographic dongba script of China’s Naxi people

This script can probably be dated to 13th century and is often touted as the world’s last living pictographic script, although that is not entirely accurate.

Duncan Poupard

· Jan 10, 2018 · 09:30 pm

New African literature is disrupting the standard lists of Western publishers (making readers happy)

African writing ends up volleyed between two default poles of ‘corporate global’ and ‘activist local’.

Jeanne-Marie Jackson, The Conversation

· Oct 12, 2017 · 05:30 pm

Photos: Chinese and Islamic influences come together in the Qurans printed in China

With Muslim traders working in the Asian country, an Islamic community is said to have been established there in centuries past.

Colin F Baker

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Ursula Sims-Williams

· Aug 18, 2017 · 09:30 pm

Here's proof that Bob Dylan reads poetry: Five extraordinary poems that inspired him

Bob Dylan has leaned on poetry more than any other musician, before or since.

Tim Atkins, The Conversation

· Nov 27, 2016 · 08:30 am

Philip Roth: The American writer who shouldn’t need the Nobel to be read the world over

With another American having won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Roth may have a long wait.

Saikat Majumdar

· Oct 15, 2016 · 07:30 pm

Even without the Nobel, Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's writing of resistance is memorable

Thiong'o abjured English as the coloniser's tongue, and wrote his first novel in prison on toilet paper.

Devapriya Roy

· Oct 15, 2016 · 12:30 pm

Akhil Sharma wins Dublin International literary prize worth €100,000

The Indian-American author beat 159 others to win it for his autobiographical novel, ‘Family Life’.

Scroll Staff

· Jun 09, 2016 · 08:15 pm

After the rediscovery of a 19th-century novel, our view of black female writers is transformed

When a writer came across an old newspaper article calling Sarah E Farro "the first negro novelist", she wondered: who was Farro?

Gretchen Gerzina, The Conversation

· May 31, 2016 · 11:30 pm

What to expect from Shehan ‘Chinaman’ Karunatilaka’s new novel (hint: think ghosts)

The Sri Lankan winner of three literary prizes for his first novel is finally back with his second.

Smriti Daniel

· May 07, 2016 · 01:00 pm

When Shakespeare went to East Africa and found favour with the Indian diaspora

Strange and wonderful things happen when the playwright's works cross continents.

University of Cambridge

· Apr 11, 2016 · 09:30 pm

What to do when raped every night by groups of invading soldiers

An excerpt from an epic Indonesian novel whose closest comparison is ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’.

Eka Kurniawan

· Apr 07, 2016 · 09:30 am